First We Understand - Visual Algebra 7-12

Have you ever seen the T-shirt that says "I used to be good at Math, until they brought the Alphabet into it"? We know that kids learn new ideas using the old C-R-A framework, building concrete, visual understandings, learning to think symbolically about them, and finally working with them by manipulating those symbols and ideas abstractly. The problem is, at some point, we stop teaching it that way. At some point, math becomes a race to use algorithms, to apply formulas, to follow rules, to show your work, and to try mightily to avoid those costly 'stupid' mistakes... It doesn't have to be that way. As we move from more concrete to more abstract, for our learners to keep up with the shifts, they must do more than blindly try to match the ‘right’ algorithms and solution methods to the 'right' problems … … But First, we Understand