I’ll admit that when people ask me what I do, I really don’t like to tell them because I’m afraid that they will go off about the new math. And it’s not really a conversation that I wanna have with a complete stranger in like five minutes because helping people understand why we teach math differently right now is such a deeper conversation.

I’m Christina Tondevold, the recovering traditionalist.  Today, I’m going to attempt to explain in as short of a video as possible Why Math is Taught Differently Now in our quest to build our math minds so we can build the math minds of our kiddos.

Watch the video or read the transcript below:

Here are links to products/activities mentioned in this vlog.

Tony Wagner’s book The Global Achievement Gap 

Research about remedial courses in college:

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247712817_Explaining_Gaps_in_Readiness_for_College-Level_Math_The_Role_of_High_School_Courses 
• https://www.highereducation.org/reports/college_readiness/gap.shtml 
• https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/files/CCA%20Remediation%20ES%20FINAL.pdf 

Reason #1  Testing Data Showed US Students Were Behind

People say all the time “the way math was taught to me worked just fine”…but did it really??  When we were growing up there wasn’t the national and international testing that compares students.

Now, I am not a huge fan of testing data. There’s a lot of issues with tests, but that is a world we are living in.  When No Child Left Behind became federal law in 2002, data started coming in and we saw such varied testing results in the United States, from state to state and even county to county.

Even if you don’t care about testing results, one thing we should care about is the data that came out showing that kids are not ready for college level math.  At some institutions 90% of kids had to take a remedial class before they could enroll in a course that counts for their degree.  As a parent that means you are paying for courses that aren’t even counting.

I know not every child is going into college so we also want to make sure they are ready for real-world applications…that brings us to point #2….

Reason #2  Introduction of New Math Standards

When the Common Core Standards came out in 2010 they were touted as a way to help our students become College & Career ready.  Whatever your thoughts are about Common Core there are two main things I like about them

• #1 – it gives every child the same standards.  With each state having their own standards, what was expected in each grade for math wasn’t the same from state to state.  So the idea behind the new standards was to give that base of what is expected at each grade level
• #2 – they put in place Mathematical Standards of Practice, that it isn’t just about being able to get answers to bare number problems.  The Practice Standards showed us what it means to have kids actually engage in mathematical problems and discussions, while also working to help them get correct answers.

Tony Wagner’s book The Global Achievement Gap outlined 7 Survival Skills for kids to be competitive in the employment market and to be good citizens.  All of these are a part of the Math Practice Standards.

Math is so much more than just doing sets of problems.  Yes, we want kids to get correct answers but we also want kids who are problem solvers, critical thinkers, good communicators, etc. so they can be competitive in the job market.

Reason #3 Helping Kids Achieve While Also Instilling a Love of Math

So let’s go back to “the way math was taught to me worked just fine” philosophy, if that’s your thought I have three questions:

• #1: Do you enjoy math?  
• #2 Did you make a career decision based upon math classes or how much math you would have to do? 
• #3: Don’t we want better for the next generations?

There are so many people who aren’t afraid to say they never liked math or they are bad at math.  We don’t say that about reading, but people say it all the time about math.  

I’d love for people to not hate math, but I’d love it even more if they actually enjoyed math and looked forward to digging into a math problem just like people enjoy reading and look forward to reading a good book.

One of the reasons we feel like we can say that we never liked math is because Math has always been seen as something you either get or you don’t and if you don’t you’ll never be able to get it.  We don’t want that for future generations.  We want kids to see that they might not get it right now, but they can build their math understanding.

Lastly, if you didn’t have math factor into your career decisions, feel lucky.  It didn’t for me, but I know multiple people for whom it did.  They didn’t pursue a specific degree in college because it required to hard of math.  

I know someone who had started a business instead of going to college, but they soon closed down that business because they didn’t do well with running the books so they decided to do that job but for someone else so they didn’t have to deal with all the finances of running your own business.  We don’t want that for future generations.  We want kids to see every door open to them and make a decision based upon what they are passionate about.

One of the first places we can start to make this change is in the way we help kids build their fluency with addition and multiplication facts. 

In the past, the way that you were taught to learn your addition and multiplication facts, and even subtraction and division, it was just taught as memorize, memorize, memorize, flashcards, drills. We can do that for our kids and they might be able to do it. But are we building that love of math? Are we building problem-solvers? Are we building critical thinkers? 

We want kids to be fluent with their facts, but if you want to learn a way to build fluency by helping kids become problem-solvers, become critical thinkers, to look at numbers differently and seeing number relationships not just facts that have to be memorized, then I’ve got something for you.  I put together a starter kit for Building Math Fluency in elementary school.  Go to https://buildmathminds.com/starterkit and I’ll send it to your email.

I hope this video helped build your math mind so you can build the math minds of your kiddos.  Have a great day.

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