Teaching Math

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Home : 2002 : July : 4

Teaching Math
By 3/4 teacher

I teach 3rd grade math and in my school district we have two textbook adoptions. One is a very traditional, direct instruction approach to teaching math, and the other is a more abstract, critical thinking type of book,
that without my guidance, my students are totally lost. What I have found that works for me (since I have to teach from both books) is when I am introducing a new concept (such as multiplication for example) I will use the book that is more abstract and let the kids work with the concept through discussion, investigation and manipulatives. Then I will go to the other more concrete book

and teach the skills needing to be taught. Most of the kids I teach come from high income, high parent involvment families and most are very successful students. However, I have found that 3rd graders have a hard time thinking abstractly at their age. They need the foundation of the basic skills to help them feel successful, otherwise the kids (and teacher) will get frustrated easily.