This post features a video and some excerpts from the article “Lebanon schools turn algebra into child’s play”, by Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian.
While most high schools in Oregon and across the nation struggle to get freshmen to pass algebra, one school district is trying something very different. Lebanon, which educates 4,000 students in eight schools, is pushing algebra on students as early as first grade. And the kids are getting it.
| Riverview elementary really teaches math |
Visit a Lebanon elementary math class, and you will see:
First-graders set up and solve formulas such as 9 – x = 5, as they did when Raylene Sell talked with her class about “some teddy bears” walking away from the classroom rug, leaving five behind. Students don’t do worksheets, use flash cards or memorize multiplication tables. Yet by third and fourth grade, most of them add, subtract and multiply quickly and accurately.
Lebanon officials are loathe to proclaim their program perfect, noting that math instruction is evolving, that some teachers still use traditional methods and that the biggest payoffs are yet to come.
But they say they are confident that their new approach to teaching math is the way to go.
Among the key elements: Begin simple algebra and multiplication by first grade; have every child talk extensively about his or her mathematical reasoning; let students set up their own problems and equations and allow them to use big numbers if they choose; cover few topics in great depth; use lots of visual and hands-on modeling to make math ideas concrete.
Other tools in the Lebanon math toolbox include lots of visual modeling of math ideas. Plastic blocks represent hundreds, tens and ones; kid-sized balances show ways make both sides equal to balance the scale; number lines make it easy to see that 3/4 and 0.75 mean the same thing.
Lebanon’s approach is in line with recent national reports about what’s wrong with U.S. math classes and how to fix them.
The Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University reported this month that getting teachers to change their daily teaching practices does more to raise math achievement than buying new textbooks or computerized math programs.
Link to the original article:
Lebanon schools turn algebra into child’s play
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[...] Here is something my daughter would love — using algebra to learn arithmetic! Mr. L describes how Schools Turn Algebra into Child’s Play in Lebanon, Oregon. [...]
[...] Here is something my daughter would love — using algebra to learn arithmetic! Mr. L describes how Schools Turn Algebra into Child’s Play in Lebanon, Oregon. [...]