3 Strategies to Help Students Learn “Math Basics” (and Higher Order Math Skills) for Non-Math Teachers

As a part of a push to go “back to basics” and ensure all students in Ontario are equipped with the necessary math skills for their future, the Ontario government has proposed that all teachers — elementary and secondary — take a mandatory math test to be certified each year by the Ontario College of Teachers.

But will a mandatory test result in better math scores for students? Wouldn’t it be better to fund cross-curricular learning communities where teachers from math, arts, and social sciences come together and collaborate to develop lessons, units, and courses that focus on the basics AND higher order thinking?

Here are a few strategies for how we can go beyond “the basics” to support our students, and show Lisa Thompson that mandatory math tests are not the way forward.

Strategy 1: Overlapping Course Content

Know nothing about math? No problem. Take a few minutes to chat with the math department at your school. What are some of the core competencies they are teaching? Tell them about what you are teaching. Is there some overlap? How can you work together to create a lesson?

Example of Overlapping Content: Linear Algebra in a Novel Study- Calculating Risk Through Character Analysis in Lord of the Flies (ENG2D)

Students take on the role of an actuary and create a formula to calculate the insurability of a character from the novel. Students consider the author’s tone and diction. They must then create an equation that calculates the chances of survival for their character and a legend that explains their variables.

Example:

Where n = number of incidents

R = b + i — t(s) — v(s)

R = 5 + 8–3(5) + 1(5)

R = ?

Students must find quotations to use as evidence to support their variables. The result is a close reading of the first few chapters and a deepened understanding of characters in the novel. The value of making predictions as a strategy to deepen comprehension is reinforced through this activity.

Strategy 2: Ask Students to Find Data

Intimidated by knocking on the math department office door? No problem. Begin supporting math skills in your own classroom by approaching course content as potential data for students to gather, graph, analyze and assess. Ask students to find data and to use it to prove or disprove an idea, theory, concept, or relationship.

Example: Graphing Short Stories

What makes an effective short story? What elements are most important? How does the intensity of conflict, change in tone, etc., interact to contribute to an effective story? Gather data, create a graph and then compare your graph with other graphs. Then, reflect on the process, your graph as a tool for analysis, and on your previous definition of an effective short story.

Example: Tracking Form and Style in Macbeth

How does language and style contribute to character development in Macbeth? Determine which parts of language and style you will track and create a graph that reflects different characters’ use of language in Act 1.

Strategy 3: Ask Students to Map Concepts, Ideas, and Relationships, Spatially

Ask students to translate a concept, idea, or relationship to a shape (from the abstract to the concrete). This activity supports students to internalize the concept, idea, or relationship, making it easier for recall. It also often reveals “holes” or the contradictions in a text, concept, theory, relationship, etc.

Spatial Mapping — Example 1 After being introduced to linear, non-linear, and parallel plot structures, students are asked to read “The Continuity of Parks” by Julio Cortázar and to create a shape that represents the story.

Extension Activity:

• Create an equation to represent the plot structure.
• Does plot structure contributes to the effectiveness of the narrative?
• Could another plot structure could have been used?
• How would a different structure change the narrative?

Spatial Mapping — Example 2 Map the relationships of the characters in your novel study. How does this map help you to understand plot, conflict, and character?

Spatial Mapping — Example 3 As the culminating activity for our examination of Shelley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil,” students had the choice of responding to two reflection questions or creating a connections board to map text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections.

Looking Forward, Not Back…to Basics

Just imagine the benefits overlapping course content, data analysis and spatial mapping! Not only will these strategies support student understanding of basic math skills, they will deepen comprehension of subject knowledge in other disciplines. They will also encourage students to make connections and see patterns, and to apply what are often abstract mathematical concepts to concrete issues in other courses, cultivating critical thinking and higher order mathematical thinking. Cross-curricular collaboration also lends itself to differentiation by allowing students to access course material through different entry points.

Finally, depending on your knowledge of mathematical concepts and processes you may need to take a back seat and let students do the teaching; what an empowering experience for students, and what a (better) way for teachers to learn math.

Lisa Thompson, I don’t need a math test; sure, I may not have the “basics” down, but I do know how to integrate mathematical thinking into classes. I am also confident that I will learn a heck of a lot more from my colleagues and students than from preparing for a province-wide math test. Please invest in us, and not in a test.