Better Mathematics Through Literacy Summer Institute Combines Subjects for Simplified Learning

Elementary teachers from nearby counties took time out of their summer vacations to attend the Better Mathematics through Literacy Summer Institute, a weeklong workshop aimed at merging math and language for elementary students.

Instructor Tim McKeny, Professor, Teacher Education, explains an activity.

“After the week of professional development, the teachers were able to walk away with a clear picture of how to bridge the two seemingly separate worlds of language and mathematics,” said Tim McKeny, Professor, Teacher Education, and one of the instructors for the seminar.

Teachers received daily giveaways to enhance their classrooms and help them implement different teaching methods. Literature and mathematics giveaways totaled nearly $500. Susan Payne, another instructor for the program, was especially excited about a counting manipulative that resembles a tackle box filled with plastic fish. “Nemo is a must!” She joked.

Instructor Susan Nolan uses a dry erase board to teach the teachers.

“Right now they are the students,” said Anita Jones, who visited the first day of the program on behalf of the Ohio Department of Education. She also noticed that there seemed to be a lot of focus on the development of communication skills.

During one activity, teachers were given a complicated word problem to solve in groups: there are two hundred lockers and they are all closed. Two hundred students line up and one by one walk down the row of lockers. The first student opens every locker. The second student closes every other locker. The third student opens every third locker and so on.

The teachers were stumped, especially when they realized they weren’t going to get any help in solving this tricky problem. Familiar phrases such as “where’s the teacher?”, “I hate math,” and “I’m never going to use this!” started coming out of the struggling teacher’s mouths.

Instructor Sue Payne reads aloud to teachers.

“[They’re experiencing] what happens when you give [students] a complex problem and walk away.” McKeny pointed out. He explained that by refusing to hand the teachers the answer, they were forced to try different methods to solve the problem. They learned how to deal with frustration and struggle through the problem using questioning, trial and error and, eventually, a hidden mathematics problem.

“Each teacher was able to walk away from the Summer Institute with a wealth of ideas of how to integrate mathematics content through meaningful problem-based experiences for students,” said McKeny.

Tim McKeny presents learning devices for students.

The teachers also got a chance to talk about cultural issues that impact their careers. During one discussion, the teachers responded to an article that compared Japanese methods of teaching with American methods. This issue brought up the various challenges facing education in America and how changing laws and standards are changing the ways that schools work.

“I look forward to touching base with all of the project teachers throughout the coming school year in our three follow-up sessions and also keeping in touch with past participants in the program,” said McKeny. “It is very rewarding to be able to grow with these elementary teachers as they take the ideas of the workshop and begin to implement them in their classrooms.”

Instructor Sue Payne jokes with teachers.

Karen Daugherty, another representative from the Ohio Department of Education, was excited to see the way the teachers were learning after witnessing only last year’s final presentations. Last year's projects were “so outstanding,” she said, that she was excited to see where it all came from this year.

“It is my belief that we will begin to truly impact student’s mathematics achievement when we approach the teaching of mathematics as we approach the teaching of language,” said McKeny.