Balancing Act: The Truth behind the Equals Sign Author(s): Rebecca L.

Mann Reviewed work(s): Source: Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol. 11, No. 2 (SEPTEMBER 2004), pp. 65-69 Published by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41198439 . Accessed: 03/10/2012 10:54
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_BalaoQpg^c The Truth behind

the Equals Sign
wrote" = " on the walkedintotheclassroom, Figure 1 "Whatdoes and askedthethird board, graders, A student simulates a balanced seesaw. the this mean?"You can probablyanticipate all thought it meant "The response thestudents some gentlenudging did answeris." Only after thestudents agreethatit could also mean"is the same as." is a of theequals signoperationally Thinking I school ofmany common elementary interpretation s and Findell2001; students Swafford, (Kilpatrick, i: NCTM 2000). Falkner, Levi,andCarpenter (1999) intheelementary "Children state, ~ grades generally should think that theequals signmeansthatthey that it and that out thecalculation precedes carry thenumber after theequals signis theanswerto schoolchildren thecalculation. Elementary generally do notsee theequals sign as a symbolthat 'is the same as' " expressesthe relationship 2 that indicates (p. 233). Theequalssignis a symbol . ofequality existsand that thetwovalthat a state ues on either sideof theequals signare thesame. It does notmeanthat theanswer is coming or that shouldhelp students in elementary theanswer is on theother sideofthesign. teachers years, An understanding of theconcept of equality is schoolcometo recognize theequalssignas a symandbalance. vitalto successful and is one of bol that thinking represents equivalence algebraic the which students should about bigideasofalgebra or equivalence, is reason. The concept of balance, By Rebecca L Mann thebasis forthecomprehension of equations and Rebecca Mann, rebecca.mann@uconn.edu, is a doctoral candidate at the Uniand Findell1999). Exposing |1 (Greenes inequalities of Connecticut in Educational Psychology/Gifted and Talented and Speversify ^ to thisimportant in the students algebraic concept /' Education. She is a formergifted-and-talentedresource teacher and ele^ lower is essential to develop an understand- &^ grades mentary classroom teacher. She has a special interest in concepts-based mathematics instructionas well as in giftedand learning-disabled students. ofwaiting to HHjj^^H (NCTM 2000). Instead ingofequality introduce the conceptduring the middleschool
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) Q.

Children Mathematics /September 2004 Teaching

65

Figure 2
Students' seesaws

il
1 !

f
I
from "The To help my studentstransition answer is" to the"is thesame as" modeof thinkaboutseesaws: a discussion ing,I initiated whenyougo on a seesaw? Me. Whathappens Sara. You go up anddownand iftheother personis big,likeyour dad,youstayup in theair. Sara meantwhenshe Me. Whatdo you think is big,youstay saidiftheother up intheair? person is Matthew. She meansthatif theother person then heavier, onlygo up and can't you sometimes howhardyoutry. comedownno matter Steven.Yeah, but if I go on with my little I go downand I can't stayup in theair. brother, I keepcoming backdown. EvenifI try, Me. Whydo yousupposethat happens? I mean, different. Maria.It'sbecauseyouweigh andhisbrother becauseSara andherdad orSteven Arcelia(hertwin don'tweighthesame.See, when sister)and I go on theseesaw,we can balanceit. That'sbecausewe arethesamesize. Me. So it is easierto balancetheseesawifyou areboththesamesize? (The class agrees.)

becameseesaws.With elbows The students then levelfacing theceiling, andpalmsat shoulder bent a balanced seesaw (see For a seesaw to be balanced,it musthavethe each student simulated I had an imaginary bassameamount ofweight on each end. fig.1). I toldtheclass that thateach big, fat, moreor less,theseesawwill ket of oranges, juicy If one endweighs stressing notbe balanced. orangeweighedexactlythe same as everyother seesawandaddsomething I also toldthem about basket Ifyouhavea balanced myimaginary orange. leftto oneend,itwillnotbe balanced ofapples.Thesepoorappleswerethescrawny anymore.
66 Mathematics /September 2004 Children Teaching

