Language and the Teaching of Math

    Early in my teaching career I was talking to my Grade 5 class about what it was like in some equatorial country.  One of the girls in my class explained that her teacher the year before had visited that country.  She said the teacher had said that everywhere she went it was so hot it was sticky, like tar.  It would be hard to walk.

    Later that day I told her former teacher what this child had told me and she was amazed.  She had been trying to have the children understand that it was hot and humid, that her clothes stuck to her.  That is what “sticky” had meant to her.

    On a hot day back then many paved roads where we lived did have places where the tar did soften, sometimes enough to be sticky.  

    The connection this young girl had in her mind between hot and “sticky” had to do with the tar she had experience with as she walked on those roads.  

    When we teach math we must remember that the children we teach will have thoughts that arise from our words, and their experience.  

    I am also thinking of an instance when another person felt that relating subtraction to finding differences would be easy for young children.  That I would question for the simple reason that "difference"  may not be such a flexible word for children.  What's the difference between 6 and 9?  We know in a math situation the answer a teacher may want is 3, but a child may be thinking one is upside down to the other, if they see any difference at all.

    One person related this story about a math class in elementary school.  The teacher asked this person which 3 figure number was larger.  The student, although far from a "slow learner", got out a ruler to measure the width of the numbers.

    We are trying to communicate our thoughts, hoping that what is in our minds will cross over to the minds of those we teach, without any important errors or omissions.  It's up to us to mindful of this.




A D D T O G O R D 0 N 'S G A M E S NEW!  More Math Games and Activities:
These few pages contain mostly untested games
and activities that I may be adding to. 

NEW!  Using Regular Playing Cards with Gordon's Games.
Some have asked about this so I have listed some changes that would be needed.

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