Making Math Manageable

My strongest memory of algebra class: seeing and sharing the image above with all of my friends while my teacher rolled his eyes and tried to make us pay attention to real algebra.

Ah, yes, that age old habit of teenagers to disguise their fears with sarcasm. I know I was guilty of this quite often, but hey, it wasn't my fault that math was having relationship problems with its X.

All joking aside, algebra truly is something that many students fear. The word has built up quite the negative reputation for itself, and is often used in popular culture to reference math that is hard, confusing, and unpractical.

However, I don't think that algebra deserves this reputation. As much as I disliked math in school, and found it confusing, personally, I actually didn't have too much of an issue with algebra. It was one of the types of math that I found easier to understand. I think one of the reasons why the letters in the algebraic equations didn't bother me so much was because when I was younger my one of my teachers taught us about the relationship between addition and subtraction by replacing part of an equation with a box. We would need to rearrange the question to be able to figure out the number that was supposed to go in the box. While she used the term "algebra," besides teaching basic numeration skills, she was also preparing us for algebraic thinking. When I started doing math that was labelled as "algebra" and understood that the letters represented unknown variables, I would mentally replace the numbers with boxes, and the question became much clearer to me. Mentally replacing the variables with boxes also put me into the perspective of rearranging an addition question into subtraction, so the process of balancing an equation didn't seem so strange or arbitrary to me.

The one stereotype that I most dislike in popular culture's view of algebra is the conception that it is unpractical. On the contrary, I actually think that this type of math is one that is used on a fairly regular basis. The first example that comes to mind is ordering extra toppings on a pizza. When the base pizza costs a certain amount, and each additional topping costs a certain amount extra, and I'm aiming to keep my final bill under a certain amount, how many extra toppings can I afford? This is mental math that I have actually done numerous times, and so I disagree with the statement that nobody actually uses algebra. I really like the sample activity that the Making Math Meaningful textbook provides on page 620. In this activity, a teacher would ask students to suggest numerous situations where they would use an algebraic expression such as 5N. This activity shows that algebra is more than just sometimes practical, but that it is really a part of everyday living. I also really like the fact that this activity begins with an algebraic expression that is so simple because it works to challenge the perception that algebra is by definition complicated.

Since so many students are so afraid of simply hearing the word "algebra," it can be extremely beneficial to have them working with algebraic expressions, and then applying the label "algebra" to the exercises once they have successfully completed them. Playing games like "Guess the Number" where students have to work through an equation backwards, and creating a single grocery lists for several recipes are great examples of activities where students likely won't realize that they are actually using algebraic skills. Once you can prove to them that algebra is both practical, and that the basic processes are quite simple, you can show them that algebra isn't actually as frightening as they believed it would be, and they will be more likely to be open to learning more.