Summative Assignment

Sophie-Anne Lalonde Leblanc

EDUC 5433D
February 25th, 2015

St. Thomas University

Annotated bibliography
Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2013). Math Anxiety, Working
Memory, and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School. Journal Of Cognition &
Development, 14(2), 187-202
This article talks about math anxiety in relation to working memory and math achievement at
the lower levels of elementary school rather than looking at math anxiety in middle and secondary
school. Their thinking was that if we can detect math anxiety at an earlier age, we may help prevent
strong dislike and avoidance of the subject later on in the students' lives. As a result from this research,
Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine and Beilock found that for those students high in working memory, as
math anxiety rose, their math achievement decreased (and vice-versa). But if students weren't rated as
high on working memory, the results didn't apply to them.
This type of research is important for us to consider as teachers because we have to realize that
working memory (also known as short-term memory) is not an asset all of our students possess.
Unfortunately for those students, mathematics are based on such processes of the brain and if someone
struggles with it, they are more prone to have strong difficulty, and ultimately a strong dislike of
mathematics. Students, no matter their age, thrive on praise and hope, but unfortunately, if they don't
feel like they understand any of what you try to teach them (no matter how great of a teacher you are),
they will lose that hope of one day succeeding in math.
Lyons, I. M., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). When Math Hurts: Math Anxiety Predicts Pain Network
Activation in Anticipation of Doing Math. Plos ONE, 7(10), 1-6
This article discusses the physical one may feel when they are anticipating doing mathematics,
either in the form of a test or simply by doing exercises. It relates the processes of mental anticipations
to the pain receptors in the brain, thus creating a feeling of pain when thinking about math. This pain
was found to happen mostly in those people scoring high on math anxiety for that their anxiety is so
strong that the brain rewires itself to consider it as something to avoid at all cost. The fight or flight
reaction makes it so that those students try to avoid it at all cost, therefor avoiding the pain associated
with it.
Although this article was very much a psychological article, we still need to understand the big
picture depicted in it: math anxiety can be painful for students. We don't necessarily need to know the
specific areas of the brain that are involved in math anxiety, but we do need to know how to detect such
anxiety as soon as it may be possible. We need to know who and why students are anxious and how we
should help them fight the struggle. Finding out where the anxiety stems from and knowing who might
be at risk or already demonstrating aspects of it is our best chance at getting students to not only enjoy
doing mathematics but also have hope that they can improve their performance and that it is possible to
get better by practicing.
Bekdemir, M. (2010). The pre-service teachers' mathematics anxiety related to depth of negative
experiences in mathematics classroom while they were students. Educational Studies In
Mathematics, 75(3), 311-328
The main discussion in this article is based on the theory that pre-service teachers who have
high math anxiety may potentially transfer that same anxiety to the students they will be teaching. The
researchers found that the pre-service teacher's anxiety concerning mathematics stemmed from
negative experiences concerning the subject. Such experiences included instructor's hostile behaviours,

peer pressure, difficulty of content, school environment, etc. From this research, they give us some
suggestions on how to monitor our own feelings and opinions of the subject. They suggest us to assess
our own anxiety level regarding mathematics so it doesn't affect our teaching methods in the future.
Another suggestion is to ensure that our anxiety is not transferred to our students while we teach them.
By monitoring it and paying close attention to how we discuss and teach mathematics, we can avoid the
making of anxious students. It would also be very helpful for teachers to pinpoint the worst experiences
involving mathematics that may create such anxiety as to ensure that they do not replicate that
experience for their students. Some suggestions made by students during the study should also be
considered: teachers should encourage and reward their students, know and use effective teaching
methods, offer and guide their students to use alternative problem-solving techniques, as well as,
improve themselves professionally and personally.
Overall, this article is extremely important for teachers to consider because it discusses the
problems that may arise if we are not careful in managing our own anxiety concerning the subject of
math. Students look up to us, so if they hear that we, too, are struggling, they will see it as a lost cause
and think of mathematics in a negative way. For that reason, we need to stay positive and try to manage
our math anxiety, if we have it, so our students have confidence that they will be able to do
mathematics and will be more willing to work hard to get to their goals.
Ford, T. E., Ford, B. L., Boxer, C. F., & Armstrong, J. (2012). Effect of humor on state anxiety and
math performance. Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research, 25(1), 59-74
The researchers in this study wanted to measure the test scores of students after having a good
laugh before doing the test versus those who weren't presented the opportunity to laugh beforehand.
Their results did prove that there was a significant relation between being shown humorous content and
higher marks on the test. They believed that this happened because it changed not only the mindset of
students but also because it helped the brain warm up in a way that would allow students to think more
creatively rather than logically to answer certain questions. They also believed that humour is a coping
mechanism for stressful situations thus making the experience less stressful and more enjoyable for
those taking the test.
This article simply proves us that by taking away a stressful environment from the students'
point of view, they are better able to concentrate on the task at hand and become more creative in their
answers and techniques of answering. We need to realize that students rely very much on marks to
categorize themselves in the academic world and that may result in highly stressful situations for them.
By integrating humour in our lessons and before (or even during) a test, student may feel more relaxed
and feel like they are better able to understand and perform on the task that we ask them to complete.
The integration of humour may also help you create positive relationships with your students in the
classroom, making the whole learning environment much more enjoyable for you, as a teacher, and for
your students.
Stogsdill, G. (2013). A Math Therapy Exercise. Journal Of Humanistic Mathematics, 3(2), 121-126.
This article is based on a therapy exercise done with undergraduate students taking a universitylevel math course. The author describes activities he has done to help students have a better view of
mathematics. One part of the activity asked students to describe their earliest memory of math, when
and why math became difficult for them (if it had), their worst memory of the subject, how they really
felt about math and how they felt about taking the course. After journaling their answers, students got
to share what they wanted in the class and other students had the chance to answer to what those
students have talked about. This created a sense of belonging and a more relaxed atmosphere overall in
the classroom.

