Ep. 81 Meaningful Math Games with Ann Elise Record and Dr. Nicki Newton
Check out my blogpost, Meaningful Math Games with all the information/links that were mentioned in the episode.
How to reach Ann Elise:
How to reach Dr. Nicki:
Transcript:
Melissa Milner 0:09
Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. I'm your host Melissa Milner, a teacher who is painfully curious and very easily inspired. This podcast is ever changing. And I hope with each season, you find episodes that speak to you in your work as an educator. This is the fourth season of The Teacher As... and it's exciting to see the growth in how many educators are listening. Episodes are released every other week. If you enjoy The Teacher As..., please rate it on Apple Podcast and leave a review. It helps the podcast reach more educators. Thanks for listening.
Melissa Milner 0:42
I'm here again. This is so exciting with Dr. Nicki Newton and Ann Elise Record. And we're not doing the usual top 10 with the vetoes and the and the and the nastiness. We're actually, they're always actually very nice about it.
Ann Elise Record 0:55
Good natured nasty. Yeah, good natured nasty.
Melissa Milner 0:58
But instead, we're just going to have a convo, actually, they're going to have a convo, and I'm going to be like color commentator. Just about math games, I hope we're going to talk about subtraction and division ones. Because that's always like for my fourth graders, those like you said, Ann Elise, you always say subtraction is the Achilles heel. So hopefully there'll be some games that involve that, but I'm just I'm gonna let you guys take it away.
Ann Elise Record 1:22
I wonder whether it would make sense if we started off with some that are like early numeracy, like the younger kids and maybe go on to get to any games that are for older kids or things like that. Does that make sense?
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:33
That'll work.
Ann Elise Record 1:34
All right.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:36
In terms of games, there are some criteria for games, I think that they should be data driven. So that kids actually are playing in their zone of proximal development. Because sometimes what I see is teachers will set up games that are either too hard or too easy. And when games are too hard, or too easy, kids are frustrated or bored. And when kids are frustrated or bored, they're off task.
Ann Elise Record 2:06
Not good things happen.
Dr. Nicki Newton 2:08
Not good things happen.
Melissa Milner 2:11
So... do recommend differentiating who plays what games even?
Dr. Nicki Newton 2:16
Absolutely, absolutely. I really think that it should be data driven. And I also think that it should be engaging, right as as Seymour Papert said it should be hard fun. And by that, I mean, it goes along with differentiation. So if I'm gonna play a game, like I like the Cup game, right? And in the Cup game, you write on the bottom of the cup, the expression, and on the inside of the cup is the answer. And then the kids have to stack them, they look... they hold it up, based their partner reads, oh, you have three times four is 12. And then they check, they could see the right answer at the bottom of the cup. And if they're right, they get to stack so they make these big stacks. They're called Power Towers. And but I liked that game, because everybody could play. So you can be playing a stack of Power Towers on doubles, a backup stack of Power Towers on make 10, a stack of Power Towers on I don't know, multiplication within 100. Everybody's playing Power Towers. So kids aren't like, Well, why do we have rocks and they have gold? Right? I like it the same with with Birds and Worms. Ann Elise taught me that game. I love that game. Everybody I teach loves that game. I now buy wooden dice and take them around. We have a card version of that game too up in the Dropbox. But with that game, you can change it. Because Ann Elise showed me the make 10 version and the fraction version. And but you could do it with doubles, you could do you can look for different strategies in children's zone of proximal development. So I think it has to be data driven, differentiated based on that data and engaging so that all kids want to play.
Melissa Milner 4:00
But like you said, same game. So they're all playing... that that's that's the ticket. Yeah.
Dr. Nicki Newton 4:07
Yeah. Everybody's playing the same game. The only thing I think is should be standards based. And the "I am" learning statement should be there. You know, there's a lot of discussion about "I am" learning too or "I can" and people are you know, Dweck said that we really should be saying "I am" learning too because it speaks to the growth mindset. I am learning to do this, right. Rather than "I can" multiply by 100. You can't even multiply by two. But you can't do that yet. But what you are doing is learning to multiply within 100. So do I would argue that we should use "I am" learning to and I think that should be on the game, because all kids should know what they're doing when they're playing. If I go up to a kid I said what are you doing, they should be able to tell me. Oh, we're playing this card game but we're practicing math. We're practicing doubles. Kids should be able to articulate what the goal of the game is. Right along with that what the success criteria is. And so I think games should be differentiated and scaffolded, and so forth. Ann Elise what are you thinking about that?
Ann Elise Record 5:19
Oh my gosh, absolutely. As well, I love several of the games that I've thought up to share today, as well as they're not limited to one particular operation or strategy. So you mentioned Power Towers, it's one of my favorite things to do. They're just plastic baggies of these Dixie cups inside, everyone gets to have the fun experience of solving equations explaining their answers, but then building a big Power Tower with those cups. But no one knows that some students are working on certain kinds of facts and other students. Other kinds of facts. I mean, I think that's so crucial. I would never want there to be a game that kids love to play. And any child being told, Oh, you can't play that yet. Honey, you're not ready for that. Yeah, absolutely not. That's absolutely not.
Melissa Milner 6:03
Yeah, that's really getting me thinking. Really getting me thinking, yeah, because we have very, like, wow, high, you know, math students and students that are just really working on foundational skills. And they all could be playing the same game. Yeah. I'm, I'm excited about this.
Dr. Nicki Newton 6:24
And so I think that brings us to a few. If we look at the research on games in mathematics, there's a couple of things I think we should talk about. One is a mathematical game has a few components. It's either a challenge against a task, or one or more opponents, there's a common task to be tackled, either individually or with others. It's governed by a set of rules. There's a clear structure. It's distinct start and finish. And it has a mathematical cognitive objective. To be a math game. That's Goldfield, 1991. There are different types of games. And I want to and will, we kind of think about this, as we're talking about all of our games, there are puzzle puzzle type games, games, to reinforce concepts, games, to practice skills, games, to stimulate discussion, games, to encourage the use of strategies, mental games, computer games, calculator games, collaborative games, and competitive games.
Melissa Milner 7:36
Wow.
