What do you mean, add?

Really, how hard can it be to teach Kindergarten or First Grade Math?  Everyone can figure out 1 + 1, 2 + 2, 3 + 5, right?  Let’s say that you are going to introduce your first math lesson to a group of bright, shiny children.  You sit them all down on the rug and you write an equation on the board.  Rather than solving the problem for the students, you want to have some interaction, so you say “who knows how to add 2 plus 2” and ask for quiet hands.  It is apparent that several of the children are eager to share their answers with you.  They are waving their hands frantically and moving from a seated position to one where they have one knee on the floor and one foot on the floor.  They are doing their best not to say “I know, I know!” but their audible breathing and squeaks of excitement are good indicators that they are hoping you call on them.  You look around and call on one of the children whose hand is raised but their face seems to indicate that they might have a question instead of an answer.  The student says “What do you mean, add?”  How do you respond to this?  What language do you use? 

Some of your students may have had two years of Montessori or pre-school before coming into your class.  Others may have been fortunate enough to have been at an in-home daycare with someone whose sole mission in life was to keep the children in their charge safe, happy & healthy.  They may or may not have had exposure to early math skills.  You may be guiding them into a whole new world.  Imagine that you are trying to explain this concept to a child who has is not familiar with “plus” or “combine”.  You don’t just stand there writing equations on the board hoping that with enough repetition the concept will sink in.  You are a teacher.  You call on your training and your classroom experience.  You come up with a creative way for the whole class to explore addition through pictures.  You create a stick drawing of a tree with two birds.  You write the number 2.  Then you explain that two more birds come.  You write the “+” sign and another 2.  Now how many birds are there?  You count the birds out loud with the whole class.  You write the number 4 under your equation.  You continue with more drawings or possibly manipulatives and then you guide them into the forming the equations and eventually solving them. 

Simple enough?  There are 28 children in your class.  How do you keep the lesson challenging enough for the children who learned these concepts last year or have been doing math workbooks at home?  How do you reach out to the students who don’t have the language skills to understand what you were saying while you drew your pictures?  How do you make sure that all 28 of them “get it” in the 37 minutes that you have to devote to your math lesson today, because you have other curriculum points that you must cover?  What if one of those children who was anxiously raising their hand simply needed to go potty and was so distracted that they did not even hear your question much less how to come up with the answer?  You are a teacher.  You have been through some rigorous training and you have skills for adapting your lessons for different types of learners.  You pay close attention to each of your students and you know the signs that what you just did/said/drew connected with someone who didn’t “get it” before.  You are undaunted by the fact that next year you might be teaching 2^nd Grade and exploring addition and subtraction of triple digit numbers; identifying different types of quadrilaterals; and discussing the differences between slides, flips, and rotations of geometric shapes.  And that’s just math.  You are also responsible for helping these children learn to read and write, become problem solvers, develop social skills to perform effectively in their school community and beyond, and hopefully create some fabulous art.  It’s never as simple as just knowing how to solve 2 + 2.