Week One

Mental Computation: A Strategies Approach

Quite often, when thinking about mathematics, one would think about the answer or the

number an equation produces. Nowadays, to be literate in numeracy an individual is

required to have sufficient mental computation skills.

This reading discusses the importance of developing conceptual understanding about

mathematical concepts before teaching mental computational strategies. Mathematics in

today’s class heavily focuses on a wide range of mental computation strategies to arrive at

the correct answer. By teaching a range of computational strategies students are able to

make decisions about which strategy to utilise when confronted with number problems.

Formal algorithms are designed so that one can complete an equation without an

understanding about numbers. Left misunderstood, students will have significant difficulties

in their later schooling experience. Mental computation, on the other hand, forces the

learner to take on an active position in thinking about the relationships between numbers as

opposed to assuming a passive role. Mental computation also employs a problem-solving

approach, enhancing creative and critical thinking skills. The equation six multiplied by

twenty-five will be mentally calculated differently depending on the student. A solution may

be six multiplied by thirty and then subtract twenty-five.

From this reading it is clearly paramount for teachers to instil strong foundations to a sense

of numbers in children at a young age. This could be through concrete means such as pop

sticks, plastic teddies and counters as well as other strategies. It is also of high importance
that teachers do not skip ahead of the content even when students seem like they

understand a concept. Repetition a practise is key. Misconceptions are common

occurrences in mathematics and when left unacknowledged, students may carry that

misconception and generalise it to other mathematical concepts. Teachers should take the

time in ensuring sufficient conceptual understanding.

Ultimately, when the teacher writes the symbol ‘5’ on the board, students are required to

know what that symbol represents and is not merely just a five; It could be a hand with five

fingers, a friend of ten, ‘2+3’ and the fact that it is an odd number can be raised. Thus, many

discussions, activities and explorations are required to actively engage the learner into

developing a conceptual understanding about numbers. For students who need an

extension, the teacher can be extending them sideways rather than upwards on the

curriculum. A year two should not be completing year three standards, instead they can be

given a different number, using the example above they could be asked what sixty, three

hundred or even one thousand means depending on their level. Open-ended tasks are also

useful for students to display their thinking.

Week Two

Marino Reading

Teachers are utilising the number triad system to help students visualise the connections

between symbols, quantity and mathematical language. Students are being asked focus

questions at the commencement of every maths lesson to link back to prior knowledge and

build on knowledge sequentially. These lessons require the teacher to be organised as

teachers would have a clear path and goal planned for students by the end of the unit.

Focus questions need to be developed prior to teaching the class to ensure open questions

are used effectively. Parents and guardians are informed of the mathematical goal by the

end of the unit which creates a collaborative approach to learning, engaging the community.

In this reading, a mathematics lesson is broken down into four parts: daily review, exploring

and describing quantities, investigations and reflection. This approach seemingly adopts Lev

Vygotsky’s social constructivism as its theoretical foundation. The teacher acts as the

facilitator of these sessions and students share maths strategies through verbal interactions

in a meaningful manner. The key role of the teacher is to ensure they ask important

questions to elicit the desired response at the right time of the session. This will be taken on

board as a primary school educator. It is not just about the concrete materials used to

develop understanding but used in conjunction with effective questioning to foster effective

learning.

Week Two - Russo

The game, place that number, is a great game to play with students to develop a strong

sense of numbers, practising estimation and develop an understanding about place value.

The game encourages student participation as students are only required to place a dot on

the number line to signify where they think the number goes.

Students are given the opportunity to roll a number of dices (depending on the year level

and student knowledge) and create a number to place on the number line. For example, if a

student rolls a 7 and a 0 they can either create the number 70 or the number 7 and place a

dot on the number line. The most valuable learning from this activity occurs during the

discussion phase. During and after students have placed the numbers on the number line,

the teacher should ask questions to facilitate effective discussions. Questions such as

‘Keeping in mind of the numbers that were rolled, does the dot seem like it is in the correct

spot?’, ‘What were the strategies you utilised to help you with deciding the number to

create and place on the number line?’, ‘What number should be rolled next?’ and going

through the answers with the students would assist with developing a deeper

understanding of numbers.

This game is extremely versatile and could be implemented across the year levels. The game

encourages whole class participation as it is open-ended and allows students to justify their

reasoning in a safe and supported environment. This game would be used at the start of a

maths lesson as an introduction/motivation activity with the whole class to foster

mathematical thinking. The game can also be used during maths rotation as a self-directed

activity where one student is to take on the role of the teacher and record the numbers

placed on a number line. The game can easily be extended for students by changing the
number line from 0 to 1000 and adding an extra dice for three-digit numbers and so on. This

game is easy to implement and would create a deep whole class discussion about numbers –

developing a stronger sense of numbers.

Week Three – Common misunderstandings Siemon

Students do not develop misconceptions, rather, they develop alternate conceptions.

Schools are designed to prepare students for application in the real-world setting. However,

student’s conception about school is to complete formal algorithms to arrive at the correct

answer. This mindset needs to be changed. Mathematics in primary school should focus on

a range of strategies to calculate various equations and should not focus on formal

algorithms – although it is important for students to know the procedure to this.

