Maths and Literature: The Narrative-First Approach
/By Michael Minas
At the beginning of 2018 I moved into the year 5/6 team, which meant I was about to start working with a new group of teachers. As we approached the first day back, I knew that I wanted problem solving to be a focus of our planning and I began to think about the best way to get the rest of the senior team on board with this plan. Luckily, I had a fresh and exciting idea to bring to our team’s first planning session.
At the 2017 MAV Conference, I was lucky enough to attend a professional development workshop on the “Narrative-First Approach”. At this session, James and Toby Russo outlined a new way to use picture story books as a launch pad for engaging mathematics lessons. Rather than looking for books with obvious links to particular mathematical concepts (e.g. using “The Doorbell Rang” by Pat Hutchins when exploring division), the Russos were advocating an entirely different approach. They suggested that teachers first select an engaging text and then use the key components of the narrative to develop an appropriate mathematical problem.
Planning
Feeling confident in the knowledge that my colleagues were open to exploring new ideas, I suggested that we try this approach to plan a problem solving unit for term one. We agreed that each teacher would bring a picture story book along to our team’s first planning session, with the only selection criteria being that it was a great book.
Planning day got off to a good start, as everyone arrived with a picture story book in hand. We first had a team discussion on how to plan a problem solving lesson using the Narrative-First Approach, using an example that the Russos had shared at the MAV conference (“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak”). We then worked in smaller groups of two or three teachers to plan problem solving tasks linked to our selected texts.
I worked with an experienced teacher named Kim and we first planned around the text I had brought- “Have You Seen Elephant?” by David Barrow. This book is about a young child playing hide and seek with an elephant. On each page, the elephant is attempting to hide in a different location but, despite his best efforts, he can be easily seen due to his enormous size. However, for some unexplained reason, (SPOILER ALERT) the boy in the story can never find the elephant and he eventually gives up looking.
We had little trouble coming up with a problem solving activity that we felt had a strong connection to the central theme of the book. We gave each student one of the illustrations from the book (showing the elephant standing next to the boy, his pet dog and a fence) and asked them to use the information contained in the picture to estimate the elephant’s height. For an enabling prompt, we asked them to work out their own height and prompted them to use this information to assist with the initial problem. And the extending prompt asked them to find some places around the school where the elephant would be able to effectively hide, using the estimated height they had just calculated.
However, while “Have You Seen Elephant?” was fairly easy to plan for, we had significant difficulties when it came to our second text. Kim had selected “The Red Tree” by Shaun Tan, a book about a lonely red-haired girl who is experiencing depression. We spent a reasonable amount of time looking at the text from a variety of angles but, despite our best efforts, we found it very difficult to design a problem solving task with authentic links to the story. In the end, we decided to abandon this text and went with another option. Despite our difficulties with this particular text, the rest of the planning session was a success and at the end of the day, the team had a problem solving unit that featured seven good lessons, all linked to an engaging picture story book.
Teaching
When it came time to use these problems with our students, the team all followed a similar lesson structure. First we read the books to our classes without mentioning the accompanying problem solving task. This was to ensure that the texts were being honoured for the great books that they all were.
After reading and discussing the texts with the students, we introduced the problem solving task. This part of the lesson was very similar to what our students were already familiar with. After launching the task, the class was asked to work in complete silence for five minutes, to give each student an opportunity to get started on the task without their thinking being influenced by their peers. At the conclusion of the silent time, the students were free to work independently or collaboratively. Enabling prompts were left in a familiar spot in the room, where students could access them as required. And extending prompts were handed out by the teacher to students who successfully completed the initial task.
Reflections
At the end of the unit, students were given the opportunity to write reflections on it. Below is a sample of their thoughts.
“I think the book problem solving was really fun so I think we should do more of it. Some of the problems were slightly easier but some of them were challenging.”
Sasha
“I loved term1 problem solving because each session we read a really good book and then did a problem based on the book we read. I much preferred the picture story book problem solving to usual problem solving.”
Jordan
“Problem solving was quite challenging but I am proud of my work. Most weeks I would get into the ‘zone of confusion’ but most weeks I find a way out of it. I enjoyed the picture story problem solving because I liked how all of the problems were connected to the book.”
Emma
“I liked the approach of the picture stories because we got to read great books. I also think the problems were too much of a mixture of levels because some were too easy or too hard.”
Asher
The above comments are a fairly good representation of the entire sample of reflections. The vast majority of students reported that they really enjoyed working on problems with links to books which they had just read. However, a reasonable proportion also reported that they felt that some of the problems we planned were either too difficult or not challenging enough.
The difficulty in pitching the problems at an appropriate level seems to be related to the fact it was the first time using this approach for the teachers who planned this unit, myself included. Some of the teachers addressed this issue in reflections they wrote for this article.
“I found it quite difficult to get my head around at first, particularly during the planning phase. After some practice with colleagues and developing the prompts independently, I started to feel more comfortable when planning for the narrative first approach. When using this approach in the classroom, I found it extremely engaging for my students and an amazing way to incorporate literature in the maths classroom.”
“Some texts lend themselves to it better than others, but once you've done one or two lesson plans, you can see possibilities all over the place.”
The teachers involved also spoke about how the use of a picture story book helped particular students who usually find problem solving especially difficult.
“I noticed that some of my students who have difficulties applying skills to problem solving found it easier when the problem came from a story, so I think that additional context is really supportive for some students.”
“In one particular session, using ‘Have You Seen Elephant?’ by David Barrow, a student who at times found problem solving quite challenging, flourished as he used life knowledge to help solve the problem. When confronted with the problem, many students looked to the height of the boy to help solve the problem, this student used his knowledge about his backyard at home. As he had understanding of the fence height, he was able to transfer this to understand the scale.”
Finally, teachers also commented on the positive effect that this approach had on the books that their children selected to read.
“I also noticed an effect the other way, that using picture story books in maths lent those books a kind of gravitas. Some students who normally would dismiss them as 'too easy' or have that snobbishness about them actually began to ask to read those books during independent reading time. Almost like it legitimised picture story books because maths is important and weighty, so now the books are too.”
In summary, I thought this unit was really successful and I would encourage other teachers to try this approach with their own classes. More information on the “Narrative-First Approach” can be found at bit.ly/narrativefirst
(This article originally appeared in Prime Number- Term 2, 2019.)