Why Stories Matter in the Math Classroom – Discussion

[Simonay Hudson]

My interpretation of what was meant in saying stories matter:

Being intrigued, and wanting to explore is beautiful (choose books/stories which tell real stories, which are inspirational, in which the children might see themselves, in which discussion can be opened around ‘what does a mathematician look like, do, act like?’, ‘what are their characteristics’, ‘what counts as doing math?’…)

Biggest take aways:

“Math is thought about, discovered, written down, discussed, learned and loved by human beings” the central question of maths is “what if” which is also the central question of stories

break away from just the author telling the story, talk about the images, familiarize, bring in your own story, let a student bring in their own story

if you are going to introduce a story, pick a moment that is a beginning I.e., start of a week/month/year, start of a unit/chapter (it is when you have that energy to do something amazing)