Most of the kids in schools are very bright in some area or the other in their own life. Yet if you measure their intelligence just on their math skill you are likely to find some not so bright kids in every class.
In many high school classrooms, in almost all the schools, you will come across children who cannot solve a simple primary school math problem. We at Soham Academy think that at some point or the other there should be an option for high school kids to understand some fundamentals in math. Our Bridging the Math Gap course attempts to do the same.
At a fundamental level
- We should make sure that the children know their multiplication tables.
- They should be able to do additions and subtractions with reasonable accuracy.
- They should be able to add not only simple numbers but those with carry over values.
- Subtractions that result in negative numbers is an area of concern that must be addressed.
- Once they feel comfortable in dealing with numbers, We should take them to abstract terms that are part of algebra.
Children must be taught to think in numbers first. The child must than be challenged to think in abstract terms. To be able to think in Mathematics is a gift that must be cultivated. Every math teacher must create enough conditions to generate that “aha” moment to emanate from the kids. They need many “aha” movements to actually fall in love with mathematics.
The following are some of the Bridging the Math Gap activities that we completed at our schools.