Did anyone else learn "Dot Math" growing up? If not, how were you taught to add and subtract?
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Anonymous
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When I was in elementary school, I learned basic math that each number had a dot on it and that's how you add and subtract - by counting up or taking away the dots. Many years later, I still do it that way. I thought that's how everyone was taught but learned later it was some type of new math my school district tried for a while. Anyone else familiar with it?
The reason I'm asking is that my preschooler is showing interest in basic math and I'd like to gently encourage that. But if dot math is a bad way to teach math, I don't want to get that in her head. How else were people taught adding and subtracting numbers? Pure memorization? Thanks! |
Anonymous
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OMG! Yes! It was called "Touch Math" right? Anyway, my mother claims that I could add and subtract just fine before I was introduced to this method in 2nd grade. After that, I became very dependent on touching out the dots with my pencil. It ultimately slowed down my arithmetic skills, which frustrated me and affected my motivation in math. I won't blame all of my math problems on touch math but I certainly don't think it did anything to strengthen my natural inclination to just add and subtract in my head.
I learned it back in 1982, by the way. I really hope they aren't reintroducing it in schools now! |
Anonymous
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I honestly don't remember how I was taught addition and subtraction.
I taught my daughters by having them tell me how many of something they had....3 strawberries. Then I'd say..ok here are 2 more strawberries...how many do you have now, and they would count 5 strawberries. And I'd say 3 plus 2 is 5. Same thing in reverse by eating the strawberries (or whatever) to learn subtraction. |
Anonymous
| No, but that sounds like a terrible idea. |
Anonymous
I'm the PP who learned touch math. To reiterate what another poster said, I have taught my two kids to add and subtract using manipulatives and an old fashioned bead abacus. These have been very helpful in getting them to visualize adding and subtracting numbers (objects). I then downloaded a math bingo game to my iphone that tests their memorization of simple addition problems (5+2=?), which has also helped. |
Anonymous
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You learned New Math--not just your school but the whole country was doing it, but only for a very short period in the 70s.
Love this article on it: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1529/what-exactly-was-the-new-math That said, as a former first grade teacher, I actually am a proponent of whole math for preschoolers and early elementary students (less so for older students, but by then your child will be in school and the district will choose the teaching philosophy). The basic concept of whole math is to put math into the context of real-world situations--word problems, puzzles, real-world applications, etc. So "math" for a preschooler could be puzzles ("we have three cookies but there are only two of us! What do you think would be a fair way to divide them?") or cooking (measuring is a great way for young children to begin to grasp number theory--try to pick recipes with ingredients your child can easily measure without disasters if it spills). I'm guessing most parents today were taught traditional math (one of two approaches to paper-based math--line up the numbers based on place value, carry the ones, etc.) with a few, like you, learning dot math and number bases. The former is still taught in some areas; the latter not at all. |
Anonymous
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Op here -- Ok, sounds like pure memorization is the way to go.
Yes, "Touch Math" sounds identical to "Dot Math" -- would've been 1982/83 for me too! I was terrible in math (still am) and I still rely on the damn dots. I never thought to blame dot math, just thought it was me. I will officially stay away from teaching them to my kids! |
Anonymous
What?? No no no! Read all the responses. No one is suggesting flash cards and memorization. Manipulatives are great, as are word puzzles or counting fruit or whatever. Anything *but* rote memorization! (Well, and dots...) |
Anonymous
Not growing up in this country. Why would pure memorization be the best way to learn addition and substraction? That sounds really horrible. My colleague told me that in his son AAP class, he is required to memorize 6+7=13. That is so weird to me. How many things you need to memorize if this is how math is taught in this country? |
Anonymous
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OP again -- Sorry, didn't mean I'd be drilling my kids with math memorization. But when it comes down to it, manipulatives, etc. are all about memorization just in more interesting ways. For example, if you don't have an abacus in front of you, how do you know that 3+2=5 -- I would guess b/c you used the abacus so many times, that answer was memorized.
Whereas the dots (at least in my experience) weren't about memorizing that 3+2=5, but about counting three dots, then counting two more dots and getting to 5. There's a reason I was an English major!! 
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Anonymous
| 14:13 -- So how do you know that 6+7=13 if it's not memorized? |
Anonymous
You should learn to do this both through manipulatives and through memorization. If I did not just "know" that 6+7=13 and 5+7=12 etc, I would have to actually go through a process every time I added anything, which would slow me down considerably and be very distracting when I just need to use the information as part of a larger problem. Although I agree that you need to have an understanding of how addition works, if you don't memorize the basic single digit computations, you will be extremely limited in how freely you can apply your skills going forward. |
Anonymous
PP who was a first grade teacher--no, this isn't it at all. Manipulatives are about building number sense. Children aren't memorizing number combinations; they are learning how to represent numbers in different ways and how to compare them. As they make sense of this, then they begin to explore operations like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. But they don't learn that from repeatedly doing the same problem on an abacus. If I have time later I can look and see if there are some good examples of preschool activities to foster number sense that might be helpful to you. |
Anonymous
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There's got to be some rote memorization of the fundamentals of math. But real-life problems like what the PP teacher suggested are great, too, to give it more dimension. Doing both is an excellent foundation.
FWIW, we did flash cards only, even though I was definitely part of the "new math" generation. |
Anonymous
| Born in '74 and STILL use the dot method for arithmetic. It's ludicrous, but it's the only way that I can add properly. |