Fun counts in math program

In math classes in the Jackson public schools, students often play card games or roll the dice.

It's all part of the Everyday Mathematics curriculum that is used in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The games provide a fun way for students to practice math skills like addition and subtraction, said Molly Musson, sales representative for the nationally marketed math curriculum.

Classroom games are just part of a curriculum that includes group work and discussion, and teaches addition and subtraction together rather than separately.

That same approach holds true for decimals and fractions. Everyday Math teaches students to deal with both concepts at the same time rather than as separate, disconnected parts of math.

Skills are taught and reinforced throughout the school year and from grade to grade.

Kari Redding, presenter of Everyday Math, pointed out some math boxes in the elementary student's work books during a seminar for teachers at South Elementary School in Jackson. The district has used the math curriculum for three years. (Diane L. Wilson)

Proponents say it's working for more than 2.5 million elementary school students nationwide in more than 200,000 classrooms.

Fifty-five school districts in Missouri use the curriculum, although few of them are in Southeast Missouri. Among the larger school districts in the region, only Jackson and Sikeston use it. Jackson has been using the math program for the past three years.

Assistant superintendent Dr. Rita Fisher said the program has helped the district's students learn math skills. It's a good fit with the Missouri Assessment Program math test that students must take, she said.

"It's a practical application of math," she said.

"It's not a memorization of facts or formulas," Fisher said. "It teaches students to think through and figure out how to solve the problem."

It starts in kindergarten where children learn "skip counting" -- 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, for example -- and the use of tally marks to keep track of the number of cloudy or sunny days.

"It is very motivating for students," said Sandy Lichner, who teaches in a suburban Chicago school district whose teachers have embraced Everyday Mathematics.

"Even struggling students say they are enjoying math," said Lichner, who recently helped lead a training seminar for nearly 50 teachers from Jackson and several other Southeast Missouri school districts. The daylong session was held at Jackson's South Elementary School.

Group projects are an important part of the math program, Lichner said. "We are teaching our children to work in teams."

Everyday Mathematics was first developed in the 1980s from research by the University of Chicago on learning and instruction.

The research showed that traditional math curricula underestimated students' capabilities and mathematical knowledge.

Everyday Mathematics puts a greater emphasis on problem solving, applications and more complex mathematical topics at earlier grades, proponents say.

A study of state standardized test scores in the state of Massachusetts, Illinois and Washington found that Everyday Mathematics students scored significantly higher on average than students at schools which didn't use that math program, Musson said.

First-grade teacher Robin Masters said her students love the math games involving cards, dice and dominoes. "To them, it is just another game," she said. But while they're having fun, they are learning math concepts and skills, Masters said.

Three, four times a week

"We play games pretty much three or four times a week, and that really reinforces the skills that the series teaches," she said.

As part of Everyday Math, teachers send out a letter to parents at the beginning of every math unit. The letter includes the answers to every homework problem so parents can see if their children are doing the homework correctly.

Every lesson comes with a written explanation to parents and a few math problems that students can practice at home, Masters said.

The curriculum introduces first-graders to some math skills that other math programs wouldn't teach them until later grades, she said. For example, her first-graders learn double-digit addition and subtraction.

Jackson fifth-grade teacher Amy Smith has taught nine years in the district. She's been teaching the Everyday Math for the past three years.

"I like it because it gives kids alternative ways to solve problems," she said.

Smith said the curriculum introduces a math skill and then brings it up again and again throughout the school year.

"You see it over and over again and kids don't have an opportunity to forget it," Smith said.

The program includes real-life applications like reading charts, graphs and tables. Students also engage in experiments that involve the use of math concepts such as studying the reaction time of fellow classmates to catch a dropped piece of paper.

Each student's math book is more of a reference book that the student can use to help figure out how to solve a problem.

"It is more of a reference guide like an encyclopedia," Smith said.

The curriculum emphasizes learning by doing and solving problems on their own rather than relying on the teacher to give them the answers.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123