This post is by reader and strings enthusiast Laura Bofferding, Assistant Professor, Purdue University I was first introduced to number…
(Re)Thinking Context
A recent conversation between two New York City math educators, Carol Mosesson-Teig and Kara Imm Kara, I have been thinking…
Tricky Teens
Now that we’re moving into spring, I wanted to be sure my kindergarteners were beginning to gain a foundation for place…
Moving straight ahead
Those of you who are fans of the middle school curriculum Connected Math Project (CMP) will especially appreciate this string.…
Encouraging Strings Discussions
Defining the Problem: In a recent workshop, a third grade teacher shared the following: “I think I’m doing it right,…
Dot Talk: Early Numeracy
This post is from Raquel Goya, a Kindergarten teacher at Hoover Elementary in Palo Alto, CA. Raquel noted that, “Although…
New percentage number strings
We recently saw the problem above on a New York CCSS-M 6th grade benchmark test. A few teachers I was…
Searching for Friendly Numbers
Students who are working to become efficient with fractions must learn to seek out “friendly” numbers — a shifting target…
“Stack of Bills” string
Here’s a string I designed with a team of fifth grade teachers who were looking for creative ways to encourage…
Fractions as Operators (Dot Arrays)
Here’s a collection of strings written by teacher participants at the Summer Institute at Math in the City (City College,…
From additive to multiplicative thinking
A few weeks ago our colleague and collaborator Pam Weber Harris led a really interesting numeracy workshop at Math in…
The “King of Strings” teaches us that strings are maatwerk
I recently reached out to Willem Uittenbogaard. Willem was one of the original collaborators between Math in the City (founded by…
Challenge problems, helper problems
When designing strings, there are typically one or more helper problems before a challenge problem. For example, you might start…
Subtraction string – where is the answer?
My name is Jennifer DiBrienza. I taught elementary school in New York City public schools for 9 years and began…
Arrays on the West Side
We recently learned that the third grade team at Manhattan School for Children (Elizabeth Frankel-Rivera, Madelene Geswaldo, Alice Hsu and…
Division – Whole number by fraction
During the spring of the 2012-2013 school year Kara Imm and I were working with my 5th graders to help…