Easy to teach, easy to learn.

Section Contents

4 Key Teaching Techniques

Concrete Models Lay a Firm Foundation

A Closer Look At PictoCard Lessons

Math Pictocards 101

The Basics

Math PictoCards are a complete arithmetic curriculum designed for students of all ages to master 1-digit facts.

Our goal is to provide resources for parents and students to confidently and successfully teach and learn math.

Each section below explains how we harness the brain to make arithmetic easy to teach and easy to learn.

A Detailed Overview of How Math PictoCards Works

4 Key Teaching Techniques

In addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, we teach with 4 key teaching techniques that are backed by scientific research to increase understanding, retention, and recall.

Teach in Groups of Related Facts

The first technique is to teach in groups of related facts. When a new concept is taught, if meaning & association are not attached, within 24 – 48 hours that concept is gone.

It’s fascinating reading how the brain works and what actually happens to this memory, but what we really care about is that our students can’t remember what we taught the day before; it’s forgotten. This happens a lot with our current teaching methods, and we want to avoid that.  So basically we teach in groups of related facts to attach meaning and association so new information becomes part of long-term memory.

Teach Big Picture to Detail & Vice-Versa

The second technique is to teach big picture-to detail & detail-to-big picture. The right side of the brain processes from big picture to detail. The left side processes from detail to big picture. Often the big picture is left out, and this minimizes understanding.

When you teach both together, this left / right communication across the center area of the brain, this is where you get the understanding. So we want to teach both big picture and detail to get understanding to get strong memory structures.

Students Teach

The third technique is to have the students teach. When students output information, the brain goes through physical processes that strengthen memory connections.

So whatever your student learns that day, you want them to talk about it because this increases their level of understanding and strengthens the physical memory structures.

Teach Students to Identify Math Problems

The fourth technique is to teach students to identify the math problem. In real life, math problems don’t come with labels, and tests don’t come with example problems.

This is an area that’s often skipped, but we want to set a foundation for success in all math, not just arithmetic. So teaching them to identify the math problem is key.

2:55 | Part of the PictoCards Overview Series

Concrete Models Build a Firm Foundation

Don’t Skip the Foundation

With each of our operations, we have a step-by-step outline for introducing that operation using objects in real-life activities. So before students get to the PictoCard lessons, they’re going to learn the vocabulary, concepts, and strategies for that operation in the concrete mode.

Concrete Models Develop Five Areas

Concrete models develop five areas to equip students for future abstract computing:

Vocabulary

Thinking Skills

Mind Imaging

Confidence

Understanding

When you use workbook pictures to introduce concepts, you’re starting midway between the concrete and the abstract; you’re skipping laying this firm foundation for all of math.

Success in math is how you build; don’t skip a game-changing foundation.

1:44 | Part of the PictoCards Overview Series

A Closer Look At PictoCard Lessons

Let’s take a closer look at the PictoCard lessons as part of our Multiplication set.

The PictoCard lessons are designed to streamline mastery of the 81 1-digit facts after students have learned basic multiplication concepts, vocabulary, and strategies using concrete models as described in our last section. Our Outline for Introducing Multiplication shown in our Teacher’s Guide excerpt steps parents and students through this process.

Learning these concepts, vocabulary, and strategies prior to the PictoCard lessons allows students to stay focused during the lessons on learning the facts in a streamlined manner like a well-ordered file cabinet.

Orderly input maximizes output.

Each PictoCard Lesson Has 3 Steps

So here’s a look at the 3-step format that is used for every lesson in all 4 of our arithmetic sets.

1.  Identify (Classify) Facts in this Group.

Students are taught what to look for to identify facts in the current lesson’s group.  As they practice separating facts for this lesson, this identification process sharpens their strategic thinking skills; grouping related facts strengthens associations and teaches students to match facts with the group’s strategy.

2.  Practice the Strategy for Solving Facts in this Group

Students use the given strategy on the group’s identification card to solve facts in the lesson’s group.  For multiplication, students use the Math Mat.  For increased understanding, students should talk about and teach what they’re doing.  This step is repeated for each fact in the lesson’s group.

3.  Create and Update a Big Picture of Facts Learned

Students need to connect the details learned in Step 2 with the big picture to maximize understanding.  In Step 3, students create a cumulative fillable Multiplication Chart to serve as a big picture reference to strengthen associations and to increase understanding for strong memory structures.

Each of the 9 multiplication lessons should be repeated over the course of several days until the student has a good grasp of the material before proceeding to the next lesson.

3:10 | Part of the PictoCards Overview Series