African American Educators of Mathematics

  Double Trouble: When Doubles and Near Doubles Meet Number Talks If you have been following my work, you already know that I love a good Number Talk . Give me a problem, some interesting student strategies, and a room full of people willing to talk about mathematics, and I am happy! This time, however, my preservice teachers and I were dealing with Doubles and Near Doubles . Now, before anyone says, “Dr. Massey, aren't doubles for elementary students?” Yes. And that is exactly the point! Sometimes the mathematics we expect children to understand deeply is the same mathematics that makes adults stop, stare at the board, and suddenly become very interested in their shoes. So, onto the board went our first problem: 125 + 125 No pencils. No paper. No calculators. And definitely no phones! Just think. Of course, 125 + 125 = 250 . Easy enough, right? But Number Talks are never just about getting the answer. I want to know how you know . Did you think: 100 + 100 = 200 20 + 20 = 40 5 + 5 ...

  Conversations with Jonah: Make Ten—Jonah Beats Gigi Three Times! As many of you know, I have a five-year-old grandson named Jonah. He is five going on fifty—full of life, energy, questions, and plenty of opinions! Jonah is very inquisitive and loves learning, especially mathematics. He loves adding, counting, and figuring out how numbers work. As a mathematics educator and, more importantly, his Gigi, I pray he keeps this love of mathematics as he grows. A couple of weeks ago, I taught Jonah a new game called Make Ten . What I did not expect was for him to start beating me at it! What Is Make Ten? Make Ten is a simple card game that helps children develop fluency with combinations that make ten. The goal is to find pairs of numbers whose sum is 10. To play, we arrange nine number cards in a 3 × 3 array. The cards contain numbers from 1 through 10. During each turn, a player looks for combinations that make ten and collects those cards. The empty spaces are then replaced with new ...

  That’s Just Backwards! Conversations with Jonah: Mathematical Thinking Through the Eyes of a Five-Year-Old As many of you know, I have a five-year-old grandson named Jonah. He is five going on fifty —curious, thoughtful, and full of energy! It has been about a month since I last shared one of our mathematical adventures. I have been extremely busy with work, and Jonah has been busy doing what Jonah does best— being Jonah . The academic year has started, and life at the university definitely keeps me on my toes. Now that the semester is off to a good start, I decided it was time to work with Jonah again—and, more importantly, to write about the brilliance of children and their mathematical thinking. Jonah loves to learn, but he may love showing Gigi what he knows even more. And from time to time, he especially enjoys correcting his Gigi! This particular conversation was about what Jonah calls “backwards math.” Mathematicians have another name for it: the commutative property of a...