Molly the Monster Mathematician

Written and Illustrated by Erin Valenzuela C1

Math Log Number Two
EDUC 4032 (YCO)
Submitted to Dr. Ruth Beatty
October 31, 2017
Lakehead University
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Molly. She loved learning and
going to school. Her favourite things to do at school were playing with her
friends and exploring numbers in math class.
Molly loved this so much because she knew that the world was made up of
numbers and no matter what else challenged her learning, she could always
count on numbers. She loved math. Her parents even said that one day Molly
would become a Master Mathematician. That was until one day when numbers
no longer made sense to Molly and things started getting really hard.
As Molly started getting older, her math lessons started to get harder and harder.
The bigger the numbers got, the more confused Molly became. Her parents and
teacher started explaining to her but she just didn’t understand. Why did she
have to carry a one when adding 2 digit numbers? Why couldn’t you switch
numbers in subtraction to make them easier to subtract? What the heck was long
division and the Divide, Multiply, Subtract, and Bring Down algorithm all about
anyway?

Molly started to see math as too hard for her understand anymore and this made
her very ANGRY!!!
Molly started to become a Math Monster! She refused to try anymore telling her
teachers and parents it was too hard for her and she wasn’t even going to try
because she was too dump to understand what they said was so easy. She would
eat up numbers that she used to love and spit them out all over the place. She left
piles of unfinished problems everywhere she went. She no longer felt like she
was going to Master Mathematician when she grew up. She began to only see
herself as a Monster, not capable of being a Mathematician at all. This made her
really sad.
Then one day, a new teacher arrived at Molly’s school. Her name was Dr.
Beatty and she could ‘beat’ any math problem anyone could throw at her. This
excited Molly. She was determined to throw some monster numbers at Dr.
Beatty just like her teachers had been throwing at her. She wanted to show
everyone that math was too hard for anyone to ‘beat’ and so she set to work.
The first challenge she gave to Dr. Beatty was 97+23. Molly was sure Dr. Beatty
would not get it on her first try. Molly watched eagerly as Dr. Beatty looked at
the question. Dr. Beatty paused for a second and then turned to Molly, “wow
Molly. This is a tricky question. I am looking at the numbers and hoping you
can help me understand”. Of course Molly wanted to help. She wanted to prove
that Dr. Beatty could not beat all her math questions after all and so she nodded
her head.
“Okay, thank you” said Dr. Beatty. “I see that we need to add two number
together to find out their sum. Do you agree with that?” Molly thought for a
second and then agreed. She knew that when you were adding numbers together
that meant you needed to find their sum.
“Great. My question is Molly, what happens to place value when we add
numbers together?”

