Workshops This Fall Explore New Math Teaching Methods
Geoff Harrison, Director of Curriculum and Instruction and co-chair of the Math Department at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, will offer math workshops this fall to give Lower School parents tools to support their children’s mathematical journey. The discussions will focus on how children are being instructed in their math classes.
Since 2008, Geoff has used Singapore Math’s highly effective “model drawing” approach to give students a pictorial way to solve word problems and develop further understanding of abstract concepts through unit bars. Geoff has witnessed children work at above grade level with this tool. St. Andrew’s is integrating some of the Singapore Math approach into its math program to develop students' understanding of math concepts.
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The program is designed to teach higher-order math skills to children through a C-P-A (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach. Students in grades 1-6 will be implementing model drawing and computational strategies that will improve their mathematical comprehension.
Singapore Math devotes more time to fewer topics and helps children better understand the material through detailed instruction and answering the “Why before How” of mathematics. This approach has an advantage over other math programs because of the strong foundation it establishes with basic math skills that are crucial for more critical reasoning. The focus is on application of skills and not just memorization of math facts. The ultimate goal is to give students a starting point to solve almost any problem.
If you’d like to learn more about the theory behind this approach, consider reading the following resources:
Boaler, Jo, What’s Math Got to Do with It? How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Success (March 31, 2015)
Forsten, Char, Step by Step Model Drawing: Solving Word Problems the Singapore Way (2010)
Hazekamp, Jana, Why before How: Singapore Math Computation Strategies, Grades 1-6 (April 7, 2011)