Even though this therapy was done at the university level, students at any level could benefit
from a variation of this activity. By detecting the root of the math anxiety, we are able to work with
students to re-mold their views of the subject. By presenting them with positive outcomes involving
and relating to mathematics, students will learn to enjoy and understand the subject. They will feel less
anxious, will become more motivated to continue learning and will trust and respect you better as a
teacher.
Geist, E. (2010). The Anti-Anxiety Curriculum: Combating Math Anxiety in the Classroom. Journal Of
Instructional Psychology, 37(1), 24-31
This study was based on the theory that students' exposure to math anxiety may be developed
early on in their lives while at home. The theory mentions that students' parents who have high anxiety
in math as well as students coming from low-income families, may be more at risk to develop high
anxiety of the subject. They suggest, though, that teachers may become a positive model of the subject
as long as they are supportive and create a positive learning environment for mathematics. Although it
is not guaranteed to fully help students cope with the anxiety, it will most likely help but environments
outside of school still have to be considered.
This is an important study, like many others, because we need to understand, as teachers, that
not all student have the support they need at home to learn properly and effectively. It is our duty to
take those situations into consideration and ensure that we create a positive and safe learning
environment for all students, but especially for those who do not have the chance to experience it at
home. It's also extremely important for us to know who has anxiety and who is prone to experience it
and try to make it a more enjoyable environment so those students don't develop that terrible
anxiousness of the subject.
NCTM article review
Howden, H (1989) Teaching Number Sense. The Arithmetic Teacher Vol. 36, No. 6. pp. 6-11.
Howden opens up the discussion of number sense by explaining their interaction with students
from low socio-economic homes. These children, although they don't have much educational
stimulations at home, have a rich learning environment in the classroom. The teacher is well aware of
the situations in which the students are in and ensures that everyone gets to learn by using objects from
the classroom and objects surrounding the school to conduct the lessons. By doing this, the teacher
allows students to explore and experience different ways to learn and are better able to grasp the whole
idea of number sense. However, when Howden visited another school, who was a high-ranking school
in number sense between 3rd - 5th grade, there was no spontaneous reactions or relation of the number
24 that had been addressed at the previous school. With these statements alone, it shows that great
number sense doesn't necessarily means good grades or at the very least, good grades does not mean
that one has a good foundation of number sense.
Students who can make judgements about the reasonableness of computational results and
realize that more that one way can be used to arrive at a solution gain confidence in their ability to do
mathematics. Howden hit an important point in this quote. Confidence in mathematics will ultimately
decide whether a student will enjoy the subject or completely despise it. As a young student, I never got
to explore and work to understand mathematics. At the time, we had to memorize everything which is
effective only to very few people. I cannot talk for everyone, as every human being is different, but by
allowing students to explore and allow mistakes to be made in the classroom will encourage students to

