X – Never do what is eXpected.

Never do what is eXpected

I tend to be somewhat of a rogue. When asked to do something the traditional way, I will usually find a different and unique way of doing it. I don’t think I do it to be contrary. I just like to be creative in the way I do things. This sometimes creates issues, but other times, especially in teaching ends up being a plus.

Just like Lina, the other day…

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Minna was re-assigned when the students in her class were sent to work with their parents as part of an On-the-Job program that all 6th graders took part in. For today, Minna got to work in Lina’s class. It was time for a math lesson.

Lina announced, “Everyone take out your math books and I want you to work on pages 234-238 today. We are continuing our work on subtraction of whole numbers.”

Minna asked what she could do and was told by Lina to just wander around the room and try to find students that might be having difficulty with the problems.

Minna found one student tried to get him to understand the concept of borrowing from the 10s column when there weren’t enough 1s to subtract from in the 1s column. No matter how many times Minna explained the algorithm the student didn’t get it.

Lina came over, knowing that there was a problem and spoke to the student. “You know when I have to subtract things I always find it easier when there are zeros in the bottom number and I don’t have to borrow. Would you like to try that?”

The student agreed and showed Lina the problem he was working on, 53-27.

Lina asked, “You can’t take 7 away from 3. Hmm. Is there a number that I can add to the 27 so that there will be a 0 in the ones place?”

The student replied, “If I add a 3 then the bottom number will be 30.”

Lina followed up with, “That sounds great, however, if you add a 3 to the bottom number, you better add a 3 to the top number so the difference will still be the same.”

The student did that and now the problem was 56-30. “The answer is 26!” he shouted.

“That sounds great. Do you think you can do that for some other problems?” Lina asked.

“I could try.”

“You go ahead,” Lina said. “If you need more help just ask an adult.”

Minna just looked on in awe. “That’s not the right way to subtract. You have to borrow and carry over and all that stuff that we learned when we went to school.”

Lina remarked, “That might be true and eventually I’m sure he will get the algorithm, but this method works too and he’s feeling confident about getting right answers. Sometimes you have to come up with new and different ideas to get across to kids what you want them to learn.”

Minna scowled. “When he forgets what you taught him at home and his parents try to explain, I’ll bet you’ll hear from them about your radical teaching method.”

“Probably.” Lina shrugged her shoulders. “But if they’re not learning the way the book says, you have to change what you do. For me doing the un-traditional and unexpected way sometimes gets good results, despite the criticism. And that’s what we’re here to do, right? Teach the children.”

Minna could see Lina’s point, even though she still felt that doing it by the book was the way to go.

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I can tell you from experience doing what Lina did does get a lot of complaints from some parents. But their children did learn. And those kids rather than being disenfranchised from learning math actually found success and started to enjoy it.