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Math Card Games: Games for Learning and Enjoying Math
Book with DVD
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Joan A. Cotter
29 books2 followersJoan started a Montessori school and taught children, ages 3-6 years, as a Montessori teacher. She studied the Suzuki method and used it to teach violin and piano to young children. She also tutored children with learning problems and taught junior high mathematics.
Dr. Cotter founded Activities for Learning, designed the double-sided AL Abacus and wrote RightStart Mathematics, a comprehensive K-4 mathematics program that incorporates visualization, the AL Abacus, and math card games. The RightStart curriculum is an outgrowth of her doctoral research. Currently, she is writing middle school math curriculum, conducting workshops, and presenting at conferences nationally and internationally.
Dr. Joan A. Cotter received her BSEE (electrical engineering) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MACI (curriculum and instruction) from College of St. Thomas (now University of St. Thomas, Minnesota), and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (mathematics education).
Joan worked as an engineer at Univac (now Unisys), resigning when her children were born. She taught her three children at home before and after school and during summer vacations. To help them learn their basic arithmetic, she devised card games that became the basis of her first book, Math Card Games: 300 Games for Learning and Enjoying Math.
Joan and her husband, Al, have three adult children and four grandchildren.
Dr. Cotter founded Activities for Learning, designed the double-sided AL Abacus and wrote RightStart Mathematics, a comprehensive K-4 mathematics program that incorporates visualization, the AL Abacus, and math card games. The RightStart curriculum is an outgrowth of her doctoral research. Currently, she is writing middle school math curriculum, conducting workshops, and presenting at conferences nationally and internationally.
Dr. Joan A. Cotter received her BSEE (electrical engineering) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MACI (curriculum and instruction) from College of St. Thomas (now University of St. Thomas, Minnesota), and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (mathematics education).
Joan worked as an engineer at Univac (now Unisys), resigning when her children were born. She taught her three children at home before and after school and during summer vacations. To help them learn their basic arithmetic, she devised card games that became the basis of her first book, Math Card Games: 300 Games for Learning and Enjoying Math.
Joan and her husband, Al, have three adult children and four grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 26, 2021
This is a very helpful book that I will use for math tutoring. I appreciate the organization of the games from easiest to hardest within each chapter. There are a few things, though, that I didn’t like so much…
The insistence on subtraction after addition and division after multiplication seems pointless. I think it is helpful to introduce them together, as undoing each other. I prefer to do this with Cuisenaire rods because one picture represents both operations.
I also can’t get behind the strong use of memorizing skip counting patterns rather than using distributive property techniques which can be extended to larger numbers and are conceptually understood so that if the person forgets a math fact down the road he can figure it out easily. Discovering or even just being told various techniques for figuring out basic math facts develops mathematical flexibility. Memorizing skip count patterns circumvents the learning that could happen otherwise.
Some games were a bit hard to grasp when just reading through. There is a DVD that comes with the books, though. I’m sure that is helpful.
I haven’t tried all of them yet, but some games were just plain boring or too difficult for the kids I played with.
The book doesn’t use visualization very often. It shows THAT, but not necessarily WHY. The games are probably better for sequential learners than visual learners who would benefit from cuisenaire rods.
Overall, this is worth having but could have been better.
The insistence on subtraction after addition and division after multiplication seems pointless. I think it is helpful to introduce them together, as undoing each other. I prefer to do this with Cuisenaire rods because one picture represents both operations.
I also can’t get behind the strong use of memorizing skip counting patterns rather than using distributive property techniques which can be extended to larger numbers and are conceptually understood so that if the person forgets a math fact down the road he can figure it out easily. Discovering or even just being told various techniques for figuring out basic math facts develops mathematical flexibility. Memorizing skip count patterns circumvents the learning that could happen otherwise.
Some games were a bit hard to grasp when just reading through. There is a DVD that comes with the books, though. I’m sure that is helpful.
I haven’t tried all of them yet, but some games were just plain boring or too difficult for the kids I played with.
The book doesn’t use visualization very often. It shows THAT, but not necessarily WHY. The games are probably better for sequential learners than visual learners who would benefit from cuisenaire rods.
Overall, this is worth having but could have been better.
Displaying 1 of 1 review