To prepare today’s elementary students
for tomorrow’s world, the goals of our mathematics curriculum
must be appropriate for the demands of a global economy in an
age of rapidly increasing information. The National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics has identified five broad goals required
to meet students’ mathematical needs for the 21st Century.
Students must:
- learn to value mathematics
- become confident in their ability to do mathematics
- become mathematical problem solvers
- learn to communicate mathematically
- learn to reason mathematically
In order to reach these goals, we provide a balanced program
of skills, concepts, and problem solving. Mastery of whole number
computation is expected by the end of the Fifth Grade, but we
expect the underlying understanding of the concepts as well, not
simply rote memorization of the algorithms. This is why our mathematics
curriculum actively involves children in doing mathematics. Children
are encouraged to explore, develop, test, discuss, and apply ideas.
Classrooms are equipped with a variety of physical manipulatives,
such as counters, interlocking cubes, base-ten blocks, attribute
and pattern blocks, tiles, rulers, geoboards, graphing grids,
and balances. These materials help to provide a strong conceptual
framework that allows children to acquire skills in ways that
make sense to them.
Problem solving is emphasized at every level. First and Second
Graders learn to reason mathematically through discussion of stories
and problems that not only entertain the children but challenge
them to think carefully. The stories are filled with surprises,
so children cannot just routinely use arithmetic to solve the
problems. Instead they must be able to draw upon all their mathematical
knowledge and common sense and attention—just as adults
do in solving problems in real life. Children also learn specific
strategies, such as guess and check, make a drawing or act it
out, and look for a pattern. Third and Fourth Graders add to the
repertoire of problem solving strategies they learned in lower
grades, while Fifth Graders participate in the Math Olympiads
problem solving contest. Preparation for this contest requires
writing skills and fosters cooperative work and much enthusiasm
for problem solving.
Our curriculum includes a broad range of content at every level.
In addition to number sense and basic computation, we also include
measurement, estimation, mental math, geometry, statistics, and
probability. We want children to see the interrelated nature of
mathematical knowledge, and to learn that mathematics can be applied
to a wide variety of real world problems. We therefore integrate
mathematics into other areas of study, such as measuring in a
science lesson or writing to help clarify mathematical thinking.
Learning stations, games, open-ended problem solving, and activities
of varying levels of difficulty are designed to meet the needs
of students at all stages of mathematical development.
Technology also has a place in the mathematics education of
young children. Calculators enable children to explore number
ideas and patterns, to have valuable concept-development experiences,
and to focus on problem-solving processes. Calculators do not,
however, replace the need to learn basic facts, to compute mentally,
or to do reasonable paper-and-pencil computation. Children must
learn to recognize when use of a calculator is appropriate and
to recognize when computed results are reasonable.
Computers are also used at all levels, both in the classroom
and in the two computer mini-labs. Students explore problem solving,
graphing, and computation using a variety of software and Internet
sites. Computer simulations of mathematical ideas, such as modeling
the renaming of numbers, are important aids in helping children
identify the basic concepts in mathematics.
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