Dr. Nicki Newton 7:37
And so again, from all I think it gives us a framework because, you know, all games are not created equal. And one of the things I argue of by Russeauu, Brag 2018. They said this, that, and, and I said some of this too, there's five principles in engagement. Students should be having fun and talking about math. And I love this because Ann Elise and I are always talking about this skill versus luck. There should be a good balance between just be like, you win, by the luck of the draw, it should be skill and luck. Principle three, mathematics is central to the game. And that four is that there are differentiation possibilities. And five, that there are that there is rigor. So oftentimes, we just put a game out there. And it's a level one A B, okay, level one. And we must think as educators, how do I apply the rigor in this game, and it's usually a very small tweak. So it could be as simple as we're gonna play War. And we're gonna pull out our multiplication tables, two times four, and four times four, we could flip that and say, We're gonna play War. But you are not, we're not gonna play War. We're gonna play sort, but you have to flip it. And then you have to say a fact that makes that amount. Right, that, that ups the level of rigor, it's just a simple twist. Yeah, but what's the level of rigor? So I, that's all I'll say, and then I'm going to hand it back over. Some things I think are important to frame the discussion.
Ann Elise Record 9:36
Absolutely. So I would love to begin with Birds and Worms. So Birds and Worms is either a card version or a dice version. I got both available and we'll share all these links with you, Melissa. So all the listeners will get access to all these materials. But...
Melissa Milner 9:54
Yes, and I'll put those on the web... the episode page.
Ann Elise Record 9:57
Perfect. So Birds and Worms is is ideal for the kids who kiddos who are making pairs that make 10. So on the the cubes or the cards, it's just the numbers up to up to 10. They use 10 dice or 10 cards where they, they roll them all out. And then they try to make the pairs that make a 10. So trying to find the six and the four and a seven and a three, and they pair them up. And then there also happened to be some birds and worms involved in the game, and you're pretending to make apple points. And if you happen to roll a worm, a worm will eat a point. So a worm will eat an apple. But if you roll a bird birds eat the worm. So you first find your pears that makes sense. But then you also deal with the birds and the worms to see what how many points, you actually can score on your turn. And then you can make up with the rules with the kids in terms of when the game ends, either the first one that gets to five points or a certain time limit, whoever has the most or even the least, you know, honestly, with games I like I have a dice that has three sides that say least and three sides that say most. And so I don't want kids becoming disengaged during the playing of the game. And so if we at the end, then find out who the winner is, you know, they don't buy the whole. We all win. We're all learning math today. They've got actual winners. So you know, just having them play the game fully engaged, but then roll the dice as you whoever has the most or least points could be the winner.
Melissa Milner 11:31
That's first takeaway. That least and most dice, I love that.
Dr. Nicki Newton 11:35
I love Birds and Worms. I played that... I take little wooden blocks, even though I told Ann Elise I wasn't going to do this. And so I made a card version. Because I was like, well, that's
Ann Elise Record 11:45
That's why you needed the card version.
Dr. Nicki Newton 11:46
I didn't know they would want to draw the birds and worms. But people like to draw the Birds and Worms. So I ended up going to Amazon ordering all those wooden dice and carrying them around with me from workshop to workshop. And everybody draws Birds and Worms.
Ann Elise Record 12:03
That's fantastic. I didn't know that that is awesome. I will comment on the Birds and Worms before we leave it. That Dr. Nicki mentioned the fraction version. So one of the really basic things we want kids to be able to do is to decompose numbers. And that starts in the primary grades with all the numbers up to 10. But it also repeats itself again when we begin like fractions and decimals. And so being able to decompose a hole into the pairs of numbers that make it up. The version of the game that I have is eight eighths. So all the numbers on the fractions on the dice are various combinations of eighths. So you have five eighths and three eighths makes eight eighths and six eighths and two eighths makes eight eighths. And you also could have definitely mentioned up the rigor where you know eight eighths makes a hole but 16 eighths makes two holes. So you can you can put in some dice that are greater than one and then if they make a 16, eights, they can do it. And then you can also toss in some halves and fourths when fifth graders are ready for different denominators, but just have sports Nate's right so I love these kinds of games that provide that following the kids through the grade levels on their math journey, as the numbers get more difficult is the same structure of the game, and they do not get tired of playing it. So absolutely love birds and worms for that. And I do also want to clarify that when I mentioned about the dice, it says most and least I use those dice when the game has luck. Like I can't control you know, the dice that come up on that show up. Or if I have like the Game of War, it is no fun when you keep taking my cards, right? I have no control over what cards I actually have. So those kinds of games now we can do a dice whoever has the most or least as a winner. But if the math is the engine of the game, as Dan Finkel says his YouTube video that includes his talking about the primary parts of math and mixes about games is one of the five elements is you got to everywhere. Everyone has to watch that TED Talk by hit by Dan Finkel, he mentioned, we want the math to be the engine of the games. Now you're developing strategy mathematically, there's no place for that to have a dice of whoever has the most least because you earned those points. You use the mathematics to earn those points. So want to make sure I just kind of clarify that about the most and least there.
Melissa Milner 14:27
Interesting.
Ann Elise Record 14:27
I also will add on to that Dr. Nicki mentioned the Game of War, one of my favorite games to jack up the rigor as well. So typically, kids turn over one card, they determine which one's larger that child gets both those cards. What if you mentioned Melissa, the subtraction it is the Achilles heel of all of our kids, that's because division isn't even a part of the conversation yet. That's even worse. But we're going to fix subtraction first, right? Yeah, but what if the child that has the larger card has to then say by how much It's larger there's is then the other partner like right there, right there, we're including subtraction in the game. And thinking a bit about, we can be removing the amount of the card or the distance between those two meanings of subtraction. So, and then work and graduate up to I'm turning over two cards, and I'm adding them, and who has the larger sum and by how much. And then we could be creating two two digit numbers or like the, it can get as rigorous as you want it to be, and then include multiplication in that as well. So but but just add a little extra, more is yours in mind, we don't tend to get comparison story problems in front of our students as often as the other types. Even we, as teachers don't think of them as often as the other types that usually involve action of things getting broken and eaten and given away. So just a little tweak can get that idea that subtraction, also is the distance between the two numbers. I think that's really fabulous.
Melissa Milner 15:59
Awesome.