Molly stopped and thought about this for a second. She knew a lot about place
value. She knew that numbers could be grouped together by tens because place
value increased by tens. Molly was confused as to why Dr. Beatty would ask
such an easy question but she answered her anyway.
“Well Dr. Beatty, you have to maintain the place value in order to understand
how many you actually have. It’s like this…” Molly turned and started grouping
base ten blocks together on the table. She grouped nine groups of ten and one
group of seven on one side and then grouped an additional two groups and ten
and one group of three. She pointed to each group of ten and added them all
together. She had 11 groups of ten. She told Dr. Beatty this. Dr. Beatty asked
“so how many is that all together then?” Molly paused for a second and then
answered “one hundred and ten”. Dr. Beatty smiled.
“That’s absolutely right Molly. You kept the place value by remembering that
once you have 90 tens, the next group of ten changes the place value to
hundreds. What should we do about the two groups of ones you separated?”
Molly looked at the two remaining piles and as she looked at them, a smile
started to spread across her face. “Well there are seven in one group and three in
the other group. When I add three to seven like this” and she moved the three
into the group of seven counting each one as she added, “you get ten altogether.
That’s another group of ten. So if we add this group of ten to the other eleven
groups we already have, we get an answer of 120. That means that 97+23 =120.
I can add them together like this and keep their place value. I did it!”
Molly was very pleased that she had found the answer to a question she didn’t
understand before. She turned to Dr. Beatty and asked her “why didn’t we have
to carry the one to find out how many there were?” Dr. Beatty smiled. She said
to Molly, “well Molly, we don’t always have to use a traditional method of
solving number problems to get to the right answer. You were able to solve this
question by using something you felt comfortable with like base ten blocks and
place value to get to the answer. Math is fun like that. There are so many ways
you can find the answer. You just have to find a way that works for you. Let’s
try another one. Let’s see if you can use something you already know to solve
this problem”
Dr. Beatty wrote this question on the board for Molly to ponder. 73-46. Molly
thought really hard. She really wanted to switch the numbers like you could do
in addition so you minus three from six but she knew that would change the
answer and make it incorrect. She started getting frustrated thinking about this
and the monster in her started coming out again thinking she would not be able
to get the answer. Dr. Beatty saw she was starting to get upset but she did not
rush Molly to find the answer. Instead she said, “Take your time Molly. I know
you can do this. Think about what you already know about numbers and use
your mental math skills to help you”.
This made Molly think. She had an internal number. She could use that to help
her solve this problem. Molly smiled and went over to the board. Not only did
she find the answer using her internal number, she figured out two ways to find
the answer using her number line. She used subtraction as think addition, and
jumping back subtraction. She was very pleased with herself!
“Well done Molly! I’m really impressed. Look how you used what you knew to
solve the problem. And you solved it using two different methods. Look at you
go! Should we try another one? Dr. Beatty asked. Molly was beaming. She was
starting to feel like her old self again. She was starting to remember all the
reasons she loved math.
She eagerly responded, “Yes. Let’s do it!”
Dr. Beatty wrote 15x12 on the board and turned to Molly with a smile.
Molly looked at the question and started to panic. She used to really like
multiplication but when the numbers got too big, she never got the right answer.
Dr. Beatty kept smiling at Molly, “remember, use what you know to solve the
problem. You don’t have to solve it the way you think I want you solve it. Use
what is right for you”

Molly sat for a moment. She thought about how much she liked multiplying
smaller numbers so she tried to think about how she could use smaller numbers
than 15 and 12. This is what she drew on the board.
Dr. Beatty smiled. “Molly, tell me how you came up with this answer”. That
was easy thought Molly. “It wasn’t that hard actually,” she said. “I decided I
didn’t like the numbers 15 and 12. I am more confident using numbers that are
smaller. So I broke the 15 down into 10 and 5 and did the same for the 12,
breaking it down into 10 and 2. Then I multiplied 10 by 10 and put the answer in
the box. I multiplied the 10 by 5 and put that in answer in the box under the 5.
Then I did the same for 2. I multiplied it by 10 and then by 5. When I had all
four answers I added them all together. My total was 180”.
“You did it Molly! You found an algorithm that made sense to you and found
the answer. You didn’t have to use number you were not comfortable with or
carry any ones!” Dr. Beatty was very pleased with Molly.
“Alright, Molly. I have one more challenge for you. Are you up for it?” Dr.
Beatty asked. “Absolutely!” replied Molly. Dr. Beatty wrote a division problem
on the board: 798 divided by 7.
Molly’s heart started beating faster. This was a really big number. She wasn’t
too sure of her seven times table either. How was she every going to find the
answer to this problem? She looked at Dr. Beatty who was smiling. “I know you
can do this Molly. Use what you know”.
Molly thought and thought. Dr. Beatty did not rush her. As Molly thought and
took her time she remembered what she had done in the multiplication problem.
She used numbers she was comfortable with. She could do the same thing with
this problem. She decided right then and there she was going to solve this
problem. She did not feel like a math monster anymore. She felt confident in
self. She set to work. This is how she solved the problem…
“The answer is one hundred and fourteen Dr. Beatty” she said when she was
finished. Dr. Beatty looked at her work and smiled. “You’ve got it Molly. Tell
me what you did”. Molly explained again that she did not like working with
numbers she felt were too big so she used what she called Hangman’s Division
instead of Long Division. She called it this because it looked like a game she
played with her friends all the time when they were guessing missing words.
She told Dr. Beatty she liked round numbers so she started with 100 because she
knew 7 multiplied by 100 was 700. That only left her with 98. She used 10 next
because she knew that 7 multiplied by 10 was 70 and that only left her with 28.
She knew that seven times two was 14 so she tried that next because it was less
than 28. She couldn’t remember what 7 multiplied by 3 was so she went with
what she knew. That left her 14. That was an easy number for her. She had just
solved that. Then she added all the number together and got the answer 114.
Dr. Beatty was very pleased indeed. She was proud of Molly for using what she
knew to solve the problems. She could see that Molly was no longer a Math
Monster but that she was in fact a little Master Mathematician already. This
made Molly feel really good. She realized there was nothing to be afraid in math
class anymore. She had many different strategies she could use that made sense
to her and those alternative algorithms could help her solve the answer just as
well as carrying ones and following the formula for long division.
She also realized Dr. Beatty really could ‘beat’ any mathematical problem she
was challenged with. She had after all beaten the Math Monster out of Molly!
Did You Know????
Notes for Parents and Educators

