Singapore Math Workshops

Wonderful participants at our Oakland workshop last Saturday.

Favorite funny exclamation (while drawing a word problem model that compared the cost of a purse, dress and belt):
"Wait! the belt has to be longer than the dress!"

Most intriguing question:
"How do you encourage students to use Singapore methods (drawing number relationships, using mental math, using models) if there is resistance? What if they say they'd rather "JUST" do it my memorizing a rule?

Our answers:
1. Give students a mix of problems. Make sure there is at least ONE that they can NOT do without the SPM drawing. This can be frustrating, but is very motivating for the doubters.
2. Spend time talking about (and rewarding) DIFFERENT ways of looking at a mental math problem. The emphasis should be on understanding and flexibility, not speed.
3. Let 2 or 3 students come to the board at one time, and compare their models. Discuss the different approaches. Let math become a cooperative endeavor, with UNDERSTANDING at the core, not memorization.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Teachers' Workshop, Honolulu, Hawaii, Feb 20th!

CMC - A Debrief

We're back from a whirlwind trip to Asilomar, CMC South. It had to be the least stressful (and most fun)of all our trips to speak at conferences. That we had Keys School 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade math teachers (Emma Samuels and Rupal Jain) with us made us feel invincible.

The speaking experience was also enriched by having both Kathleen and myself there. We love the repartee that goes on between us both (often unscripted... we're considering moonlighting as improv comedians) and the audience picks up on this rapport. From then the energy is taken to another level.

Our session was well attended with about 30 people attending. Rather decent, actually, considering that our time slot was not the most desirable - 3.30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, just before the close of the conference.

How Does Singapore Math Differ from US Textbooks?

Now in our 5th year of using SPM at Keys School, we feel it has 5 major advantages:

1. Strong number sense. Math facts are not memorized in SPM, but visualized, internalized, and understood. Manipulatives are used heavily to train base-10 sense -- much more so than in US textbooks. Then there are pages and pages of pictorial representations in the workbooks giving students time to TRANSFER their learning into strong number sense. This pictorial transfer phase is what is most critically missing in US textbooks.

2. Mental math mastery: Mental math is a fun and challenging component of daily math instruction all the way through middle school. Rather than concentrating on speed, mental math is presented one problem at a time, with the emphasis on DIFFERENT ways of solving each problem using different approaches.

3. Depth of curriculum: SPM does not use the quick-spiraling approach that US textbooks use. ("If it's Tuesday, It Must Be Fractions"). SPM uses long units; each 3- or 4-week long unit has a minimum quantum of learning, plus additional levels of enrichment. Students have time to truly understand a concept, and successfully transfer it to the abstract in their own minds, and therefore do not need re-teaching.

4. Word problem modeling: The visual nature of SPM rectangle models allows students to tackle word problems with confidence. Even those learners who struggle with math (and especially word problems) learn to solve complex problems because they can SEE them.

5. Algebra readiness: Because of the emphasis on understanding of math concepts, rather than memorizing algorithms, students actually transition more easily to algebra with SPM. They say it is just "arithmetic with letters instead of numbers". At Keys we have seen a constant increase in algebra ability of our 8th graders since we adopted SPM. Most importantly, the "non-math" students who used to struggle and fail algebra are now succeeding.

The only disadvantage we've discovered is that adopting SPM required training for our math teachers, who needed to discard the algorithms they were taught and teach math from a conceptual, mathematical basis. Corrinne did our training, and it was brilliant!

What is the Pi Project?

THE PI PROJECT: Corrinne and Kathleen are both teachers at Keys School in Palo Alto, CA, which adopted Singapore Math 5 years ago.
Having taught several years in Europe, Kathleen was alarmed by the rote, algorithmic approach used by US textbooks. In middle school, it seemed half of the students were having difficulty transferring all those memorized algorithms to the concepts of algebra and higher math. When Keys School adopted SPM, they hired Corrinne, an experienced teacher from Singapore, to train their teachers. Corrinne had moved to the Bay Area after her marriage, and quickly found neighbors and friends begging her to tutor their children in mathematics. Once Corrinne joined Keys School, the school began to receive requests from other teachers and schools for advice on implementing SPM. Corrinne and Kathleen began offering teacher workshops and school training, and have a passionate desire to bring this world-class math curriculum to as many teachers, schools and children as possible.

Welcome to The Pi Project Blog!

We've been talking about creating a blog for a while. Finally! The ball is set into motion...
Our first announcement is for a conference track session that we're giving at CMC-South in Asilomar this weekend, Saturday, December 5, 2009. It's called 'Singapore Math in the US Classroom: How does it work?'
Check back here next to hear how it went!