About

What is Meaning4Memory?

Meaning for Memory is a philosophy that students will remember more of what they truly understand.  It is call to connect the conceptual to the procedural so students will know when and how to apply those procedures to solve problems.  It is a call to illicit procedures from context.  It is a call to ask ourselves and our students, “What does that mean?  Where does that come from?  Why does that work?  & When will that apply?” in addition to answering, “How?”  It is a call for we as teachers to spend time preparing the How of Instruction in addition to How Will They Do It.   It is a call for us to reflect on whether or not we are teaching procedures devoid of meaning, which even if spewed back on some form of assessment will soon be forgotten.

Related to this, it is a call for cumulative formative assessments to keep both teachers and students accountable for moving knowledge from short term to long term memory.  Most of all, it is a call for making math education more equitable by moving away from procedure-based teaching that rewards those with innate procedural memory and sometimes little understanding to teaching for meaning that rewards all. A call to make sure high achievers understand what they do and know when to do it, and a call to make sure low achievers are given access and a chance to improve their status.

About Dave

Dave Mattoon is the Secondary Math Coach for Hemet Unified School District. Dave has a passion for pictorial mathematics, and he is interested in how students acquire number sense, understand algebra, and the relationships between the two.
Related to this, it is a call for cumulative formative assessments to keep both teachers and students accountable for moving knowledge from short term to long term memory.  Most of all, it is a call for making math education more equitable by moving away from procedure-based teaching that rewards those with innate procedural memory and sometimes little understanding to teaching for meaning that rewards all. A call to make sure high achievers understand what they do and know when to do it, and a call to make sure low achievers are given access and a chance to improve their status.