Nix the Tricks: A guide to avoiding shortcuts that cut out math concept development.

by Tina Cardone, the online math community know as the MTBoS

Do you cringe when a student declares "cross multiply!" as soon as they see a problem involving fractions? It doesn't matter whether you teach elementary or high school, whether you're a parent or a tutor, having a student yell out a trick without stopping to think is painful. This book is filled with alternatives to the shortcuts so prevalent in mathematics education and explains exactly why the tricks are so bad for understanding math.

Genres: Education

50 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2013

About the author

Tina Cardone is a high school math teacher in Massachusetts. Her favorite forms of professional development are twitter and blogs. Without her online math community, this book never would have existed. When she isn't teaching or talking about math, Tina enjoys crocheting and hiking.

Reviews

[Cayenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was shared with me by a colleague and is a useful reference.

[Emily Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tricks are tricks for a reason, they are quick and easy attack strategies. Are these tricks the only ways to solve? No! Students absolutely need to know the why behind what they are doing, but one of the major goals/concepts of Common Core Math is to provide multiple strategies and pathways for students. Things like “add a zero to the end when you multiply by 10,” “bigger bottom better borrow,” and “PEMDAS” do not “cut out math concepts.” They are just another avenue for students to solve and access problems WHEN teachers provide them with they WHY behind it how those tricks work. Having teacher provide them with the why is essential to conceptualize before they can fluently compute with the tricks or other methods of problem solving.

[Leighanne Medina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great tips. I don't think I will take all of these tricks and "nix" them, but definitely some good thinking here. I appreciate the idea of teaching students the "why" behind the tricks, and also allowing them to discover some of them. But some of these seem like it would be more confusing to teach students this way.

[Clayton Hashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, somewhat helpful book about how math shouldn’t be a subject where students blindly use tricks they don’t understand. Rather, that the focus of math should be sense-making and providing satisfactory explanations. The strategies in the book were too briefly described to be very helpful, but the ideas behind the book make me think a lot about my own pedagogy moving forward.

[Miguel Ángel Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leído en inglés. Muy interesante. Señala trucos que utilizan los profesores para enseñar procedimiento matemáticos y que dificultan la comprensión a medio y largo plazo. También propone soluciones para sustituir esos trucos por verdadera comprensión matemática.

[Kim B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would only use this book as a reference because it is brief. It was written by an experienced high school math teacher, and some others from their online blog. It only addresses what could happen.
It's an e-book and it's free. I would advise you to read all of the introductory pages so you will know where this information and opinions are derived.

[MaryAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay! Finally a book that debunks all these math tricks that get in the way of student understanding. As I tell my students FOIL is for leftovers. This book should be required reading for anyone who teaches math...grades k-12 and beyond.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

a practical inoculation against unfortunately very common nonsensical school math tricks that obfuscate sense-making.