Posts Tagged math game

Unit 3: Incidental Learning

Jan 8

INCIDENTAL OR NON-CONSCIOUS LEARNING

Most of our learning is non-conscious.

Schools make use of displays to communicate information to children.

This kind of ‘information immersion’ is used to good effect by advertisers. Just think how easily children ‘learn’ a tune or pop-song.

Whilst ‘playing’ with the rods children will have made many important discoveries:

1. Rods of the same color are also equal in length.

2. Rods of the same length are equal in color.

3. Rods of different colors have different lengths.

4. It is possible to make equal lengths by putting some rods end to end.

In this way children will begin to acquire their number bonds without even realizing it.

e g 10 = 4 + 6 = 2 + 8 = 7 + 3 = 9 + 1

At a later stage, when they are asked what two numbers make ten, children will be able to visualize the pattern for ten.

Fingers will definitely not be needed!

Observe children and you may see them beginning to organize their work.

The pattern below reveals an understanding of the commutative property of addition.

8 = 5 + 3 = 3 + 5

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Tags: first grade math, math for kids, math game, maths

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REASON 5: The Dominance Of Negative Vocabulary In The Math Lesson

Dec 28

Posted by philrow in Uncategorized

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

Solomon

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”

James Allen

“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Henry Ford

ath classes can be dominated by negativity.

If a vote was taken to elect the two most negative words in the world I feel pretty sure that ‘wrong’ and ‘no’ would be streets ahead. Everyone hates to be told they’re wrong and nobody likes to be said ‘no’ to. Yet the traditional math lesson is a breeding ground for these two words.

How many times does a child have to be told they’re wrong or how many sums have to be marked with ‘x’ before the thought filters down deep into the subconscious and the child says to himself, “I’m useless at this”!”

Highly successful internet businessman Ted Nicholas places the importance of self-talk in a wider context in his book ‘Billion Dollar Marketing’. “As we think in words, the real key to success and happiness lies within the words you choose for your “self-talk.” The implications of this personal dialogue are enormous.”

ords affect the way we think and act.

Words spoken by someone perceived to be an authority figure carry even more weight. Children are particularly vulnerable to the shaping power of words. Words affect the way we think and act. They influence our emotional state, the most important state for learning. Many children’s lives have been blighted by a thoughtless or careless remark they have secretly carried with them all their lives.

It is a sobering thought that we are indeed the authors of our own destiny. Many of our actions are based on habits that spring from deep within our sub-conscious mind. How do they get there? We put them there ourselves or allow others to do so. Everyone who is responsible for or who has authority over children should consider their words very carefully. Our sub-conscious accepts what it is told uncritically. We need to be very careful what seeds of self-talk we sow in our children’s minds.

ut math is all about right or wrong, right?

Wrong!

As French philosopher Bachelard once said, “There are no first truths, only errors.” Edison was someone who would have agreed wholeheartedly with that statement. It has been said he engaged in over 1000 unsuccessful experiments before finally inventing the electric light bulb. It is this spirit of enquiry and persistence that is the key to achieving anything worthwhile. This is no less true of math.

Children freed to explore and discover for themselves will inevitably adopt the scientific approach of trial and error. Self-discovery is the most effective kind of learning and children will delight in the process. Computations will hold no fear for them and they will adapt easily to different processes as and when required.

Children introduced to math through the program Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math will be guided by these principles and this will also allow you the opportunity to encourage and praise their efforts every step of the way.

eed your child a diet of positive talk!

There are words we can use to activate our child’s abilities. We can, by use of specific words, choose which abilities to activate. If we model positive talk our children will unconsciously copy it. Your child will reap the emotional, physical and spiritual development.

Phrases that have a powerful and positive impact include:

“Yes!”

“Yes but . . !”

“Yes when. . !”

“That’s wonderful!”

“That’s interesting!”

“Imagine.”

“Imagine you are . . .”

“That’s unusual . . .”

“I admire the way you . . .”

“Ah yes!”

“I am feeling . . .”

“Feel . . . “

This is a whole learning area in itself, but if we can teach our children to feel good about themselves, even in the math class, if we can show them how to talk themselves up, then they will be better equipped to handle the inevitable put-downs life throws our way. People’s lives often turn on a thoughtless, callous or ignorant remark that is allowed to penetrate deep into their being. That’s tragic.

Thanks for listening.

There is one more email. Yes, I know that makes six!

It deals with the most common objections people have raised for not adopting the program – really there isn’t a valid one.