Dr. Nicki Newton 16:00
All right. Well, I want to say, I want to talk about traditional games, because since we're talking about war, I like and I'm going to put all of these games kind of in one bucket. Bingo, War, Jeopardy, and Tic Tac Toe, just throw them all in. Because they're traditional games that you can mathematize. And so I love those kinds of games, because then kids don't have to remember rote they build that structure. So they just get started. And so I love those, I love Jeopardy Labs to enrich as millions of games already made, you can make more and you can go in and change games. And, you know, Jeopardy Labs is wonderful and engaging. I love Bingo Baker, because the same thing you go in and make any kind of game that you want make up a Bingo game. And then you know, Tic Tac Toe as a structure. And I tend to put like, six to nine mats. So kids play and then they just play again. All right, you want okay, play again. And then they play we play by, you know, whatever, subtraction, addition, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, all of it. And so those are some things around Bingo, Tic Tac Toe, Jeopardy. And War is the structure that is easy to access and get straight to them out. One of the things I want to mention is I have a new website coming out. And on that website, there is a section where you can download blank games, like Tic Tac Toe, and Bingo and Four in a Row. And so that's a good place to go. To well we'll put it in the link how to get there. But that's a good place to go to download the templates. Because what's important about especially those kinds of games, is that you want kids to create their own. You say, Oh, you're working on doubles, create by Tic Tac Toe Mats and play him out for homework, playing with your friend during workstation. Let's play it at the guided math group. So this idea that kids become then... my mentor, Heidi Hayes Jacobs used to always say, kids should be producers, not just consumers, we don't want them just consuming all of the stuff we're giving them, we need to empower them to produce, you make the game, you decide what you need to practice, and then you make the game to do that, that is very empowering for a child to be able to do that. That's great. I love that. And also for kids to be able to design board games, there's, there's some stuff out there, you know, if you Google, you'll see different teachers that made up different kinds of projects, where kids design their own board game. And it takes a lot of critical thinking, because you have to say, what the rules are going to be to your game, what the cards are going to be for your game, if there's dice what that dice looks like. And then there's a dice template, and they design it makes card templates, and they design the cards, there's a board game and they designed the game. That is a lot of math that you have to do to design the game. Right. So that's all I wanted to say about traditional games, and the opportunities they offer for thinking.
Ann Elise Record 19:12
I'm going to also add on you mentioned some card games there as well I love the typical game of Go Fish, only the twist is we're doing they say go 10. Where I'm going to ask you for the pair of the card that makes a 10 with my number. So again, the the foundational pairs that make 10 are so crucial. But I also think that all the numbers pairs of numbers that make them up up to 10 is really crucial not just the number 10 But all the numbers up to 10 because that skill, we need to be able to be flexible about breaking apart numbers and re associating them to make some 10s and nearest 10. So definitely love that go fish structure, but doing it as a Go Ten for our youngest kiddos. I really love taking cards and you place them facedown in a 10 frame And so a row of five, another row of five. So they're upside down, you can't see what the numbers are, you then pick pick up a card, this is called trash, or I've also heard it called garbage. And I have no idea why because it's a wonderful game, they pick up the top card, and whatever that card is, and there's no face cards in it is just the numbers one ace is one, and then you have up to 10, they place that card where it would appear. If they were to fill the 10 frame, left to right, top row and then bottom row. So upper left hand corner is number one, bottom right corner is the number 10. And then they place that card where that would go. And then they pick up the card that's there. And then place that card where it would go. And you keep going until you already have a card in that spot. And it can be now it's your turn to take your turn to do it. Or it can be a solitaire game, where they're just picking up the next card, placing it where it belongs on that 10 frame. And what I've heard from teachers is how much better their students are at stupid tising with 10 frames. Having played this game number one, they say the kids go don't get tired of playing this. And secondly, they have found that when they supertype is using 10 frames, because we're like, oh, that's eight, because they've done this trash game where the eight belongs in this spot. And so if you are then even solving a story problem of six plus two, and you end up having that 10 frame look like that eight that, you know, that's eight, it helps everything. So I love that game.
Melissa Milner 21:29
I love that.
Dr. Nicki Newton 21:30
One of the things I want to say about early childhood games is Number Path Games are what the research says that small children should be playing. So pre K and kindergarten specifically, a number path game is a straight game that goes from the top, you know, it goes from left to right, or vertically, right from the bottom up. And what the research says is number back games are ideal for small children. Because it teaches a lot of the key concepts of early numeracy that we want kids to know. It teaches them the order the sequence of numbers, it teaches them before and after. And so you say things when you're playing the game, like, Oh, where are you? Where's your partner? Is your partner ahead of you? Or are they behind you? Oh, where are you? How far are you from 10? How far have you come? What is the next number. And so it teaches kids to supertype, because they have the dice and they're rolling it and then they have to make the move. So there's all this stuff. But if you just Google Number Path Games, there are there's so much research on young children playing Number Path Games, and they have a bunch of them up there for free. They have tons of them up there for free. And they have them up there in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Melissa Milner 22:53
Wow.
Dr. Nicki Newton 22:53
And you also make them large scale. So like kids can play the Number Path Game as a human number on the human number one.
Melissa Milner 23:01
That's awesome. I love that.
Dr. Nicki Newton 23:03
So that's I think that's really important for our pre K and K teachers to understand that the research says kids should be playing Number Path Games.
Ann Elise Record 23:15
And I'm going to add and elaborate on that also that that's in place of number lines. Because number lines are an abstract tool and the kids end up it's a distance measurement versus the number path. And if those of you have not heard of a number path before because I hadn't this is you know, the early numeracy world 10 years ago was like a whole new world. For me. I'm like what's going on with this early numeracy, but it's it's amazing the expertise needed for all this. But it's essentially just like a hopscotch game where you have a rectangle with a number inside. So the quantity is in the rectangle in place of a number line where they have to hop from zero to one and one to two, sometimes the kids will land in the middle of two numbers that don't know what number to go to, or they're counting the zero on the number line. So the number pads are a preferred tool, that our paths are a preferred tool than number lines. And I would think even even in grade one a bit too. I think grade two is where we can kind of attach that to a number line now. But yeah, highly, highly recommend that.
Melissa Milner 24:15
Awesome.
Ann Elise Record 24:16
So I also I'm also gonna share what I'm thinking about our our youngest kiddos and building Fact Fluency, the decomposing numbers we do enough of. So I love the game Shut the Box. Now, I recently learned that this is being played in bars by adults. So There literally is no limit to the age of this game to play. But essentially what it is, is the numbers one to 10 and you're rolling two dice, and you have to shut down it's called Shut the Box because if you buy it as an actual game, there are these wooden slots that are the numbers one to 10 and then you roll the dice and you turn you really flip the two numbers down either To numbers on the dice, or the thumb, or any other two numbers that match that sum, and that's where the decomposing gets involved with the game is that if I already have put down a two, and I have like a four, well, what else can I do? Oh, the one of the three is available. And so that flexibility of the decomposing of the numbers. So crucial that we do that with all kids, could we use it again, and the upper elementary to multiply by doing different factors or partial products, we need that in place, we need it in place for every kid.
Melissa Milner 25:31
So we have a game, we have illustrative math or illustrative math. And they have a one of the center's is there's just a whole bunch of little boxes with numbers, and you put them in the plastic, so they can use the dry erase. And, you know, fill in a number. So you fill in for well, one, the ones already taken for the factors, but I could do any multiply. And you fill it in. And so it's factors and multiples. And so it's similar to that. But I like this Shut the Box.