continue exploring numbers in various ways. Once confidence is instated in the student, the learning
process will become easier and much more enjoyable for not only the student, but also for the teacher.
Even though this article could be considered outdated due to its year of publication, I believe
it still is relevant to this day as an awareness for teachers on the effective use of manipulatives. By
using ten frames, the 100's chart and other tools, students are better able to subitize namely make
relationships between different ways of representing a certain number. The only thing I would re-think
would be the use of calculators. It might be useful in certain situations but I believe that they should
only be used once a strong number sense has already been acquired. It might be beneficial for students
in the upper-elementary levels to verify their other ways of representations but it should not be used as
one of the main tools in the classroom.
Overall, this article is quite resourceful for the beginning teacher. It has great ideas on how to
implement different tools into the classroom to create a very strong number sense base for students.
The focus is clearly on exploration and differentiation (different ways in showing numbers) which is of
utmost importance in the classroom. We need to think of our students and their learning, not their
grades! It goes without saying, though, that once they have acquired a strong number sense, their
understanding thus their grades will also improve.
Clarke, D.M., & Roche, A. (2009) Students' Fraction Comparison Strategies as a Window into Robust
Understanding and Possible Pointers for Instruction. Educational Studies in Mathematics Vol.
72, No. 1. pp. 127-138.
The authors of this article used a lot of research to explain the different ways in which students
learn. One of those research I found very interesting because it mentions that students have very limited
modelling options. It talks about the circle as the sole model for fractions. This is important to know
because circles are quite difficult to reproduce by hand as the fractional parts should be proportional to
each other it hard to proportionally divide a circle. Unfortunately, the article doesn't give other
options on how to model fractions visually to students. From my own mathematics class that I took
while doing my Bed, I learned that rectangles are much more effective and still can be considered quite
interesting to students (especially when they are referred to as chocolate bars).
They mention the use of benchmarking, residual thinking and gap thinking. Benchmarking and
residual thinking are thought to be effective in problem-solving fractions while gap thinking is thought
of being less effective. Residual thinking refers to the fraction as having a remaining amount to make a
whole (i.e. 7/9 could be thought of as needing 2/9 to make a whole). In this sort of thinking, the student
is thinking of the denominator as the whole and the nominator as a part of that whole, thus having an
idea of the size of the parts.
Now, even though the study was done in a way that would encourage students to understand the
part-whole idea that is dominant in fractions, Clarke and Roche found that at least one-third of students
still didn't understand that concept after 6th grade. This is quite important for teachers to know and
understand because it shows that some students, regardless of how to teach the content, they still are
struggling to understand certain concepts. For those students who hit a wall in mathematics, you need
to ensure that they don't lose motivation and keep hoping that they are going to be able to understand
the concept at some point. Positivity here is key and visual representations as well as visualization are
extremely important for teachers to use to reach those students.
Van Dooren, W., De Bock, D., Hessels, A., Janssens, D., & Verschaffel, L. (2005) Not Everything Is
Proportional: Effect of Age and Problem Type on Propensities for Overgeneralization.
Cognition and Instruction Vol. 23, No. 1. pp. 57-86.
In this article, the authors discuss the overgeneralization of proportional concepts. They mention

that some students may overgeneralize when a figure is reproduced with the length of the sides doubled
they believe that the area and the volume of the figure will also be doubled. From there, they discuss
that proportional reasoning is built from both environmental experiences as well as proper schooling.
Younger individuals may see proportional reasoning in a simple form such as how many handfuls of
sand does it need to fill one bucket versus five. Now, that being said, if students never had such
experiences or didn't have much interaction with their parents from a young age, they may not be able
to correctly develop the concept until much later in their life.
They have found in their research that students at the elementary level have a tendency to apply
superficial solution strategies for solving word problem, they exclude their real-world knowledge, and
they also have a tendency to believe that all mathematics problems can be solved by using arithmetical
operations. They also found that, students in elementary, when taught to use proportional reasoning, use
it inappropriately. This is important for instructors to know because, in this case, elementary students
may show poor comprehension of the subject but if you know where it stems from and know how to
help those students, they have a better chance of learning the concepts in an efficient way. We need to
know how to teach to struggling students, especially when certain concepts are going to be following
them for the rest of the school careers.
An interesting finding in this article was that most students in Grade 2 did not understand any
proportional reasoning problems given to them. Those skills were then seen to improve and made more
of a focus in Grades 3 to 6. After that, proportional reasoning seemed to have been mastered by most of
the students. That being said, although proportional reasoning was somewhat introduced in Grade 2,
students were not able to retain the concept. I personally wonder why they were incapable of retaining
the concept. Was it because of the fact that it wasn't taught in depth? It wasn't properly taught? Or was
it because they just couldn't understand it due to the level of difficulty? Unfortunately, those questions
were not answered in the article. It did show, though, that as students went up a grade in school their
understanding improved which in turn implies that developmentally, they may not be ready to
understand proportional reasoning in a more complex manner in Grade 2.
Manipulatives
Base ten blocks

Base ten blocks are one of the most important tools used to teach number sense at the
elementary level. They are perfect for teaching placement of numbers (ones, tens, hundreds,
thousands). Students are able to visualize the representation of simple numerical forms thus making it
easier for them to learn mental math and to learn how to subitize (relation of a number within different
forms of representation). I would use this manipulative in a heart beat because it allows students to do

math in a kinesthetic and in a visual manner. I would ensure students had some time to play with the
manipulative so they can get familiar with it then ensure to teach them how these blocks are used.
Students love to work with concrete objects, so these base ten blocks are perfect to use! Learning by
doing is the main purpose of this manipulative when considering number sense!
Linking Cubes