Thank you for you company.

Phil Rowlands

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Reason 4:The Most Complete Math Model In The World Is Under Used

Dec 27

Posted by philrow in Uncategorized

“Children possess a far greater capacity for mathematics than has been granted them hitherto.
As soon as a favourable pedagogical climate is produced what today seems extraordinary will be done simply as a matter of course.”

Madeleine Goutard ‘Mathematics and Children’ 1964

eorge Cuisenaire was perplexed.

Why did children find it so difficult to learn math?

His solution to the problem was to invent the most complete math model ever devised. It consisted of a set of colored cuboids of wood ranging in size from a 1cm cube to a 10cm cuboid.

In 1953 Caleb Gattegno met Belgian schoolteacher Cuisenaire and immediately recognized the potential of the rods to allow learners to investigate mathematics for themselves at every level of development.

He realized that the rods provided teachers with a means for making the lesson a personal investigation of mathematics for every child. His subsequent work with children convinced him and others wherever he went that all children have a latent ability which, in classroom situations where the rods are used and where teaching is learner centered, can yield truly remarkable results.

o why aren’t the rods used in schools today?

The answer is, in a large percentage of schools they probably are. Unfortunately more often than not they are employed in piece-meal fashion to introduce concepts like fractions in isolation. The true potential of the rods is rarely recognized. It’s like owning a Porsche and never getting it out of second gear – not that I would know personally!

Unlike computers, Cuisenaire rods never crash, don’t get overtaken by new technology and are truly interactive. What’s more Cuisenaire rods are virtually indestructible. Their genius is in their simplicity. Like a piano, once the basics have been mastered it is possible to create an infinite variety of math shapes, patterns and equations.

There are many excellent publications available on how to use the rods unfortunately most focus on a specific aspect of math and those that do not are not really very reader friendly and get ignored.

acing the challenge.

Unhappy with the standard of math teaching in my school I challenged my teachers to change the way they taught. They responded with a challenge of their own, “Show us how?” For ten years I immersed myself in research and development of a math program that would ensure children acquired not only the concepts of math but a love for the subject. The result was ‘Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math’.

One of my most treasured memories was seeing a mother, convinced she was a lost cause when it came to math, almost in tears as she realised that she was actually ‘good at math’ having undergone a six week workshop based on the program. Her confidence levels rose and shortly afterwards she enrolled in college and has since obtained a degree.

Success is as powerful an influence on our lives as failure. The self esteem she experienced through mastering her ‘weakest’ subject overflowed into every area of her life. Isn’t that what we want for our children?

et your child in the flow.

The nature of Cuisenaire rods allows for open ended tasks and problem-setting that enables your child to develop at his/her optimum learning level – what Csikszentmihalyi describes as the ‘flow state’. Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math embodies this principle and is supported by 50 animated instructional sequences. Children frequently become so absorbed in whatever they are engaged in creating with the rods that they are oblivious to everything around them.

Cuisenaire rods reign supreme among math manipulatives. It is a tragedy for our children they are not more widely used and understood in schools generally. One of the ‘hidden’ benefits of using Cuisenaire rods is the enriched sensory stimulation your child receives through plenty of handling and touching. Infants who receive enriched sensory stimulation become more mentally alert and physically stronger.

Neurobiologists Shatz at UC Berkeley and Jacobs at UCLA confirm this fact.

rain-friendly learning for your child.

One of the brain’s abilities is the capacity to recognize color.

Color creates an emotional response. Imagine visiting London and trying to make sense of the underground system if the map were in black and white and not color coded. Using Cuisenaire rods children can be introduced to basic math concepts before having to cope with numbers. Number is itself an abstract concept and difficult to grasp. Caleb Gattegno called this approach ‘algebra before arithmetic’.

In his book ‘The Learning Brain’ Eric Jenson states that 75% of teachers are sequential analytical presenters. Unfortunately 70% of their students do not learn in that way. He suggests that a better method would be to start with a global overview or ‘big picture’ and then move to a more sequential approach. Cuisenaire rods lend themselves perfectly to this method and is reflected in Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math. Cuisenaire rods will become your child’s window on a rich landscape of pattern and relationships.

Not all of us learn in exactly the same way.
Basically we are either predominantly: visual, auditory, kinesthetic or tactile learners.

Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math combines these four learning styles perfectly. Young children are strongly tactile learners as are many boys who benefit from a ‘hands on’ learning program. Visual learners will respond to the color of pattern and relationships revealed by Cuisenaire rods. The program is task-driven and the emphasis upon questions to instigate open-ended tasks will appeal to auditory learners. The very nature of the program creates an environment kinesthetic learners will thrive in.

nsure Your Child Succeeds At Math offers you a unique window of opportunity that may never open again.

It is an opportunity that reaches far beyond the limits of one particular subject. An opportunity that allows you to directly influence the most powerful ability your child possesses for good or ill. Sadly in the math class, because of one little word, it is usually for ill. An opportunity you cannot afford to miss.

All will be revealed tomorrow.

See you then,

Phil Rowlands

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REASON 3: We Ignore This Learning Style At Our Peril

Dec 26

Posted by philrow in Uncategorized

REASON 3: We Ignore This Learning Style At Our Peril

“I hear and I forget,

I see and I remember,

I do and I understand.”

Chinese Proverb

here is one learning style that is absolutely essential if young children are to learn effectively.

Children demonstrate their love of this approach on a daily basis often to the accompaniment of hair being torn out by frustrated parents. Young children are ‘hands on’ learners. Nothing is usually too hot or too heavy. This tactile approach to life in general is their way of discovering and processing information about the world around them.

“Children are born true scientists. They spontaneously experiment and experience and re-experience again. They select, combine, and test, seeking to find order in their experiences – “which is the mostest? which is the leastest? They smell, taste, bite, and touch-test for hardness, softness, springiness, roughness, smoothness, coldness, warmness: they heft, shake, punch, squeeze, push, crush, rub, and try to pull things apart.”

(R. Buckminster Fuller)

lay is how children utilize this particular learning style.

Play is one of the most powerful vehicles for facilitating learning. When you play with your child you are demonstrating how much you value them and enjoy their company. This helps build self-esteem and many studies now reveal that children with high emotional intelligence will outperform children with higher IQ but lower self esteem.

In the UK questions are being asked regarding whether children are given enough time to simply play. The pattern seems to be that children are given more time to play during their early years in school but towards the middle years a more formal approach dominates their school day. Emeritus Professor Barbara Prashnig argues that the tendency for state education to focus on a more formal, left-brain orientated approach to learning can have disastrous implications for a significant percentage of children, particularly boys, who tend to be predominantly tactile learners.

These children often rebel against a system that has failed to accommodate their needs and a small but significant minority can exert a disproportionately disruptive influence within schools before eventually disengaging with the formal learning process altogether. This, asserts Professor Prashnig, has serious implications for us all.

Craig Ramey of the University of Alabama appears to provide compelling evidence in support of this theory.

“Seventy-five percent of all imprisoned males in America have poor school records and low IQs,” Ramey pointed out. “Tracing their backgrounds turns up a familiar pattern: They begin as children from disadvantaged families starting school academically behind. They don’t know how to read or do basic math because they are in poor systems they get little help. Growing frustration often turns into truancy, school failure, aggression and violence. . .”

(Ronald Kotulak quotes Craig Ramey of the University of Alabama in his book ‘Inside the Brain’)

ailure to engage these men at a young age has proved disastrous for them and the communities they live in.

But this is not an issue confined to the USA. In the Forbury district of Dunedin in New Zealand, Barbara Prashnig has been overseeing a radical experiment. The local school was on the verge of anarchy. In desperation the local education authority turned to Professor Prashnig for help. Her immediate response was to request a complete change of staff. New staff would be trained in delivering the curriculum in a variety of teaching styles suited to the individual needs of the learner.

I was privileged to spend a fortnight at the school observing Headteacher Janis Tofia and her staff successfully meeting the considerable challenges posed by a badly failing school in an area where gang culture is a fact of life. If these methods can work in that situation they can work anywhere.

any teachers do not appear to know how to harness the power of play to effectively lead children to an understanding of math concepts.

This is hardly surprising as teachers strive to meet externally imposed targets with little emphasis or guidance given on how to implement play based learning in the math class. The text book and worksheet rule the day. Until schools are allowed more freedom to adopt a more child-centered approach children will continue to struggle in math and many will ultimately disengage from learning altogether. Is this the fate your child could face [[Firstname]]? More to the point, are you prepared to take that risk?

I believe the program I have created can solve the problem of how to teach math concepts through play. It provides a clear and progressive framework but also needs the commitment of a parent or teacher to guide, direct and pose the challenges that will create a stimulating, stress free but highly challenging learning environment.

Are you ready to make that commitment? If you are you may be as surprised to discover just as I did that learning math can be extremely fulfilling on many levels.

