The
Rationale for Using a Storytelling Context to 
Teach Mathematics to Young Children
The material below was excerpted from Casey (2003), an article
in the book, Engaging young children in mathematics:
Results of the conference on standards for pre-school and kindergarten mathematics
education.
“Most of the prior mathematics programs that
have attempted to use "relevant" and "real world" mathematics
activities have drawn on problems that are connected to children in their
everyday life (such as counting the number of children who are standing in
line or using the calendar to teach counting). Though these are useful and
effective strategies, much of what is lacking is the ability to locate a problem
in a relevant context that is rich enough in its dramatic elements --elements
such as character development, plot, surprise, conflict, and suspense -- so
that the child is substantially drawn into this context. This is one way that
literature can effectively forge a link with mathematics. Literature is a
powerful medium for placing mathematics in a meaningful context, and there
has been a movement to incorporate mathematics and literature in recent years
(Braddon, Hall, & Taylor, 1993; Coombs & Harcourt, 1986; Schiro, 1997;
Sherrill, 1994; Welchman-Tischler, 1992).”
“This series extends the literacy-based
approach to include oral storytelling. The use of storytelling characters
to pose mathematics problems harnesses the excitement and imagination of the
children and directs that energy towards mathematics learning. When the reason
for solving a mathematics problem is intertwined with young children's fascination
with fantasy as well as their love of being playful, then they will put all
their energies into solving the mathematics problems. Thus, the mathematics
problems in this book series, becomes relevant and "real" to the
children because they are presented within a meaningful, story-based context.”
“In the past, even when children's literature has been used to teach mathematics concepts, there has been little attempt to extend the book-related mathematics activities beyond one or two lessons. In the mathematics supplementary materials described here, the lessons are part of an on-going saga where one mathematics lesson is connected to another in a meaningful way through the medium of the story. The NCTM Connections Standard (NCTM, 2000) recommends that students should understand how mathematical ideas build on one another to produce a whole. Through the use of storytelling sagas, as the stories evolve and become more intricate, so does the mathematics.”
Comments from the classroom: "And the looks on their faces. You can hear a pin drop! When I am doing one of those stories, my kids are never more well-behaved -- never more excited -- their faces are just... There's no video game going, no TV going. There is that one little puppet!" "The puppet Sneeze is real to the children. They treat her like she is part of the class. Really! We couldn't find her one day, and they were hysterical. I'm telling you, they treat that puppet differently from any other puppet." |
Reference for the Excerpted Article
Casey, B. (2003).
Mathematics problem-solving adventures: A language-arts based supplementary
series for early childhood that focuses on spatial sense. In
D. Clements, J. Sarama, & M. A. DiBaise (Eds.), Engaging young children
in mathematics: Results of the conference on standards for pre-school and
kindergarten mathematics education (pp. 377-392).
Click Here to return to the overview of the 'Round the Rug Math series.