When math coach Debbie Baird from Graysville Elementary wanted to host parent math seminars, she reached out to Alex Guppy, the owner of Mathnasium of Hixson, who jumped at the opportunity. The Open House took place on August 30th from 6:00 to 7:00 and featured a 30-minute talk on numeracy for parents with kid in grades K through 2 and a 30-minute talk on multiplication fluency for parents with kids in grades 3 through 5.
"Although 30 minutes is not nearly enough time to describe the foundations of number sense, it is the perfect amount of time to emphasize key skills and show parents that it's possible to learn math in a fun and organic way with their children," said Guppy
During the numeracy talk, Guppy highlighted two key components:
1) Number Decomposition - This is a fancy way of saying that you can break apart numbers however you wish and that it's imperative young learners explore this concept. They should know that the number 9 can be 8+1, 7+2, 10-1, and 3+4+2. To play around with these concepts, Alex suggested using manipulatives and asking questions like "If we had 7 counters before, but now you can only see 2, how many are under my hand?" Getting children to play with elementary algebra rather than just regurgitate answers to questions like "What is 7+2?" or "What is 8-3?" will allow them to build number sense and do significantly better on word problems.
2. Place Value - Students should begin to see that completing 10s and 100s is a great strategy for doing addition and subtraction. For example, once they have learned how to make 10s, they might reason that 8+5=13 because they know that 8+2=10 and that there would be 3 leftover. Guppy emphasized the magic of the skill "Make a 10 and add the leftovers" to move children away from finger counting by 1s and leaving the "world of pennies."
During the multiplication talk, Guppy emphasized the importance of understanding over memorization. "The reason teachers emphasize the memorization of facts at school is because it's an easy activity to outsource to parents that doesn't depend upon their own mathematical skill."
The key point made was to implore parents to change the way how they phrase multiplication. Rather than asking "What is 7 times 12?" Guppy recommended that parents phrase it as "What is 7, 12 times?"
Using that syntax helps students visualize those facts as repeated addition and gives much better insight into the distributive property of multiplication. For example, to say that 7 times 12 equals 7 times 10 plus 7 times 2 strikes most students as confusing and obtuse in a way that saying 7, 12 times is just the same as 7, 10 times plus 7, 2 more times does not. The latter phrase makes sense to them linguisticaly and can allow them to use facts that they know such as the 2s, 5s, and 10s to get easily to facts that they don't know nearby.
A student might reason that since 7, 10 times is 70 that 7, 9 times would just be one fewer 7 which is 63. Voila, something that existed only on a flashcard before is now derived knowledge.
With 20 teachers and twice as many parents attending the event, everyone at Graysville Elementary went home with more confidence in teaching math to their children and more eagerness to try. Alex Guppy and the Mathnasium Gang are already looking forward to the Math Night they will be hosting at Graysville Elementary this September!
PS: With 200 students attending nearly 2000 hours of individual math lessons per month in the Chattanooga area, Alex Guppy spends a lot of time thinking about math education for kids and loves to share that knowledge at schools, churches, and other organizations in the community. To learn more about parent seminars, professional development for teachers, or Family Family Math Nights, please contact him at [email protected].
(423) 521-6284
(423) 521-6284