Ann Elise Record 26:08
Yeah. You actually flip it down. And what it's designed to be is that it's in one person's one turn, if you can keep rolling and get down all those all those numbers, you get to literally shut the top of the box. That's why it's called Shut the Box. But I actually made it a paper version of this. So two people can play against each other. Where you're not shutting it's just piece of paper. And so you put your token on the numbers that you're choosing, and we take turns and then the game will be done once one of us fills in all the 10 on the sheet. But yeah, I'll provide you links to those as well. Melissa, get you a copy of that.
Melissa Milner 26:44
Yeah, that's great.
Dr. Nicki Newton 26:45
A game that I like or vocabulary is, besides Tic Tac Toe and board games is A Mile a Minute. So in A Mile a Minute. there's a Partner A and a Partner B. Then Partner B faces the clock, Partner A looks at the board. The teacher writes a word I'm like, there's four words, and then Partner A has to try to get Partner B, to guess all four words. They only have a minute. They're trying to come up with clues. And it's just very fun. And it gets kids into the vocabulary.
Melissa Milner 27:24
Isn't that um, that was a $20,000 pyramid. Sort of like that?
Dr. Nicki Newton 27:28
I guess so. Yeah.
Melissa Milner 27:30
Because you can't say the word.
Dr. Nicki Newton 27:32
You can't say the word
Melissa Milner 27:33
You have to give the clues or like Password even? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's cute.
Dr. Nicki Newton 27:37
It's a fun game. I think teachers need to play more games around vocabulary.
Ann Elise Record 27:44
So I'll add in here, one of my favorite games to do with vocabulary and I began playing it, you can play it with anything. But I began playing it because my fourth grade when I was a math coach, my fourth grade was beginning a geometry unit. But they were realizing that the kids had no idea of any of the geometry vocabulary. And I had been learning about a game called LCR. So I don't know if you've heard of this game, LCR. But it's, you buy a special dice, Amazon dollar store, LCR for left, right, and center. So on the dice are just L, R and C and the other three sides are just a dot. And what happens is, what I do is... I went to Granite State. Granite State has an amazing set of math vocabulary words, and so for free, so you could go on to any grade level, get the PDF, and you can choose what words you want to print out of the vocabulary words for math for the grade level. So I went onto the grade four set of words, and I found the geometry ones that I wanted. I then sorted the words by type because I was differentiating, what vocabulary words am I using for different groups of kids that are coming to see me. So again, that differentiation is really important. So I have a baggie full of the basic geometry terms of point in line and segment. But I also have classifying quadrilaterals in a different baggie. But it depends on what topic I was doing. And the kids I was working with, ya know, what happens is you hand out I usually did two cards per kid, they roll the number of dice that match the number of cards that they have. So I have two cards in front of me, I roll two dice. Now if it says L for left, then that card goes to the person on my left. But I added the mathematics to this by saying as I'm facilitating the game, I asked that child a question. So they can't take that from the original person until they've answered me a question. Now, I will tell you the word vertex is the most unknown vocabulary word in geometry. They didn't know the word vertex at the beginning of the game. But it's a teaching game. It's not a gotcha game. It's not a anyone who knows the vocabulary words is going to win the game. It's a teaching game. So if I have the word vertex, it gets past the person to my left. person to the left says I have no idea what that is. I say oh, it's that point where to lines and line segments come together. That's what that vertex is. Okay, they don't get the card. But they now have learned they've listened to definition, right. So it goes back to the original child. And then also similarly, it goes from a card, the person on their right, or if they've rolled the dots, they get to keep it. And if it's a secret sector, it leaves the game. So eventually, all the cards have left the game, except for the last card, and that is going to be who the winner is. But when you are out of cards, you are out of the game, because the person to your left or right can roll left and right. So they're constantly going round in a circle back and forth. And every time we're saying what the definition is, that's amazing. And I have been there, the kiddo to my right, we have defined vertex over and over again. And then the person like right to my right gets that card. And they're like, I don't know what this is. Other kids are like, we have said this. So it's a great way to to facilitate that vocabulary. I also play it with math facts, flashcards with math facts, but I'm always expecting them to share a strategy of how they would solve it. So even if they know what the math answer is, how would you help a friend who doesn't yet know it, and helping them to articulate good multiplication or addition strategies, whatever the flashcards are, so this, this game structure can work for anything, and not even just math. But I love doing it with the vocabulary words for geometry, and then you can do it with math facts, but it can be any thing at all. It's an adult game that usually is played with like scratch tickets or quarters or dollar bills.
Melissa Milner 31:41
So this sounds like a game that would be better for small group with the teacher.
Ann Elise Record 31:46
Oh, yes, you do not have the kids play independently. Yes. It's definitely a teacher facilitated game. Because the the cards that leave the game that were all Center are the easier words I take out. Yeah, they know a line. So it's in there to provide some confidence and get it in there. But if a child has a vertex and line and one has to leave the game, on pull in the line, because no one knows it. Right? So but I also can differentiate my questions. So if I have quadrilaterals, I could ask a student can you classify that in two different ways for me, but a different child, I can say any vertices are there, like I can differentiate my question to the students as we're playing the game. Oh, I love that LCR.
Melissa Milner 32:28
That's awesome.
Dr. Nicki Newton 32:29
That makes me think of what you said. I think it's an important point. I like to play games. I like collaborative games. I think there is value in competitive games, but I really like collaborative games. So I like Power Towers because it's they're not competing against each other. They're working together to build the tower. But even when I play games like Bizz Buzz Bang, we you know, where you have to get around the circle, you say the multiple. And so like, say we eventually the game gets to where you say? Well, if you say to you say this, if you say three you say buzz, if you say six, you have to say business bank or biz buzz. So key people mess up all the time. Yeah. And you're driving it around the circle. But I'd never put kids out. If you mess up. We've got to start over again until we can. And so I think that's really important when you're playing group games with kids. Because once you start eliminating kids, then you're asking for trouble. Yeah, right. So you've got to think of structures that keep all kids in the game. And everybody in the class engaged.
Ann Elise Record 33:39
You know and I think back on my own teaching, and I'm just you know, we do the best we can. Until you know more. And when you know more, you do better. Dr. Maya Angelou. I live by that all the time. So in my fifth grade classroom, my kids didn't know their facts. I knew nothing else to do with them. So we play the around the world game. reflect back on it is stressful. No, they're fast, are sitting down. First thing they're learning anymore from the other kids still play. And I am honoring and giving attention to the kids who have memorized their math facts. Like one way of thinking, oh my gosh, I just would never ever play that game ever the rest of my life, but I did it. I hear teaching thinking I was doing something good. It's like the kids that do the practice are the first ones out and they feel humiliated. What was I thinking?
