Back to math

Parents in school for 'excitng' open houses

STAFFORD — Parents of elementary school children throughout Stafford were invited back to school Friday to take part in “Be Excited About Math” Day.

Each of the 17 elementary schools in the county hosted a BEAM Day event with a similar format, said Eric Rhoades, supervisor of mathematics and science for Stafford County Public Schools.

Last week’s open houses offered parents insight into Everyday Math, a controversial teaching concept that was adopted by the county school board in 2005.

“I think that BEAM Day has helped parents get a real kind of bird ' s eye view of student learning as it relates to Everyday Mathematics in a standards-based math program,” Rhoades said.

At Hampton Oaks Elementary School, one lesson was taught representing a K-2 classroom, and another represented grades 3 to 5. The programs gave parents a chance to observe a math lesson.

Julie Rhoads, a math specialist at Hampton Oaks, gave an introduction before the intermediate lesson.

“Math classes today are very, very different than they were when we were in school,” Rhoads said. Today, she added, mathematics education is driven by “standards.”

In a standards-based classroom, teachers emphasize communication, reasoning and proof, representation, connections and problem-solving, Rhoads said, focusing more on the processes versus the content.

“Math doesn’t exist in isolation,” she said. “You use it every day.”

During the intermediate lesson, teacher Rebecca Caldwell gave an “exposure lesson” to her fourth-grade students.

Class began with a student reading the lesson’s objective. Throughout the lesson, students sat in groups and worked with Cuisinaire rods, which are colored plastic rods used to teach a variety of math methods. Today’s lesson was on the relationship between multiplication, division and fractions.

Each student had the chance to use the ActivBoard (an interactive white board) to answer questions on fractions, or, later, to match vocabulary with definitions.

Using multiplication/division “Fact Triangles” — Everyday Math’s version of flash cards — students worked in pairs to create “Fact Families.”

One student read one of his “Fact Families”: 8 times 9 equals 72; 9 times 8 equals 72; 72 divided by 8 equals 9; and 72 divided by 9 equals 8.

During the lesson, students used a multiplication table to solve division problems.

And in the end, several students were able to answer: “How do fractions, multiplication and division relate to one another?”

“Division is the opposite of multiplication,” one said.

Another added, “Fractions are division problems.”

Stafford resident Sunghee Sherwood, the mother of a fourth-grader at the school, said she attended the program to find out more about how her son is learning math.

“I think it’s wonderful I get to see how he’s learning and how they teach,” she said. “I’m a visual person, so it helps a lot.”

While the goal is to have students instantly recalling math facts by the fourth- or fifth grade, they also must understand the processes, Caldwell told parents after the lesson.

“A lot of concept-building begins as early as kindergarten,” Rhoads added. “Right now we’re asking students, ‘10 feet; how many turkeys?’ That’s division.”

She continued, “It’s about fluency with facts, and fluency is more than memorization. It’s knowing quickly, knowing accurately and knowing why.”

Hampton Oaks Principal Daria Groover was on hand for the program.

“It was a fabulous lesson. I think the kids did well, the teachers did well and the parents appreciated the opportunity to observe,” Groover said.

The school system hopes to make BEAM Day an annual event, Eric Rhoades said.

He added, “We’re going to continue to work to make our program stronger and stronger as we have each year, and do a really nice job communicating with parents so they understand the program and its effectiveness.”

Andrea Russell is a copy editor at the News & Messenger in Woodbridge. Reach her at arussell@insidenova.com.