[blindkid] math for blind kids
Cynthia Davis
cdfiets at gmail.com
Thu Oct 3 23:40:15 UTC 2013
Hmm. Brilliant, Arielle. Interesting and perceptive, you make a lot of sense.
Cynthia, mom of Jack
On Oct 3, 2013, at 5:30 PM, Arielle Silverman wrote:
> Hi Joy and all,
>
> This discussion reminds me of something Hoby Wedler said at a
> convention once, which I found very inspiring. He said that chemistry
> and physics are not visual subjects because even someone with 20/20
> vision cannot see atoms or atomic particles directly. They have to be
> represented in some way. Sighted people choose visual representations
> because the visual modality is a flexible one, but that doesn't mean
> blind people can't form their own representations. Similarly, math is
> not inherently visual since we can't directly see numbers. We create
> lines and charts and images to try to make mental sense of numbers,
> but these things are just one way of representing the information.
> Blind students ultimately find their own mental and physical systems
> for organizing the information. Braille and tactile representations
> are helpful because they are probably the closest we can get to a
> print drawing.
> Arielle
>
> On 10/2/13, Joy Orton <ortonsmom at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Brandon,
>>
>> I think you raise a great question. Math is taught visually because most of
>> us who do math are visual. That does not mean that the concepts are visual.
>> I hope some blind adults can respond as well.
>>
>> I teach math to sighted seventh and eleventh graders, and have taught math
>> to my daughter who is blind.
>>
>> I have used the number line concept with my seventh grader, who is blind
>> from birth. She and I sometimes make her nose the zero, and then her left
>> hand reaches to the negative numbers, and her right hand reaches to the
>> positive numbers. I think it is a helpful tool.
>>
>> I think the hundreds chart, too, has some value in braille, as long as it
>> is big enough for distinguishing the things the teacher wants to teach. If
>> the print chart is ten by ten, and the brailled chart is only seven numbers
>> wide, then that would be a problem.
>>
>> One thing I think is not well-translated is a raised-line drawing of a
>> three-dimensional shape. I prefer to use actual three-dimensional shapes
>> for working with concepts related to them.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>> Joy Orton
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM, <blindkid-request at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
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>>> Today's Topics:
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>>> 1. Elementary math question (b&s)
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>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 05:27:57 -0600
>>> From: b&s <lanesims at gmail.com>
>>> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [blindkid] Elementary math question
>>> Message-ID: <CFE73F59-3EA6-4359-ABF7-E09B268CB57A at gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>>>
>>> Emilia is now in 4th grade. I have been going in occasionally to
>>> help/observe during gen ed math time. I have always understood that the
>>> teaching of math (and all subjects for that matter) is vision centric.
>>> This
>>> is just a fact of life and I've been under the impression that teaching a
>>> blind kid is just a matter of tweaking the same information that is
>>> taught
>>> to the sighted kids. However, What struck me yesterday was the
>>> possibility
>>> that entire portions of the math curriculum may be fundamentally
>>> dependent
>>> on a visual approach, so that the issue becomes one, not of transcribing,
>>> but of truly translating the concepts to an entirely different
>>> language?.and possibly even throwing out portions of the curriculum. This
>>> came up while thinking about number lines. Number lines figure heavily in
>>> the teaching and testing at this level. Emilia has a brailled number line
>>> at school that does a reasonable job of transcribing the visual
>>> information. She can read the number line and mimic what other kids are
>>> doing with some effort. My question is whether a brailled number line is
>>> really useful to a congenitally blind student to help with understanding
>>> the underlying concepts??.or does it just make us sighted folk feel good
>>> about seeing the blind kid do the same thing the sighted kids are doing?
>>> Is
>>> she really learning the material?
>>>
>>> Unless I'm missing something, the abacus seems to cover the same
>>> territory
>>> and more as the number line. I don't even know how to approach the notion
>>> of the hundreds chart, which again, is available in braille, but is it
>>> really useful? If the answer is no, then there is the question of how to
>>> approach the issue of class participation, when everyone else is using
>>> these tools and concepts.
>>>
>>> I plan to talk to a couple of congenitally blind adult friends to get
>>> their perspective on this stuff. Any enlightenment from parents and
>>> others
>>> here would be great also.
>>>
>>> Thanks, Brandon
>>>
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