Melissa Milner 34:29
We've all done it.
Dr. Nicki Newton 34:32
Yes. A couple of games I'd like us to talk about just very quickly are the Greg Tang games that are up and easy. I just want to talk about two of my favorites. Kakooma and Numbskill. So Kakooma is where you can pick all these different shapes but you have to find the two add ins that make the summer the two factors that make the product and there's an element of time but it's You know, it's, it's it's there. But the game is just really fun. I like Kakooma you can do the what I like about it is there's levels. So you can be on the beach in the sun or you can be at the volcano. And you pick the level of the game you want to play. And I like Numbskill. It's the same type of game, it's fact family game. So you choose the level you want to play. So you could say I want to play level three, four hands. So that means you have to go four rounds. And each round, you might have three hands that you have to find, and every family's but all the cards are different colors. So you have to find one of each color. So if I was going to do nine, I'd have to have a seven, that's a green, two, that's a red, and a nine, that's a yellow. And then I'd say, Oh, that's a fact family. But I couldn't use seven, red, to red, and then nine, green. And it all has to be a different color. Good family game. And you have to find like several for the hand that you're playing. So when you think you're done, you're not done. You just finished another round of four more sets. And you know, depending on what level so it's fun, it's engaging kids like it. I like to play it. Have kids play it, not only in workstations, but also as a class so we could talk about it and do it together.
Melissa Milner 36:36
So the Greg Tang, is that free?
Dr. Nicki Newton 36:41
Yeah, it's free. And you can download some of the sheets that go along with it. And yeah, I think they sell the games actually as well. I... like in cards.
Ann Elise Record 36:50
Okay, yeah, it's just tangmath.com. And it's my favorite site for kids to go on for fluency games. For games that build the skills, we want to build their fluency. I'll also add on to more of his games that I love. One is called Math Limbo. And that is again, decomposition of numbers. So and they again are level the different levels you can choose to do. But again, it's you're seeing images of like dice patterns, subitizing patterns, and you have to click on the ones the numbers on the right, for the sum. But again, the numbers are disappearing as you're doing different examples. So you have to think okay, what other numbers make a nine oh, right to that decomposition is embedded within the game. So love that one. And then 10 Frame Mania I think is pure gold. So the it begins with just a 10 frame, and numbers coming down a pipe. And the game will be done. If the first number in the lead gets to the very end of the pipe. But it goes pretty slow to start off with which is a timing element, but it's making the kids want to be more efficient. So on the 10 frame, they have to click to match the number that's in front. So let's say a four is in the front, I have to click 1, 2, 3, 4 on a timeframe and different pictures come up. In fact, I was on it last week with some students and with the Super Bowl cup, and we've had the Super Bowl and it was the Chiefs image of the football team. So they changed the images. But as these numbers are coming down, like the 3: 1, 2, 3, a 5: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, it makes you want to be more efficient. And so after the first round you... and he makes you earn it every time you earn the right to do it fast five. So now I've earned an unlocked that fast fives not by fours coming down the pipe, I can do a click to make all five in that row and click one to take it away. And now I've made four. So I'm building the number sense of a four is one less than five. And so really fabulous game and it goes up to having a 10 frame, the sixth level is a 10 frame has multiples of 10. And then the last 10 frame is the ones so it's not just like within 10 It graduates to within 20. And then you have a 10 frame with 10s on it. So you're having to think how can I compose 64 in an efficient way, I could do a fast 50 And then a 10 and then take away one, right? It's unbelievable. So fabulous, have a game. So I love love, love that game. And I do want to mention at this point, too, as we mentioned, these digital games that we need to reflect on what games our students are playing online. Because if the math that they're doing is the the on fun part to unlock what they think is the fun part of the game, like shooting aliens from the sky or whatever they're doing is sending the wrong message. We want the math to be the fun part. So if we think about the games kids are playing, I would ask educators to reflect on the game they're playing. What is the math? Is it the math fact in a cloud coming across the sky that they have to do to then be able to jump higher? Because if it is yeah, I'm sorry. that's sending the wrong message.
Melissa Milner 40:01
A lot of them are like that.
Ann Elise Record 40:03
Yeah, I don't like those, which is why my number one site is Greg Tang, they this is the math and the math is the game. Yeah, it's not the extra element. So...
Melissa Milner 40:14
Great point. Great point.
Dr. Nicki Newton 40:16
Another game, I like. Well I'm gonna name two more card games. Salute, right? I love Salute. Where it's a missing addend game, you can do it for addition or missing factor game, you have three cards, one person's a captain, the other two people hold up the card, the captain says what the sum is. And I can see my partners, but I can't see mine. So I have to figure out if the captain says it's nine. My partner has a seven, then I know I must have a two back to say that before my partner says. And so I love that game kids love that game you could...
Melissa Milner 40:58
Do they have to salute?
Dr. Nicki Newton 40:59
Well, when when make people play lots of ways, I play it where the captain says salute, and they would make the captain said salute. They have to hold it up. But people play in different ways. Kids love that game, everybody gets to go around and be the captain. So you know, you have to have scaffolds because sometimes the captain doesn't know what the sum is. Or the product, basically the product. So you have to, you know, I have some scaffolds in there. But the kids love the game.
Ann Elise Record 41:35
And I love tweaking that. Also similar thinking about the car being on the forehead, you can do that with double and having so many of our students don't recognize half facts. So if it's 16 minus eight, they're counting back eight because they don't wreck it even though they know eight plus eight is 16. They have not connected yet the subtraction fact. So if I put a card in front of my head that isn't eight, you would tell me 16 I have to say you doubled my card. Now I'm gonna think of it what's half of 16? Eight. And I can see with the immediate feedback on my card if I'm right, so you have had kids have a handful of cards in their pocket, and then walking around games, different partners and just giving them the double fact they got to say what their half factors. So yeah, that's, that's so fun. You could square it as well. multiplications square and square root.
Melissa Milner 42:21
Fun, I love that.
Dr. Nicki Newton 42:23
One of the things I do is I flip it. So I'll have the kids turn their backs to each other. Instead of looking at their partners, they look at theirs. And then they have to guess what their partner has. Right. So we'll do face to face and then back to back. I also like concentration games where you have either they're matching up two things, three things or four things. And you know, Jo Boaler on her site has those examples of concentration like by multiplication. But so one of the cards might be an expression, one of the cards might be the product, one of the cards might be repeated addition, and one of the cards might be the model of an array, roots or something. And then it gets up to find. So kids can play at different levels. Some kids are looking for one match, some kids are looking for juice, some kids are looking for all four. I like concentration games like that, because you can do it with so much stuff. And it's reinforcing a lot of different skills.
