Dylan's Guided Learning...Not Dictated Learning.

After reading and trying to understand Dylan's way of thinking (which took me a very long time!) it became so fascinating to me that a first grader who hadn't even begun learning subtraction could use his place value knowledge to figure out how to solve it. I am 24 years old and think to be educated and would have never thought of this strategy. It's amazing what our students can come up with! After learning this, it became apparent to me how truly important it is to provide our students with learning tools and vocabulary that guides their learning but doesn't dictate it. Often when I was a student, I felt that teachers taught us one way of figuring out a problem and that was it. There did seem to be much support for student's figuring out their own individual methods.
I think this article is a great eye opener for all to demonstrate just what our students are capable of. We must provide our students with the necessary tools for learning and then allow them to think creatively to find solutions to problems. Dylan's thinking is a great example of our students applying math knowledge to solving a problem.