Linking cubes are great for many purposes: pattern making, ratio, proportional reasoning,
number sense, and of course, to built towers! These cubes, as I have seen in my own classroom during
my first internship, are often used as legos. Students love to build and manipulate them which makes
them a great tool to use in a lesson. Students can learn to subitize by counting by 2's, 5's or 10's, they
can create different patterns by using either the colours or building towers differing in height, and they
can learn ratios by counting how many of one colour there is in their pile versus how many they have in
total (which could also count as working on fractions). This cubes are quite interesting to the students
since they look a lot like lego and can be considered quite fun to work with. Again, by allowing
students to play with them and explore what they can do, they will be able to more easily grasp the
concepts you will teach with this manipulative.
Pattern Blocks

Pattern blocks are used to create patterns but they can also be used to study ratios and fractions
as well. Students have shown me their great enjoyment while using these. Again, students enjoy
creating pictures with these blocks and creating patterns, making the whole learning process that much

more fun for them. They willingly use them during playtime and acquire the concept of patterns very
quickly by using the pattern blocks. We can also teach students fractions by using different shapes and
getting smaller ones to see how many can fit in the bigger one. Since they are great for fractions, they
also can be found to be great to teach ratios as well. Looking at the ratio of rhombus versus triangles,
red pieces to yellow pieces, etc. They are, overall, a great manipulative to use at any level during the
elementary years (even in middle and high-school for those struggling students!)
Rekenrek

Rekenreks are one of my favourite tools to use to teach number sense. They consist of 100
beads coloured in red or white. Each row includes 10 beads: 5 white and 5 red. The first 50 beads (first
5 rows) are organized in a way that starts each row with the 5 white beads and ends with the 5 red
beads. After the 50 mark, the order of the colour of beads switches to 5 red beads at the beginning of
each row and 5 white ones at the end. These different colours are used so that students can subitize
more easily when counting or asked to show a certain number. Once they have learned how to count
with the rekenrek, they will be able to do addition and subtraction in a more accessible and visual way.
One of the main perks of the rekenrek is that students learn a way to visualize internally how to count
and do simple math thus making it easier for them later on in their mathematics experience.
Hundreds Chart

The hundreds chart is a 10 x 10 chart containing the numbers 1 to 100. This chart is also used to
implement the number sense in students at the elementary level but it can also be used to teach patterns,
subtractions, addition, etc. It is most likely one of the most important tools, next to the base ten blocks,
used at the elementary level. Students get to visualize the position certain numbers are compared to
other numbers in the chart. It helps with counting forward and backward from certain numbers as well
as to understand where numbers are. By having this tool readily available in your classroom, you are
giving the opportunity to your students to relate their own environment to the numbers shown on the
chart. One great tool that I found during my first practicum is called DogBone and can be found online.
This website allows students to review their knowledge of the hundreds chart numbers and practice
their number sense in a fun and interactive way! This website can be used as either a warm up activity
in the classroom or even as a review once you are ready to move on to another, harder, unit.
Reviews
It's Cookie Time!
This board game was developed by one of my colleagues (Angela Brown) and myself. The goal
of this game is to enrich or adapt simple addition and subtraction for students but it can also be used as
a review. The game can be played either by oneself, with 4 people or even in teams. The arms are the
easiest while the legs are the hardest questions. For each cookie crumb on the cookie monster,
there is a matching set of cookie cards with the number of the cookie crumbs written on it. Students
will have to answer the equation or question correctly to move the next cookie crumb. The goal of the
game is to give all cookies (which students will use to move from one cookie crumb to the next) to the
cookie monster.
This game allows students to practice their adding and subtracting skills in a fun and engaging
way. It is a non-competitive game which allows students to not feel pressured and encourages those
who are excelling to help those who may have some more difficulty. It is also a very highly adaptable
game board because the game cards can be changed at any point in time to allow further review,
enrichment or help on any subject.
Dog Bone

This game is a very good interactive game that can be used to warm up and review the 100's
chart. The goal of the game is to find the 10 hidden dog bones before the time runs out. The dog will
show a number and students need to find it on the board as quickly as they can. The goal here is to
ensure students have a good foundation of number sense and that they can easily figure out where
numbers are placed when the hundreds chart is involved. It can be used as a competitive way of

learning between teams or it can simply be done as a whole group activity, either way, allowing all
students to try and find the bone.
This will allow to engage students in learning when used at the beginning of a lesson as a warm
up or it will allow students to review and ensure that they are comfortable with number sense and the
hundreds chart. Students will feel engaged and accomplished once they have done it. I used it in my
grade one class, and all students absolutely loved it!