Children should be given ample time to gather their thoughts and process the information required to solve any mathematical problem. They need to be given the
time to do this without feeling pressured to come up with answer on your timetable.

Traditional algorithms are important for children to learn and understand but they are not the only methods children should be taught in order to solve
mathematical problems. There are many rules with traditional algorithms and these rules “may appear to solve the immediate problem [related to the equation]
but could actually interfere with student’s development of mathematical thinking” (Behrend, 2001, p. 36). Rules are often misinterpreted as children try to
grapple with when and where to apply them. Take place value for example. In this story Molly could not add the number 97 and 23 using the traditional
algorithm because she could not figure out how to carry the one. Once Dr. Beatty allowed her to use an alternative algorithm, using base ten manipulatives, she
was able to understand that place value does not change. She was then able to show how to keep place value and solve the problem using Partial Sums.

It is also important to remember that the rules attached to traditional algorithms often focus on “trying to remember the steps instead of on logically solving
problems” (Kami and Dominick, 1998, p. 130) like Molly encountered when she was trying to subtract larger numbers from smaller ones. When we allow
children to “use their own procedures [to solve problems, they] are much more likely to produce correct answers than those who try to use [only traditional]
algorithms” (Kami and Dominick, 1998, p. 130).

“Children [can] lose conceptual knowledge when they learn [traditional algorithm] rules” (Kami and Dominick, 1998, p. 131) because they become so focused
on remembering the steps to solve the problems that they forget what they know. This was evident when Dr. Beatty asked Molly to multiply the two digit
numbers that Molly was uncomfortable with. Dr. Beatty recognized this and reminded Molly she could make the problem easier for herself by using numbers she
felt more confident with. By taking the focus from using traditional algorithms, Molly was able to build her confidence and solve the problem correctly using
logic she already understood.

The same can be said for how Molly solved Dr. Beatty’s long division problem. Long division was one of the reasons Molly transformed from a future Master
Mathematician into a Monster Mathematician. “The traditional long division algorithm is difficult for many students…[but] the repeated subtractions [or
hangman division as Molly referred to it,] builds on number sense and problem solving skills” (Carroll and Porter, n.d., p. 112)which many children are more
confident with.

The challenge with “teaching [traditional] algorithms to students is that they feel that the goal is to follow the procedures and abandon their sense-making
knowledge” (Van de Walle, Karp, Bay-Williams and McGarvey, 2018, p. 231). As parents and educators we need to remember this and help students establish a
solid foundation of number sense. Teaching and encouraging students to use alternative algorithms is then in their best interest. The key to teaching is finding the
most appropriate or understandable method for students to use to be successful. This will vary from student to student and that is alright. As the adults
responsible for helping students learn and excel in math, we have to remember what Dr. Beatty reminded Molly. Math is not something only those who are born
with a natural inclination for numbers can be successful with. Everyone can be Master Mathematicians as long as they are encouraged and reminded to use their
own strengths to solve the problems. By embracing a Growth Mindset, every student can be successful in their own way.
References
Beatty, Dr. R., (2017) Class Lecture Notes from September – October 2017.
Behrend, Jean. (2001). “Are rules interfering with Children’s mathematical understanding?” Teaching Children mathematics. 36-40.
Carroll, William M., and Porter, Denise. (n.d.). “Alternative algorithms for whole-number operations”. The Teaching and learning of
algorithms in school mathematics. 106-114.
Kami, Constance and Dominick, Ann. (1998). “The harmful effects of algorithms in grades 1-4”. Teaching and learning of algorithms
in school mathematics. 130-140.
Van de Walle, J.A., Karp, K.S., Bay-Williams, J. M., McGarvey, L. M., (2018). Elementary and middle school mathematics:
Teaching developmentally (Canadian 5th Edition). Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.