People do not construct meaning by themselves. They certainly do not construct

misconceptions on purpose, instead, they construct meaning about their experiences which

can be an alternative conception. With this in mind, students who make errors in their

calculations does not necessarily indicate that they have misunderstandings about the

mathematical concept. Some students may answer questions differently and arrive at the

correct answer as opposed to someone who completed the answer differently.

The teacher should create a mathematical class where misunderstandings are addressed,

and strategies are shared through a social constructivist approach. Through these valuable

class discussions, students will be exposed to a plethora of mathematical strategies they

could utilise to assist them with everyday calculations. Tasks and activities should be as

open-ended as possible to invite different approaches and methods in solving the equation.

Students should always be guided into self-questioning ‘How would this apply to a real-life

setting?’; Would the student sit down at the shops to complete a formal algorithm in

addition? These self-questioning techniques might assist students into using different

strategies that replicate a real-life mathematical problem solver in different contexts.

Week Four Reading – Norris and Swan

Perceptual subitising is the ability to recognise the group with the bigger collection. This is

foundational knowledge before students’ progress to counting concrete items. In this phase

of pre-counting, students often make global statements to compare quantity whilst using

mathematical language such as ‘more than’ and ‘less than’.

Conceptual subitising is the ability to recognise numbers from representational items such

as dices. Students who are able to conceptually subitise are able to recognise that the ten

frames contain ten counters as opposed to individually counting them. Conceptual subitising

gradually develops a student’s capacity to fluently think of arithmetic combinations and fact

strategies. Students also learn efficient non-counting strategies on place-value knowledge

such as adding ten and bridging ten to eventually solve more complicated big numbers.

The concrete representational abstract (CRA) sequence is the basic structure for all

mathematical concepts to facilitate conceptual understanding. Teachers need to ensure all

mathematical concepts are taught using concrete materials before proceeding to

representational and abstract ideas. As mathematical equations and numbers are

represented with symbols, it can be challenging for students to make these connections

such as the number 1 and the fraction 1/2. The latter number contains two numbers and a

diagonal line splitting them but is actually a smaller number than the whole number 1 –

students need to see concrete representations to develop a sense of numbers and how

fractions work.

As a teacher of mathematics, concrete materials will be introduced first. Students will be

given a large amount of time to explore, investigate and experience with concrete materials
first to gain conceptual understanding before transferring that knowledge into

representations on an A4 piece of paper and then abstract symbols. It is paramount for

teachers to not rush the concrete stage of learning mathematical concepts. If students are

failing to comprehend the concept, there needs to be multiple concrete representations for

the student to manipulate with before proceeding to the representational stage of the CRA.

This is to ensure students have foundational knowledge to solve more complex problems.

Without this understanding, students may be having alternate conceptions about the

mathematical concept presented and it can be difficult for them to change this

understanding.

Week Five – Good concrete activity is good mental activity

‘Busy hands do not necessarily mean busy minds’ is a quote that will resonate with me and

inform future teaching practices. Without probing questions, students will not be able to

stretch their thinking and challenge themselves. An effective mathematics lesson will not

only include concrete materials inherently but also include pre-determined questions to

effectively guide students into more complex mathematical thinking. The role of the teacher

is to ask the correct questions in order to facilitate higher order thinking skills within the

lesson. It is after and during exploring the concrete materials and the valuable discussions

which help shape students mathematical content knowledge.

In future lessons as a teacher, concrete materials will definitely be used when introducing

concepts coupled with Bloom’s Taxonomy for effective questioning to facilitate high order

thinking skills. Without effective questioning, students may not reach the deep content

understanding that is sought by the teacher. The teacher would need to have planned the

questions and anticipated answers to effectively guide student thinking. Discussions and

concrete materials exploration will generally take place in a circle to encourage full

participation. In addition, after every mathematics lesson, it is up to the teacher to reflect

and ask themselves this question: ‘Is the manipulative used in such a way that it requires

reflection or thought on the part of my students?’. By reflecting and recognising the

effectiveness of the concrete material as well as questioning, the teacher can improve in

future lessons.

Week Six – Russo: Innovative framework for teaching Mental Computation

The reading explores the application of a theoretical framework in the classroom to assist

students with mental computational skills. This idea was derived from the literacy reading

framework that stood for CAFÉ. For mathematics however, the mnemonic used is SURF:

strategies, understanding, reading and fast-facts. This framework is developed to focus on

the teaching of mental computation strategies, develop stronger links between what is

taught and the current learning needs of the individual students, place more emphasis on

meta-cognition and place more emphasis on the acquisition of mathematical language.

When the mnemonic is organised horizontally, students are able to analyse the

interrelationships between the number facts. For example, 6+6=12 is a fast-fact and

5+5+2=12 is a strategy. If students can identify a connection between the two, they would

be developing an understanding. Lastly, students need to read the mathematical equations

in order to solve the problem correctly.