Ann Elise Record 43:29
Yeah, and I mentioned there too, that it makes me think of the Granite State website of those vocabulary words, that when you get the vocabulary word, the papers cut in thirds, the top is just the word. The middle is the word and a picture. And the bottom is the word, a picture and a definition. So you could be again playing that concentration game with vocabulary words, matching it to his definition and a picture. Yep, I love that looks great. I want to mention one really favorite game of mine, which is called Race to 100. But you also can play it as Race to Zero if you're thinking of subtraction, but I will add it's taken me this long to mention them... my cuisenaire rods,
Melissa Milner 44:10
There it is. There it is.
Ann Elise Record 44:14
You can't see Dr. Nicki but she's shaking her head. Because I want you to imagine this, imagine that there is a 100 chart, but that the size of cuisenaire rods, right so cuisenaire rods if you don't know what they are, they are color coded by the length of them. So the numbers exist as a unit. So there's there's a rod that is worth eight units. So imagine I roll a 10 sided dice and I roll an eight, I would place that eight rod on the first row of the hundreds chart, right so I'm now seeing in that row, there's still nine and attend to go. I then roll the dice again and I get a four. What I have to do is I have to transfer that four into two rods, the amount to get to 10 and the amount that the above the 10. So I would trade that I would make up Four out of two and two. So on the top row, you now have an eight rod and a two rod. But then the other two is down below. Now I'm on 12. So I've added four to eight, but I it's forcing the children to do the bridge 10 strategy, and seeing the model of the cuisenaire rods to do that, and the same thing can be done, starting with the 100 going down to zero. Now I'm at 92, and then removing six, well, it's two to get to 90, and then four more. What's so I just I love that combination.
Melissa Milner 45:31
That's great for mental... getting them ready for mental math with friendly numbers. Yeah.
Ann Elise Record 45:35
Absolutely. And they can also be recording that on, let's say, open number line, as that concrete, seeing that image of that, and now we can now record it pictorially the amount to get to nearest 10. So I'm jumping in chunks, and I'm not counting one by one. So... love that.
Dr. Nicki Newton 45:53
I will give you that. I mean, you could play games with the beat number line, but we won't have this conversation right?
Ann Elise Record 45:59
Oh, you, you absolutely... you absolutely could. There's a woman on Twitter who I adore, Mrs. Unsworth, who had actually invented a relational rod tray, which is the it's a raised up trait of the hundreds chart. And she has the background to be the one to 100 are the ones in the upper left hand corner. But also one bottom left hand corner, the flipping of the hundreds chart. This is an article by Fletcher and Bay-Williams about flipping the hundreds chart. And so she has those those backgrounds, and they are the size of the cuisenaire rods. So cuisenaire rods are a trademarked item by the company hand to mind. So she couldn't call them cuisenaire rod trays. So they're called relational rod trays, you can get those on, they're an excellent thing to have for this game. And she has a write up of playing this game close to 100. I also made that game within brainon camp. So if anyone uses training camp, I do have a share code of that game. If the kids don't have cuisenaire rods, every child, your kids can play it within Brainingcamp. And you can get like a free version of Brainingcamp. But you also can pay for your school for access for the whole school. But just let you know that you don't have Brainingcamp, you can get a share code for that game as well. So I love that Race to 100.
Dr. Nicki Newton 47:16
I want to mention two more games. I only have four more on my list, but the last... but these two the game 24. I love that game. I mean, everybody knows that game, you can just Google the game 24 I like the Cool Math. digital version, although it takes a while to load sometimes. And if you go Navajo Cards, the bunch of the cards will come up I don't know if why they're called Navajo Cards. That's how I find them sometimes by googling that, but even just Google 24 game, right. And I love the version for little people like addition, and so forth. But I love that game. And the game is that you give people four numbers and they have to figure out how to make 24 by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. And then I also love the game Face Off where you have two, you have two number paths and they have numbers, but they're not necessarily in sequence. So say we're playing doubles, I would have the sums of double facts from say, two to 20. My partner has the same thing. And we're, we're facing off. So my number line is facing me. And they're numb, it's a really a number path is facing them. And then we roll the dice and say, I get a 12 I get... I get six plus six. And I can cover a 12 You can do it either way you play sums or expressions, and I cover that. And then my partner comes in whoever covers their side of the board first wins. But you can do it for anything. You could do it for doubles, or make den or whatever. And so I really really liked that game and kids stay engaged even though it's a competitive game. They stay in get engaged. And they both are working with the same set of facts. So it's that reinforcement, right? So those are two more games that I really like, 24 and Face Off.
Dr. Nicki Newton 49:26
Does Face Off have... like, is there access to that digitally? Or is it more just...
Dr. Nicki Newton 49:33
I don't know. You know, I don't know. I think Math Wire has a version of it. But I'm not sure.
Melissa Milner 49:41
Yeah.
Dr. Nicki Newton 49:41
But its easy to make.
Melissa Milner 49:43
Very cute.
Ann Elise Record 49:44
I'm gonna mention my favorite multiplication game. And I see a lot in different places called like the Product Game or the Multiplication Game. So it's a pretty popular one but it's a game board is just a printout of all the multiples of the factors. one through nine, and one each. And then the goal is try to get three or four in a row, depending on how you want to play the game, horizontally, diagonally or vertically. So you have imagined like a rectangle game board, and you have the different products. Down below are the factors one to nine. And so the first person has to roll a dice to generate one of the numbers, we get to choose the other factor. But what I love about it is that when I choose that, the number that I choose, I am giving that to my partner, a partner has to use that in their next turn, is such a phenomenal strategy game, because you're going to be thinking not only have yourself to get three in a row, but you don't want to be unaware to give them a factor that they could then use to win the game.
Melissa Milner 50:44
Yeah.
Ann Elise Record 50:44
It's so much good thinking,
Melissa Milner 50:47
I think we use a paper clip you use, you put a paper clip, and then exactly, they can move one of the paper, there's two paper clips, they can only move one of the paper clips.
