Prealgebra--I'm lucky if I understand it, and now I have to teach it?! (Math 1510--Week 5)

Ok, so signing up to be an elementary teacher I didn't think things would be so challenging. I don't mean that in a negative way, there are many things that are challenging, but for elementary academics I thought for sure I had this one in the bag! I have learned creativity is key! It can be difficult for students to understand that letters have a place in mathematics as variables. For my online math course, I had to check out this website about using the story of Mr. Popper's Penguins to help teach algebraic expressions.

For 2nd graders, the story Mr. Popper's Penguins was used to help students understand algebraic equations. The teacher used the story to show students how math would be used in the real world. I was shocked because I did not realize that students that young are doing algebraic equations. I just looked at it as if they were solving addition or subtraction problems. I did not give them credit for creating algebraic equations. The teacher says that when you are using algebra with young children it is best to keep not to use a lot of abstract thing such as variables x and y. You should substitute whole words instead. I think this is a good idea. I think even saying, "We're going to use algebraic equations today with our Mr. Poppin's Penguins story," is intimidating to students. Keeping things simple will not overwhelm the student. Instead of the variables, she suggests using world like Total and Leftover. She suggests to use the first letter of the word while you say the whole word. I also noticed that using these whole words were hints to students as to what equation they would use. Total would indicate addition. Leftover would indicate subtraction. 

To solve all the problems, bar diagrams were used. As the equations got harder, I felt that the strategy was consistent. She used bar diagrams consistently. It wouldn't be so overwhelming to the students because they are using one strategy--bar diagram. If they do addition, it is solved a specific way, if they use subtraction, they reverse the method. I felt that because it was so consistent, students would easily grasp the more difficult problems--such as multiplication and subtraction.

Using the Mr. Popper's Penguins story to incorporate algebraic is a great example. It keeps kids interested and they can follow along easier because they know the story. For those of you who may want a less complicated way to teach algebraic expressions, I did find a great video on YouTube that introduces it:

Now that I feel like my memory is refreshed from those skills that I learned a looooooong time ago, I'm off to try to do some homework.