I read the book, The Number Devil by Hans Magnus. At the beginning of the story, a boy named Robert explains his dreams and how they are meaningless; he particularly talks about a fish that always gobbles him up. But one night, he has a different dream, and in this dream contains a tiny red man named the number devil. On the first night, the number devil explains the significance of the number 1 and how, if Robert ever gets confused, he should always think back to the most simple number. Then the number devil explains the concepts of infinity and fractions using chewing gum as an example. He also explains how all numbers come from the number one by showing Robert the products of 11x11, 111x111 and so on. Over the next twelve nights, many mathematical concepts are explained including Roman Numerals, exponents, square roots, prime numbers, decimals, and much more. The author comes up with creative names for some of the mathematical concepts; he refers to exponents as “number hopping” and prime numbers as “primma donnas.” Robert realizes that he truly enjoys math and is able to use the skills that the number devil, whose real name is Teplotaxl, teaches him in his math class.
This book explained many mathematical concepts, but one that I thought was most clever and well thought out was the idea of “hopping” numbers and “rutabaga” numbers. The number devil explains how complicated the number system would be without the number zero, and how zero allows us to “hop” between numbers. Robert says how large numbers make him feel jumpy, so the number devil explains how a large number, such as 5x5x5x5x5=3125 can easily be wrote as 5^5. He then explains “rutabaga” numbers by calling them the opposite of “hopping,” which is an interesting way of putting it; I think that this could help a child understand the concept. It makes the reader think of the actual roots of a plant.
Literature is effective in teaching new mathematical concepts because it puts things in different words than a teacher would. This gives a different perspective that could help someone understand a concept more easily. Literature, such as these children’s books, also has really helpful visuals that add to the explanation and make it that much easier to understand. This book also gave many examples for each concept, while sometimes in class there is only time to give one example; having two or more examples gives the reader the ability to compare and form a deeper understanding of the concepts.
I enjoyed reading the synopsis of your children's book, and I agree even through reading just the summary I can tell that it is an effective learning tool for kids to learn about the number zero as well as exponents and their "jumpiness". From your summary it is easy to tell that this book would make learning these concepts easier for younger kids to understand and implement in their learning and work at school.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your stand on why these books are effective teaching tools, because it is true, these books do put learning in different words than teachers do and the visuals in these books make understanding these concepts easier and also makes applying them to real life situations easier.
I think its great kids get a way to break down harder problems through easier problems These books are great and a great way to teach also.
ReplyDeleteallie,
ReplyDeletethis is one of my favorite math books! it's in my office and i use it often when i teach pre-service elementary school teachers and i also use it to teach some concepts in my math 151 (finite math) class here at american. i really like your comment about "deeper understanding." the use of literature does encourage learners to think deeply and stretch their thinking skills.
professor little