Ann Elise Record 50:55
Right. And the way that I play it is you don't have a choice of one paper clip. It's whatever factor your partner is choosing. Because now as a player, I'm mindful of a factor that gets me a spot to win or to block my partner. But I had to be aware of the numbers I'm giving to not let them then because I could use a factor to win a spot for me, but I've given them a factor, they can then win. So it takes so I like I like that way better, much better. And I did create three different versions of it. Because again, I don't want there to be a game that certain kids can't play. And I don't want kids playing that game, if they don't know all of their math facts, if all the math facts are on the game board. So what I did is I created a version of it for foundational facts. So our first level of fact, fluency modification, based on of course, Nicki Newton's math running records, the layout of the progression, the fives, 10s, twos, right, these are foundational facts and ones are on the first game board. So they're only multiples of 2, 5, 10, and 1s. The next game board I have is related doubles. So twos, fours and eights. And then you have the regular have all the rest of the facts. So if we can just find out the zone that children are in have their foundational facts, the related doubles, and then the all of them, then at least we can be differentiating that it's a great game for parents to play at home with their kids, right? Because that's in a realm that our parents can feel comfortable. The math we're exploring now are in ways they're not familiar with, it sends them back that frustration of their childhood of feeling like they're not successful at math. But the math facts is an area parents can be comfortable in. So let's help the parents play the games with the kids to get the purposeful practice of their Fact Fluency. And having them enjoy in positive ways and help us fix the math fact problem. The kids don't know their math facts, right. So love, love that game. And I'll share with you the link of the different versions of the game as well.
Dr. Nicki Newton 52:55
Well, I mean, I think that brings up a good point of games as homework. Instead of terrorizing children with worksheets, you can use game boards, as you say, Oh, your child's working on their doubles. Here's a set of visual flashcards to support that, as well as a game board. And then, you know, write down every night like they keep a game record. Tonight we play this. These are some facts that I learned to solve or whatever. And then they turn it back in like a week later.
Ann Elise Record 53:31
I also love there's a website called myjustrightnumber.com, which is a woman I saw it at a Title One Conference years ago. But it's basically finding out what is the child's just right number to decompose the numbers. So you begin by doing a hiding assessment where you take out, let's say, four cubes, and the child can count how many are there and then you have them look away and you hide some under a cup with a turn around that, okay, there are still four cubes there. But you're looking at two, so how many must be under the cup? And then if they know that it's two, then you try hiding three under the cup or one under the cup and get a sense of do they know all the pairs that make up before and if they do, let's add one more cube. Let's try the five. If they know that pairs, then we go to six to find what number up to 10. They don't know all the pairs have and now tell a parent, your child not only is working on a certain set of facts, but also their decomposition of a number the retina the number six. So if they're eating dinner at night and having green beans on their plate and there are six, like play a little hiding game with them, right so the the decomposing piece is just so crucial to everything else that follows we need that to be yes. So having parents be engaged in that would help so so much.
Melissa Milner 54:43
It's fantastic.
Ann Elise Record 54:44
Yeah.
Dr. Nicki Newton 54:45
I have two last games one is Bump because that's just fun.
Dr. Nicki Newton 54:49
What is it called?
Dr. Nicki Newton 54:50
It's called Bump. You know the game. It's a board game but kids have to roll and then they get to capture a spot but, but if their partner rolls they can kick them off and then, but if they have to have their pieces on that spot the nail in that spot, and whoever, you know people play in different ways, whoever gets rid of all their pieces first or whoever gets four in a row or right, whoever covers most on the board, the kids like that game, the idea that I could bump you off, right. So I like that because it's flexible, but it's structured. And then I love "I Love Math" so which is a hand game, and you play it like Rock Paper, Scissors. Only you say I love math. And then you have to throw out a number. And whoever says the sum first wins. But it's what Marzano calls an inconsequential when you just you win, but you keep playing if you win. And so you can do it for multiplication and or addition. Kids love that game, they get really loud. So I say you have to whisper. You have to whisper. But...
Melissa Milner 55:55
Is that like a group of three or four, so one person does it and says it and there's two or three.
Dr. Nicki Newton 56:02
No, they know they did it all together. So they go "I love math" together. And then throw out a number whatever number with little people, I only let them throw out one hand so that they're adding within. And with third graders at the beginning of the year, they can only after out one hand, because I would have been five. And then later on, they can do two hands because then they're adding within 20 If there's two, but later on in third grade, you can I mean in first grade you can throw out, you can have three people that throughout one hand, right. And then in second grade, you can have three people or three people that are out two hands. And so it just gets kids love it. They love that game when people do all kinds of virgins on it. But that is one of my number one games because it's quick, it's easy. It's accessible, kids never tired of it. And when I haven't played I only let him play for like two or three minutes. It's okay, we're done now.
Ann Elise Record 57:02
Awesome. I have a few few more things I wanted to share. One is a game called Kaboom, which is on like tongue depressors, you would write the expressions, but again, any operation, any sort of strategy, so what I do is I make the examples in each strategy zone and put them in their own plastic baggies. So again, I know what expressions are going in that cup, but no one else knows what's going in that cup. And so if let's say we do multiplication, and all my students are working on their times eight facts, I'll toss something in the baggie of times four times two times five to keep those practiced. But all the times eights go in the cup. But what happens is we take turns around a circle pulling out a stick, and solving this question explaining our thinking if we get it right, we get to keep the stick. But we also have put in the cup, somewhere number usually I do three KaBoom sticks. If I pull out a stick that says kaboom, all the sticks I've collected, go back in the cup.
Melissa Milner 57:58
Ah!
Dr. Nicki Newton 58:00
Yeah, it's fun.
Ann Elise Record 58:01
Except that the Boomstick the booster can't go back in the cup, because the game is going to be done when the last KaBoom stick has been taken out. The kids love that game. But again, I love how it can be for any of the four operations, any of the strategy zones within those differentiated to the needs of the kids. And that's one that I would, you know, roll the dice for the winner or the loser because it's random luck, who gets the KaBoom stick and loses their sticks. So there's that one. I do want to put a little plug in for the Kentucky Center from Mathematics, Jennifer Bay- Williams and Gina Cling have a fabulous book called math... Math Fact Games, it has a purple cover. And they have like over 60 game ideas in that and when... over the pandemic, Jenny teaches in in Kentucky at the University. And so the Kentucky Center for Math, created a companion website for that book. And they they created about 40% of those games to be Jamboard, or to print out in print on a print version of it. So one of their games that I love is Lucky 13 where your goal is to get as close to 13 as you can with two of the cards in your hand. So regular cards, take out the face cards, I would also take out the 10 and make it be up one to nine. And then you've got to find two cards in your hand that get as close to 13 as you can. So again helping them bridge that 10 And you can go over the 13 I could do seven and seven making the 14 So I'm one away
Melissa Milner 59:30
So it's not Price is Right rules. Okay, you can go over. Okay.
