Operations

Teaching Addition and Subtraction and don’t know where to start? You’re not alone.  Our BIG IDEAS in teaching Addition and Subtraction are a must-read for teachers serious about teaching it the right way.

By the time kids start formal learning of addition and subtraction, they have encountered and performed the process hundreds of times in their everyday lives. So you’d think that teaching addition and subtraction would be simple, right? 

Well unfortunately it’s not!

What research tells us, and achievement data shows, especially when solving word problems, is that kids are masters of memorizing mathematical processes and have trouble with understanding the ‘when what and why’  of computation.

Students are excellent at following a process, or the ‘How To’ do it, but when left to solve things independently or apply what they have been taught in other situations, they fail.  

The culprit behind this is teaching programs, activities, printables and worksheets that centre on solving algorithms, or ‘sums’.

Yes, understanding algorithms are important.  But algorithms are the final piece of the learning jigsaw. In fact, they are actually just a written representation of a very complicated process. Algorithms are like a math shorthand that should be used by students when a deep understanding of the math concept is achieved.

So the solution is simple, for effective teaching and high levels of student achievement in addition and subtraction, ensure that you provide a comprehensive range of opportunities to learn every aspect of the addition and subtraction process.

Finding what you need to include is not so easy. Many curriculum descriptions are vague and contain sweeping explanations rather than a list of things to teach.  So to help we’ve done some research for you and put together a handy list to guide you.

Related Posts: Teaching Numbers 0-20