'New math' is really just new approach

S UAMICO – It's still 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 + 3 = 5, but students may use different ways to get to the other side of the equal sign.

That's the idea behind what has become known as "new math."

As school districts adopt curriculum and create lesson plans to meet Common Core State Standards, educators are moving beyond the strict memorization of multiplication and addition tables to ways aimed at helping students conceptualize math problems and how to adopt them to real-life situations.

Local educators praise the new system, but acknowledge it may be an adjustment for parents who grew up using traditional methods.

Problems basically are broken down and put back together so students can understand the building blocks before moving on to bigger concepts. Supporters argue that if they understand the foundation, they will have more tools when math gets tougher.

While the traditional method would stack the numbers and then carry the one to come up with an answer, the new system focuses on groups of tens.

"Some kids might think 'Carry the one, what does that mean?'" said Melissa Madigan, a second-grade teacher at Bay Harbor Elementary School in the Howard-Suamico School District. "They don't understand that the 3 is really 30 and the 4 is 40.

"What we want to do is really break down the numbers so kids can see what they mean. Maybe it's easier for them to see 30 + 2 is 32, and 40 + 8 is 48, and to add the first numbers and the second numbers separately, and then see that 70 + 10 is 80.

"I remember being taught in the traditional way. Some people go through school and never understand what the numbers mean."

New math may get a bad rap because people see it as making a simple problem longer and more complicated, but Shelly Thomas, curriculum and instruction director for the De Pere School District, said it helps kids dig deeper.

"Math has changed, but it's not really 'new math' it's just a shift requiring kids to do more than procedures," she said. "It is also very important that they have an understanding of basic math facts. Kids need to understand what they are doing."

Gone are the days of watching the teacher solve an algorithm and then students doing the problem just like the teacher, Thomas said.

"The big push with Common Core is having students differentiate," Madigan said. "Twenty different students may have 20 different ways of doing it. It's amazing to see how kids do it differently. And then if one student is struggling, another student may say 'I did this, and it worked for me.'"

Parents, on the other hand, may be most familiar with memorizing tables and charts, and ways to get to the correct answer whether or not one understand how to get to the answer.

"Sometimes it's confusing for parents," Thomas said. "They say 'just do it this way. That's the way I do it, why should you do it differently?' It's so different from what parents grew up with."

The Howard-Suamico School District, as well as some other local school districts, converted to a curriculum called Math Expressions. Howard-Suamico switched over about seven years ago and fully implemented the program with the switch to Common Core in the past few years. Madigan said most students and families now are used to the new program.

Wisconsin adopted Common Core in 2010. It is a set of standards meant to set benchmarks in math and language arts by grade level. This year, students in spring will begin taking standardized tests aligned with Common Core.

The De Pere district has a five-year subscription to an online Stepping Stones program for kindergarten to fifth-grade math. Thomas said the online program allows for regular updates as schools move to Common Core.

Sixth to eighth graders are using a system called College Prep Math.

Lessons include more group discussions and problem solving, Thomas said.

Teachers still work with students on quick recall of addition, subtraction and multiplication, she said.

But in the past, if students had trouble coming to an answer, teachers often used flashcards to help improve memory. Now, they may help students find ways to make finding an answer easier for them.

"We can use things like 'double plus 1,' so if I know that 3 plus 3 is 6, and I'm asked what 3 plus 4 is, I can think, 6 plus 1, or 7.

"It's a flexible strategy, and works well for bigger numbers, say, if I know 35 plus 35 is 70, then 35 plus 36, is 35 plus 35 (70) plus 1, or 71."

The new system asks teachers in lower grades to be familiar with higher-level algebra, Thomas said. First- and second-grade teachers know math beyond those grade levels, but administrators want them to be thinking in terms of preparing younger students to be ready to understand and handle those concepts as they reach upper grades.

Madigan emphasized it's not just the answer that counts, but also how you get there.

"Yes, you have to have the right answer, but you also have to figure out what the problem is and then figure out how to solve it," she said. "Kids really are more engaged when you let them take the lead. You teach them different methods and let them decide what works for them.

"Now I feel my students truly understand what they are doing."

— pzarling@pressgazettemedia.com or follow her on Twitter @PGPattiZarling