Tag Archives: Lessons

Squares of Differences II: Changing Direction

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Dan

[Note: this is a continuation to the first Squares of Differences post. Read that before continuing.] A week after introducing her class to squares of differences (see  for the first post on this lesson), one of Katherine’s students walked in … Continue reading →

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Squares of Differences: subtraction practice toward a greater purpose

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Dan

Here is a phenomenal lesson, accessible to any child who knows how to subtract, and compelling to everyone, up to and including professional mathematicians. Get a kid engaged in it, and they’ll do hundreds of subtraction problems without complaint, because … Continue reading →

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Problems on the Board II: Simplify!

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Dan

I asked a pair of girls (age 8 and 9) I tutor to ask questions about the chessboard, and got another really great lesson out of it, this one highlighting the importance of making things simple. With a little prompting, … Continue reading →

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Murder on Gilligan’s Island

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Dan

I went to a linguistics lecture in college to hear a speaker talk about how they had written Dr. Seuss type books for kids. One gem from that talk that always stayed with me is that there are three topics … Continue reading →

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