Ann Elise Record 59:34
Yeah, so that's just one example of a game in their book that's on the Kentucky site. So Kentucky Center for Math has the companion site but also another site with a ton of games of structure within five and they're fantastic. So Greg Tang's site and this Kentucky Center for math, I think are the two fabulous ones for that. And then I just want to kind of wrap up and toss out a few games that you can buy that are among my favorite games that you can purchase. I mean, obviously, there are tons of them. But I just want to mention, Dan Finkel is just a brilliant he and his wife, I believe, have created several phenomenal games that have won awards and stuff for the youngest kiddos is called Tiny Polka Dot. And there are sets of cards in the decks that are different super tising patterns of circles that are larger and smaller, or they're different colors, or they're on a 10 frame. So you can be playing all kinds of games, these young learners have the numbers up to 10. And these variety representations love that game I also love. He has a set called multiplication by heart, which is like flashcards with visual images. But he also created or they created, their site is called math for love. They also created a game called Prime Climb. And Prime Climb is phenomenal for multiplication. Well, you can use all four operations, but it has color coding of the numbers in the game board, I am not going to share what the color coding is like I want people to go and check it out and try to figure out for themselves how the numbers one to 100 are color coded. Fabulous, fabulous game for upper elementary kids. And I also want to mention, I'm Becky Duprey. She's a wonderful creative person and a sweetheart of a woman. But she created a game that Didax now sells is called Sum It Up. So Sum It Up. And the there are two versions of the game you're trying out like a crossword puzzle, you're trying to put down numbers in a row horizontally or diagonally, that make up the sums of 10, 20, 100. Or other versions of the game is fractions, decimals and integers. So if you're trying to create these benchmark numbers from numbers, and she invented this game, and then Didax turned it into one that they actually mass produce and sell. So I just adore I adore Becky but I also love particularly about her game as well.
Melissa Milner 1:01:57
Wow.
Ann Elise Record 1:01:58
This this is like the who's who of games, isn't it? This is a lot of game suggestions.
Melissa Milner 1:02:04
Amazing. Oh, did you find a Dr. Nicki?
Ann Elise Record 1:02:08
Ah... that's her new website that's coming out.
Melissa Milner 1:02:11
So when is it coming out? Dr. Nicki, when when when?
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:02:15
In two weeks, by March 1st it'll be live.
Melissa Milner 1:02:18
So it is www.mathfactfluencyplayground.com. And it is amazing. Dr. Nicki was showing me before we started recording. Yikes. Everything's in there.
Ann Elise Record 1:02:37
It's a game changer.
Melissa Milner 1:02:38
There's free. There's Yeah. And there's free options. But there's also like a paid... you want to explain that. Dr. Nicki?
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:02:46
Yeah, I think everybody should have access. And so there's a bunch of free stuff. And then there's a paid membership. And then there's a VIP membership, where you get all the workstations there's like, almost 80 workstations that you get with the VIP membership. And then there's school subscriptions.
Melissa Milner 1:03:05
Amazing. But you can search by... she showed me showing you could search by topic. You could search by grade level, you could search by all these different standards. Was it standards? I can't remember. Yeah. No.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:03:18
Not standards, but there's just a bunch of stuff up there. There's just it's I'm so excited. Can't wait.
Ann Elise Record 1:03:25
And they're beautiful. It's colorful and beautiful. So engaging. And oh my gosh, incredible. So exciting.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:03:32
Really excited.
Melissa Milner 1:03:33
So anything else you want to plug? Books?
Ann Elise Record 1:03:36
Well, we have our book.
Ann Elise Record 1:03:39
Well, this is true.
Ann Elise Record 1:03:41
Yes. Dr. Nikki and I and Dr. Allison Mello have yet again, working on another book. So our first book was on the addition and subtraction math fact fluency called Fluency Doesn't Just Happen.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:03:51
Yeah.
Ann Elise Record 1:03:52
And now our multiplication and division book should be out this year in print. Super exciting.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:03:58
And I have a book.
Melissa Milner 1:04:01
Yes.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:04:02
Along with these beautiful people. I have a book called Accelerating K-8 Math Instruction, about acceleration. Because I think people are wrestling with how do we accelerate rather than remediate for math intervention? And to address the needs of kids?
Melissa Milner 1:04:20
Can you explain the difference between accelerate and remediate?
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:04:23
Well, I think Rollins puts it best, Rollins 2014 said, instead of dragging kids through fields of unknown material, you target and focus so that they can learn on grade level. She says because we spent all year long, dragging kids through fields of everything that they ever should have known in their life...
Melissa Milner 1:04:47
like foundational...
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:04:47
and then we say, why aren't they working on grade level? I think I think that's really well put.
Melissa Milner 1:04:56
So there's a way of...of accelerating even if they don't have the foundational...
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:05:02
Yes, and it's about targeting what so for example, say we're playing game when using games to play. If you have a second grader, a third grader who cannot add within 100, and you're trying to teach strategies, then you would go back to the strategies that are relevant for adding and subtracting within money. So if I want kids to know, if you have 29 plus 54, and you just make it 30 plus 53. I want they need to be able to do that when nine plus four Yeah, so you so that intervention would be to go back and teach that and then scale it up to the grade level standard. But what we tend to do, I mean, my friend, I think I said this beautifully. She was like, I teach fifth grade, and we're doing multiplication of fractions. But in intervention, my kids are learning how to subtract. And it has nothing to do with what we're doing. So they come back, and they're, they are just lost in the intervention to now. And so if you're going from an acceleration perspective, you would ask, "What do the children need to be doing an intervention so that they have access to the grade level material." And if they're working on addition of fractions, then they would be doing stuff to scaffold kids doing grade level material.
Melissa Milner 1:06:34
Right.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:06:34
So I mean, I think acceleration really is a game changer. But I think a lot of people it's confusing because what they've done is repurposed a term that everybody is familiar with as being one thing. So when people hear acceleration, oftentimes they're like, acceleration is teaching fifth grade or seventh grade math, but that's not what the learning recovery acceleration terminology is. So I wrote a book on it.
Melissa Milner 1:07:00
She did. She did, she persisted. No, just kidding...
Ann Elise Record 1:07:04
It's available for pre order on Amazon. I pre ordered my last night.
Melissa Milner 1:07:08
This was just a nice... This is amazing. Incredible. I could do this every night with you guys. I'm telling you.
Dr. Nicki Newton 1:07:15
Well, thank you. It's very kind of you to ask us back.
Ann Elise Record 1:07:18
Yes, just love it.
Melissa Milner 1:07:20
For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.