I really hope you are still with as tomorrow as we take a close look at the math model your child will need to play with every day.

Best wishes,

Phil Rowlands

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5 Common Reasons Why Your Child May Struggle With Math in School

Dec 24

Posted by philrow in Uncategorized

REASON 1: “The Most Important Learning State Is Often Absent.”

“The teacher pretended that algebra was a perfectly natural affair, to be taken for granted, whereas I didn’t even know what numbers were. Mathematics classes became sheer terror and torture to me.
I was so intimidated by my incomprehension that I did not dare to ask any questions.”

Carl Gustav Jung: 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of Analytical Psychology. (Source: Wikpedia)

oung children are natural learners. They are genetically programmed to learn.

Here’s how Alison Gobnik, Ph.D, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D, and Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph. D, describe a baby’s capacity for learning.

“Walk upstairs, open the door gently, and look in the crib. What do you see? Most of us see a picture of innocence and helplessness, a clean slate. But, in fact, what we see in the crib is the greatest mind that has ever existed, the most powerful learning machine in the universe.”

From “The Scientist in the Crib”

Why is it then that at some point in the not too distant future many parents throw their hands up in despair and wonder, “Whatever happened to that happy child who couldn’t wait to get to school?”

ow every day is a battle. Headaches, sickness, tantrums, tears . . . there just has to be a reason. Could it be bullying . . . school phobia . . . a personality clash with the teacher? It’s possible but it’s just as possible it could be a subject your child is desperately trying to avoid. A subject that invokes anxiety and fear and can produce a physical reaction that is very real.

It might be something you suffered from yourself, something you still feel guilty and ashamed of! That’s right . . . the math lesson.

The comments below were taken from recent posts on myLot.com in response to the question, “Ever had a most hated subject when you were in school?” They were representative of 70% of the responses.

“I despised math of any kind. To me it was like trying to learn another language…all of it. I still hate it! Anything involving math makes my head hurt.”

“I hated math. It was horrible. And the teachers . . . couldn’t explain it very well because they didn’t understand why we don’t understand!”

“I thought it was the most boring and confusing subject . . . That would be my idea of hell having to sit through math classes!”

Twenty years from now will your child be posting comments like these on some website blog? By then the damage will have been done.

o, what do you need to do to ensure your child is not intimidated and terrorised to the point where he is actually afraid to ask a question?

Apparently Einstein’s mother never asked him what he learnt in school only what questions he asked. When a child is too intimidated or embarrassed to ask a question then there is a serious problem somewhere that needs to be addressed urgently.

The most important state as an absolute prerequisite for learning is the emotional state. This is particularly true for young children. If a child is feeling stressed, intimidated or if something has upset him prior to him arriving at school he will not be in any state to learn anything. Stress causes the equivalent of an electrical storm in the brain cutting off access to all the areas of the brain that control our higher thinking skills. Math seems to induce more stress than any other subject.

n answer to the question I posed, what you must do is create an environment at home where you child feels secure and where learning math can be challenging but always fun. On the premise ‘prevention is better than cure’ it would be best if you created this learning environment before your child starts school. Whether you like it or not you are your child’s first and most important preschool teacher.

Before you reach for the valium, or protest that you hate maths as much as anyone in the history of the world, or you wouldn’t have a clue where to start anyway, allow me to ask you one more question.

re you prepared to embark on a journey of self discovery with your child, a journey through a rich and colorful landscape of pattern and relationships guided by play, games and open-ended activities? A journey that will ensure your child grasps the most important math concepts naturally and incidentally as he is engaged in play and problem solving that is always matched to his level of development?”

“Are you prepared to commit to spending time and engaging regularly with your child?”

If the answer is “YES!” then over the coming weeks I can help you and your child discover that learning math can be a hugely enjoyable and rewarding experience.

I sincerely look forward to speaking with you soon.

Phil Rowlands

Before retirement Phil Rowlands was a primary school Headteacher in the UK for 27 years. He has a deep interest in brain-based-research particularly with regard to how it impacts on children’s learning.

In order to extend his knowledge of learning developments he has travelled extensively including a visit to New Zealand where he spent time observing the program set in place by Emeritus Professor Barbara Prashnig in the Forbury district of Dunedin.

He was also responsible for introducing the Critical Skills program into schools in Wales and is the author of ‘How Brain-Friendly Learning Can Release Your Child’s Infinite Potential ‘

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Unit 3: Incidental Learning

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