A benefit to utilising the SURF mnemonic is that the goals are clearly stated and separated

into four elements in which the teacher and student are both aware of. “Surfing” is also a

powerful metaphor to motivate students to learn mathematics; they need to develop this

fluency through effective mental computation. With this strong foundation, students are

then able to effectively and efficiently draw upon their mental strategies to calculate more

complex problems.

Overall, the SURF framework is a practical and viable resource to add in the classroom. This

can be served as a classroom display in the classroom and can be referred to when students

are in the middle of math lessons. These are a range of strategies and big ideas students
need to know in order to develop efficient mental computational skills. For example, if the

class was exploring fractions and addition in fractions, the white board would look

something like this:

Strategies Understanding Reading Fast Fact

1. Only add Show ½, 2/4, 3/6 Students need to be Students will then

numbers with and 4/8 in a bar able to read and be able to recall

common visual represent the after lots of

denominators. representation. fractions before practice, concrete
2. Only add the
Instead of adding ½ adding them. For materials and visual
numerator
and 2/4, it is ½ plus example, if it is ½ representation:
when adding
1/2, otherwise the and 4/8, they need ½ +1/2 = 2/2 which
fractions.
parts will not be to change the equates to 1 whole.
3. Find the
even. denominator in
lowest
order to be able to
common
Change all add it.
denominator.
denominators to be

the same in order to Students would also

add. need to know the

meaning of the

slash between the

two numbers in a

fraction.
The ‘understanding’ section would ideally be in visual representation. Students would

explore the different dimensions of fractions using the SURF acronym to create a strong

conceptual understanding about adding fractions.

Week 7

Assessing and teaching children who have difficulty learning arithmetic

The article explores the term vulnerable. The term vulnerable is used for children whose

environments include risk factors that may lead to poor developmental outcomes. Through

utilising an interview assessment technique to collect data, the data becomes reliable and

valid and informs the teacher of the growth point students are at in order to plan for

targeted teaching.

The establishment of growth points was discussed in this article. The article describes the

reasons for growth points to be developed and how it can be applied in a classroom setting.

Growth points are perceived to be key stepping stones for students to attain before

proceeding to the next growth point. The order of the growth points are guidelines for a

teacher to follow but does not necessarily mean that is the path students will take. The

attainment of this data is extremely beneficial as it provides assessment data for students to

evaluate and plan for targeted teaching. An example is if a majority of the students were in

growth point 1 for counting, the teacher can focus on growth point one leading towards

growth point two and design activities to effectively teach these mathematical

understandings.

From the reading, it is evident that all students would benefit in exposure of all four

mathematical domains including counting, adding and subtraction, multiplication and

division and place value. It was a popular belief that students needed counting skills before

learning about multiplication and division as the concept seemed to be more complex.

However, it is now proven that students need a wide variety of exposure in the different

domains of mathematics in order to be a successful mathematics learner. Being proficient in

counting skills does not mean a child has multiplicative thinking skills. These different skills
and needs to be developed separately. The growth points inform teachers of what areas to

focus in to further extend student knowledge.

In future teaching practices, I as the teacher would not focus on just counting skills. I would

also focus on the different domains of mathematics to ensure a strong foundation of

mathematics is instilled in students in each of the domains. To utilise the interview

assessment, teachers can collect data at the start of the year, mid-year and at the end of the

year to gauge if student’s growth points have increased and inform the next year’s teacher

of the students’ mathematical levels. This would inform the next year’s teacher

mathematics planning and allow them to continue to extend the mathematical

understanding depending on the growth point each student is at.

Week 8 – The use of arrays

Hurrell and Day

Often students would place groups of an item in separate groups with the same number of

concrete items. This demonstrates additive thinking. However, teachers should guide

students into multiplicative thinking through the use of arrays. This can be shown using the

concrete, representation and abstract model. Concrete being manipulatives, representation

being grid lines and abstract being equations. It is argued that with more exposure to arrays,

students develop a more robust understanding of multiplication and makes the transition to

algebraic reasoning easier. Students often struggle with the idea that 0.5 x 0.5 would equal

0.25, a smaller number. Children generally have the misunderstanding that multiplying two

or more numbers would produce a larger number. Arrays can help dispel these

misunderstandings to clearly show students how and why 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25 and not 2.5.

Arrays also assist students with the understanding of distributive property. Students lacking

conceptual understanding would calculate 12 x 13 as (10x10) + (2x3). This amounts to 106.

Through using an array to demonstrate this, students would be able to identify an error,

however, would possible need teacher guidance and questioning to understand why

partitioning this way would lead to the incorrect answer. Arrays allow the students to see

the area they are dealing with on the grid. Through this visual representation, they are able

to see why (10x10) + (2x3) this equation is incorrect for 12 x 13.

Overall, this article highlights how powerful arrays can be to teach multiplicative thinking

and transition into algebraic reasoning. If students lack understanding in multiplicative

thinking, the journey to transition into algebraic reasoning will be much more challenging.

Teachers should then begin transferring students from additive thinking to multiplicative

thinking in year three according to the Australian Curriculum standards. These lessons will
begin with concrete representations and eventually use grid paper representations to

represent these equations and finally equations will be written out for students to calculate

abstractly.