Hello! My name is Caroline Farkas, and I am an educator who is passionate about helping students love math. I hope I can share some helpful tips with you today on why it is important to make math visual for your students!
In math education, we often hear about giving students rich tasks and a variety of opportunities to problem solve. Students can become frustrated due to not always having the tools to help solve these complex math problems. What is my secret to keeping students engaged without giving up? Math visuals!
Here are 6 benefits of using visuals in math class.
We have all seen those word problems about some guy buying 200 watermelons! While we can all laugh about some of the ridiculous word problems we have come across in math class, one thing is clear- we need to be able to visualize what is happening in the problem. If a student does not know what a watermelon looks like, they might not be able to visualize a pile of 200! The first mathematical practice is for students to “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them”. Visuals are so crucial to helping students make sense of what is happening in the problem that they are trying to solve.
How can you support this as the teacher? If I know there is a word problem that will have something difficult to visualize, I will find a picture of it and post it on the board for my students! For example, I gave students a word problem about tricycles and put a tricycle photo on the board before they attempted to solve it.
Visuals help students connect what they are learning to real-life situations! Fractions are a great example of this. When students are adding or subtracting fractions, they can use math clipart that is a real-life object like fraction donuts or fraction pies to help them visualize the problem. This helps them see what is going on in the problem, and also how they might apply it to real life. Another example? Drawing rooms or rugs to teach area and perimeter. The visual or picture can help link the abstract math concept to concrete ideas in the real world.
How can you support this as the teacher? Try to connect each topic you teach to a real-life situation. You can connect fractions to cooking, geometry to home renovations, place value to Youtube views….the list goes on. Get creative and show them visually how math is connected!
We often need supports and scaffolds in place for our students who are struggling to learn a concept. Math is no exception and math visuals can be an extremely powerful tool. It can help students make very complex, abstract problems more concrete for them to solve. Visuals can also help students dispel any misconceptions they might have about a word they are unfamiliar with. For example, when a student from another country solves a math problem involving football, it would be helpful to show them the type of field you are talking about because football can mean different things depending on your personal experiences.
How can you support this as the teacher? Before giving a student a problem, think about what they might not be able to relate to or what complex portion needs to be broken down into more manageable chunks. Give students pictures, clipart, or math manipulatives to help them solve the problem!
Students are much more likely to try to show their thinking when you give them multiple options to do so! The more options a student has to visually show their work the better! Try teaching students how to use math manipulatives, drawing visuals, box diagrams, number lines, and illustrations to solve a problem so that they can find a strategy that works best for them. By explicitly teaching visual strategies, students will have the tools to always show their thinking in a variety of ways and will not get stuck which can lead to refusal of showing their thinking altogether.
How can you support this as the teacher? For each activity give students multiple options to show their thinking visually. They can draw a picture or use math manipulatives. Taking a math test? They can use math clipart or draw a model in the answer. Allowing options gives students the tools that work best for them. Keep scrap paper easily accessible to students so they always have extra space to show their thinking.
Students are much more likely to enjoy a math activity if it is either hands-on or visually appealing! What would you rather solve- a worksheet with no pictures and a bunch of word problems or colorful real-life examples that pull you in? By giving students assignments, problems, and activities with visuals, they will be more excited to participate in math class.
How can you support this as a teacher? Try to add a visual even when there isn’t one. Sometimes as teachers, you have to assign specific things. Find a way to add a visual through clipart, add math manipulatives or add a silly word problem to help students visualize it in another way! Teachers can adapt the curriculum they use to make it more visually appealing to students.
Coloring and doodling have been linked to lowering anxiety and memory retention! Help your students enjoy learning math by giving them the power of visuals. Have them doodle while they take notes or color a math visual directly before or after a stressful situation to decrease anxiety.
How can you support this as the teacher?
Give your students the opportunity to draw, doodle, and use color when solving math problems! When a student finishes a problem, you can challenge them by asking “Can you draw a picture of what is happing in that problem?”
There are many ways to make math visual for students! Some helpful tools are using math manipulatives, drawing math pictures, and using math clipart to help students make sense of math concepts. I like to give students multiple ways to visually show their thinking so they can choose what works best for them! One student might prefer the kinesthetic approach of snapping cubes together, while another might prefer a clipart of neon fraction donuts to solve a problem. I try to explicitly teach my students how to solve a problem in multiple ways.
Want a set of free fraction donut clipart to use in your classroom as a math visual?
Have more questions about specific ways to add visuals to your math resources? Feel free to contact me at Contact@doodleslearning.com. You can also visit my website www.doodleslearning.com or my store at Doodles and Digits.
Caroline Farkas is a math educator who specializes in creating math visuals. As a teacher, she often struggled to find fun and visually appealing resources for my students in math. After 7 years of teaching in the classroom, she was called to create math clipart. Her goal is to inspire all students to love math. In Caroline’s free time, you can catch her spending time with her husband and little boy. They love to camp, travel to new places, and play video games together!
You might also like our post about how English Language Learners benefit from visuals in the classroom.
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