Parents, kids learn new math strategies

J.R. Morgan helps his stepson Colby Yazzie with a math equation at Wingate Elementary Tuesday night. The pair, as well as many others, attended "Understanding the Math You Didn't", a hands-on presentation for parents and children that teaches them to take numbers apart to make mathematics make sense. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

FORT WINGATE — Third-grader Kaylyn Gibson wasn’t the only family member learning a new way to think about math last week.

Kaylyn’s dad, Elliott Gibson, sat next to his daughter at Wingate Elementary on Tuesday evening and began thinking about numbers and mathematics in a way he hadn’t learned back when he was in school.

“I’m old fashioned,” he admitted, explaining that he learned math “the old way,” through memorization of facts and rules.

The Gibsons were just one of about a dozen families attending Wingate Elementary’s most recent parent night program that focused on a specific academic subject. Tom Hoopingarner of Kokopelli Educational Consulting presented “Understanding the Math You Didn’t” to the group of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students and their parents.

Hoopingarner said 80 percent of Americans have a “math phobia” and don’t feel competent about their math abilities.

While in American society it’s acceptable for people to say, “I’m not good at math,” he said, it’s not acceptable to admit, “I can’t read.” In contrast, Hoopingarner said, having strong math skills is an essential part of literacy, just like reading and writing.

“The way we were taught, it’s not working,” he said of traditional approaches to teaching math. With the use of worksheets, Hoopingarner said, students learn to “regurgitate procedure” without understanding what they are doing.

The mathematical approach Hoopingarner presented at Wingate relies more on teaching students multiple strategies to solving math problems. In his introductory demonstration on addition, he emphasized giving students the “license” to break numbers apart, round numbers, use number lines, and mentally estimate the correct answer in advance.

“It’s more about making sense with what we’re doing,” explained Hoopingarner, who added that math needs to be taught in context in order to make sense.

Maxine Chischilly, department head for Wingate’s third through fifth grades, was one of the teachers in attendance. In addition to Wingate Elementary hiring educational consultants to work with its teachers, she explained, five of the school’s teachers were trained in the new approach during the summer, and the school’s new math textbooks also utilize the multiple strategies approach.

“It’s been very beneficial,” she said. “I’ve seen the kids’ scores go higher than it’s ever been in the past three years,” she added. The new approach utilizes a lot of critical thinking skills, she said, which has helped make word problems “a little less intimidating” to students.

Chischilly said parent night programs help parents understand what their children are learning in school so they can offer more academic support to their children at home.

Sharlotte Knowles, a longtime teacher in the Gallup-McKinley County Schools and Gallup Catholic, is in her first year at Wingate Elementary. Knowles is enthusiastic about Wingate’s new approach to math.

“The program is really working with our kids,” she said.

“Parents are noticing a difference ... I think it’s something the community should know about.”