Rules that Expire

posted Jan 13, 2016, 3:37 PM by Amy Wix   [ updated Jan 28, 2016, 11:49 AM ]

Having grown up sandwiched between two brothers, I have always had  an interest in how birth order influences adult life and careers.  Katrin  Schumann, in her book The Secret Power of Middle Children, says that  middle children are flexible, team-builders, independent, social, and  think outside of the box.  Some of these skills I developed because I was in the middle.  If I wanted to be more grown up I played school with my older brother.  If I wanted to just be a kid and have fun, I played with my younger brother.  When the 3 of us were together, plotting  our next adventure, I was the go-between.  I could interpret what each of my brothers was meaning and translate it to the other.   Teaching in a greater Minnesota school district, I often think the same  ideas apply to the middle school level.  Our students are too old to require they have snow pants and snow boots, but too young to not give  them recess time outside.  Our students have important classes, but they aren’t always given the same resources as the primary school  reading classes or the high school you-need-this-to graduate level  classes.  Sometimes in our K-12 subject area meetings, it’s the middle level teachers who are the go-between for the elementary and high school teacher.   This topic hit home for me when I was reading the NCTM Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School  article, “12 Math Rules That Expire in the Middle Grades.”  The authors (Karp, Bush and Dougherty) highlight  rules and vocabulary that are sometimes taught to younger children that end up no longer working in the middle grades.  The article can be  found here. Let me be clear, I think our elementary  teachers are working hard to teach the grade level standards.  It is the innate trait of a teacher to  try and make things easier for our students; we don’t like to see them struggle.  But in making things easier by providing “tricks” to help  students remember, we are cheating them out of sense making and reasoning- the mathematical practices described in Principles to Actions.  Discussions in my classroom often have me asking students “Why?   ”Why do we add a zero when we multiply by 10? Is that always true?”   “Why do we flip the divisor when we divide fractions?”  Let’s not even  go into the discussions about “Fish” and “Butterfly.”   Of the 12 rules in the NCTM article, 6 expire in 6th grade, 4 in 7th,  1 in 8th and 1 in high school.  Middle school teachers walk a fine line  with these rules.  We can understand where the rule makes tasks easier for the elementary students, but we also understand the  misconceptions or over-generalizations the tricks have with the math in the upper grades.  As the authors say, “Using terminology and  notation that are accurate and precise (SMP 6) develops student  understanding that withstands the growing complexity of the secondary  grades.”  It’s our job, as the middle level educators to be the  go-between and start the dialog with our math departments K-12 to encourage the reasoning and understanding with the use of precise language in our classrooms.  Let’s get rid of these rules that expire! Additional Links on this topic: nixthetricks.com has a free downloadable book appropriate for all math teachers Learnzillion has a nice summary of the rules and other language to avoid here.