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I would think math would be one of the easier subjects to teach in elementary school with all the manipulatives and activities you can use with lower level concepts. Math should not be dry in elementary school. IMO what they need to do in elementary school is stay on topic longer to ensure that students have mastered one concept before moving on to the next. Instead we build in review after review after review and talk about spiraling back to topics so students can get it next time. What we teach our kids in the process is that it's not important to learn it the first time and that they should expect to get a review if they ever need it again so it's not important to remember it either.
We spend more time on math than other countries do that out score us but they spend LESS time on review because they expect their students to learn it the first time and to remember it and use it again if it's ever needed. We FAIL to hold our students accountable for learning and they know it. Our kids don't remember the math they are taught because they've been taught they don't need to. They don't learn it the first time because they've been taught that that is not expected of them. The message they end up hearing is "Math is hard, we don't expect you to get it the first time and we'll review it again if you ever need ituecause we don't expect you to remember it either.". Hence math education sucks in the USA.
You are absolutely right. There are 15 chapters in my math book. I try to cover the first 8 as long as I can, which goes up to fractions. The end of the book is basic geometry that's easy for them.
You are absolutely right. There are 15 chapters in my math book. I try to cover the first 8 as long as I can, which goes up to fractions. The end of the book is basic geometry that's easy for them.
I agree that we don't spend enough time on concepts. There is too much to cover in the time allotted.
Our textbooks don't match the district's pacing guide. That's not a bad thing, but it's not a matter of covering everything in the text. The text is considered supplemental and I know some teachers don't use it at all.
We spend more time on math than other countries do that out score us but they spend LESS time on review because they expect their students to learn it the first time and to remember it and use it again if it's ever needed. We FAIL to hold our students accountable for learning and they know it. Our kids don't remember the math they are taught because they've been taught they don't need to. They don't learn it the first time because they've been taught that that is not expected of them. The message they end up hearing is "Math is hard, we don't expect you to get it the first time and we'll review it again if you ever need it because we don't expect you to remember it either.". Hence math education sucks in the USA.
I agree that we don't spend enough time on concepts. There is too much to cover in the time allotted.
Our textbooks don't match the district's pacing guide. That's not a bad thing, but it's not a matter of covering everything in the text. The text is considered supplemental and I know some teachers don't use it at all.
We will never change this though as it would require requiring our students to learn and remember what they learn. In our let's worry about everyone's feelings education system we will never hold our students responsible for learning and remembering. So we will continue to spend too much time on review and cover too many topics per year for anyone to learn well and remember. Math education in this country has been said to be a mile wide and an inch deep and it's going to stay that way as long as we refuse to hold students responsible for learning.
Of all the subjects, it's math that seems to be the most challenging to the students.
If so, why? Why do so many regard math as a "dry" subject or so hard? Do you somehow make it easier or more interesting for your students?
EdX
For every subject, there are those who consider it dry and/or unappealing to teach. If it's not a subject you personally enjoy teaching, or are intetested in or excited about, it can be a chore to make it palatable when you're tasked with instructing on it. It becomes a slog. More astute students can usually tell when a teacher is slogging through something.
I would say that in 13 years of K-12 schooling, I had probably only two teachers who were truly on fire for teaching math (and only one was at the pre-hs level). It makes a huge difference in how they teach. By the time many students get to subject matter experts in hs, they have often missed out on strong foundational skills (and, even more importantly, picking up an enthusiasm for the subject through a passionate instructor), because they've been exposed to a lot of educators who are just gritting their teeth and getting through it.
One issue is that people who are truly gifted in and/or passionate about math and math concepts generally choose education as a career in relatively small numbers.
I think it's the teachers that don't like math in lower elementary. Starting in 7/8th grade the teachers think math is entertaining by itself and fail to engage students on their level.
The key is not just teaching from the curriculum or textbook alone.
You have to integrate the history of math (Fibonacci, Pythagoras, Archimedes, the history of Pi, etc.) and show how it's related to other disciplines, such as art (Golden Spiral, fractals, Sierpinski's Triangle, Pythagorean Spiral, the geometry of Yin-Yangs, etc.) and science (especially time-travel and black holes).
Puzzles are another way to interest students, such as the Monty Hall Problem and the Locker Problem.
A teacher has to show passion for the subject and bring more to the plate than what's in the textbook.
Most teachers just teach chapter to chapter and don't show an interest in mathematics themselves. This translates directly to the students. They don't necessarily find it challenging, they just lack interest.
Most teachers just teach chapter to chapter and don't show an interest in mathematics themselves. This translates directly to the students. They don't necessarily find it challenging, they just lack interest.
This hasn't been my experience at all. Do you teach in an elementary school?
Since when did 4th-graders become expected to be able to read a big number like that? I didn't have working with numbers like that until 6th grade. And I struggled with it; the teacher didn't really teach us the nuts-and-bolts of how to read a number with that many places.
It's not difficult to teach fourth graders (or second graders, for that matter) to read much larger numbers than that. Any kid who can read a three digit number and memorize a few words (most of which rhyme) can do it. (Thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion (giggle), septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion.) As I teacher I didn't require them to memorize those, but we did sometimes use numbers with many digits. I would count "one, two, three, comma; one, two, three, comma; . . . " and they would start counting along. I'd write a letter or two under each comma to remind them of the name (starting with "th"). Then a volunteer would read the number. Memorizing the names wasn't important, but it's easier to understand a concept when it is repeated. They got the idea of how we write and name numbers much more quickly than they would have with only a comma or two.
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