overs.Each appleweighed thesameas theothers, but each apple weighed much less than each I tookthestudents a series of Next, orange. through scenarios. "I justputan orange inyour hand," right I said. "Whathappened to yourseesaw?"The students leaned to the right."Now I am coming around and putting an orangein yourleft I hand," continued. "Remember that theoranges the weigh same. Now whathappensto yourseesaw?"The students theirseesaws straightened up, bringing intobalance."The oranges are stillin yourhands andI am goingto add an appleto yourleft hand," I said. Without forthequestion, theclass waiting to theleft."Whatshouldwe do to quickly tipped bring you intobalance again?"I asked. "Add an apple,"Jamalreplied."OK, I am comingaround and adding an appleto your left I said. hand," Some of the students stoodup straight, a few leanedevenfarther to their and themajority left, looked confused. A discussionbegan about the of thelastapple.The class cameto the placement consensusthatI had made a mistake. "So what me is thatif I had wanted to balyou are telling ance the seesaw,it makesa difference as to on whichside I place theapple?" I asked.The students "Yes!" responded, "OK!" I said."I'll taketheappleI justaddedto left handandmoveitto your hand." your right The students lookedrelieved to be backin balance.The lessoncontinued as I "removed" apples and orangesin different from the arrangements students' seesaws.I madea point theactivduring ityto add one orangeto each hand at the same to demonstrate how addingequal weight to time, bothsides of theseesaw does notchangethetilt of theseesaw. After outtheir tired thestudents arms, shaking wereaskedto create a setof "Seesaw Rules."Students worked in smallgroups to discusstheir ideas anddevelopa seriesof statements aboutbalancing seesawsas I movedfrom to group, encourgroup to extend their WhenI agingthestudents thinking. had determined thatall the essentialideas were into at least one of the lists,the incorporated shared their listsand cameto consensus as groups a class on thefollowing setofrules:

 If you have a balancedseesaw and takeaway from one end,itwillnotbe balanced something anymore. Ifyouhavea balanced seesawandaddthesame amount of weight to bothends,it will stillbe balanced. If you have a balancedseesaw and takeaway of weight from bothends,it thesame amount willstill be balanced.

I directed thestudents' attention totheblackNext, theequals sign.I board,on whichI had written students tomakea connection between encouraged theequals signandtheir seesaws. Me. Whatdoes thisequals sign on the board haveto do with seesaws? your Debbie. If you have two orangeson one side andtwooranges on theother side,it'sthesame.

Figure 3
Activities designed to encourage the development of number sense

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The red cylinders each weigh the same. The yellow balls weigh the same. The scale is balanced. What do you know about the weights of the balls and the cylinders?

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Each purple cylinderweighs the same. Each blue cylinderweighs the same. The scale is weights of the cylinders?

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balanced. What do youknow about the

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k'uecylinder thesame.Thescaleis weighs ^^^ balanced. What do youknow about the ^MHHiBBflHHIlBeB

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Each purple cylinderweighs the same. Each

weights of the purple cylinders and the blue cylinders?

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thesame.Thescaleis balcylinder weighs anced. What do youknow about theweights

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^acn green cube weighs the same. Each blue

Mathematics / September TeachingChildren

2004

67

Figure 4
Latisha's work on the problem

Theo.Yeah,youhaveto havethesamething on bothsidesof theseesawand youhaveto havethe samething on bothsidesoftheequals sign. Blake.Look at ourrules!Ifyouwant theseesaw tobe balanced, the sameweight must be oneachside and if you takesomething one side,it awayfrom won't be balanced. It'sthesamefor theequalssign. Me. Can anyone explainwhatBlake is talking about? and2 apples Sari.Well... ifyouhave3 oranges on one side of theequals sign, just likewe had on theseesaw, and3 oranges and2 appleson theother sideoftheequals sign,youhavethesameon both sides.If youtook2 applesawayfrom one side,it wouldn't be equal anymore; havethe youwouldn't sameon bothsides. Yeah! Andit wouldn't balance.See? To Nancy. be equal,bothsideshaveto balance.Cool!

A concerted effort overan extended periodof time is required to establish notions appropriate of equality. Teachers shouldalso be concerned aboutchildren's ofequality as soon conceptions as symbols forrepresenting number operations are introduced.Otherwise,misconceptions about equality can become more firmly entrenched, (p. 233)

Additional activities to whichthe students were the conceptsof balance exposed thatreinforced andequivalence werepan-balance scales,missingaddend problems,and open-number sentences suchas5 + 6 = A + 2or7-3 = l+O. Ifstudents were in doubt about theirsolutions, theywere to act out the problem on their own encouraged createdseesaw (see fig. 2). Students also had to experiment with balance-scale opportunities activities that thedevelopment of numencourage Thethird werebeginning tosee thecon- bersense;intheseactivities, balanceis maintained graders nections between theequals sign, and without values to different equivalence, assigningnumerical balance. activities to shapes.Figure 3 illustrates designed After thisinitial "seesaw"lesson,I encouraged encourage thedevelopment ofnumber sense.After students to revisit the balance idea on a regular analyzing the contents of the two pans,students I placed comparethe two sides and use theirdeductivebasis.Overthecourseof theschoolyear, on viewing theequalssignnotas an indi- reasoning skillstodetermine between emphasis relationships cationthat it was timeto execute an operation but theobjects, as Latishadid in figure 4. as an indicator of thepresence of a relationship. The concepts ofequivalence andbalancearean essential first In prepaFalkner, Levi,andCarpenter (1999) state, stepin algebraic thinking.
68 Children /September 2004 Mathematics Teaching

KarenP.,LindaLevi,andThomasP. Carpenter. Falkner, "Children's ofEquality: A Foundation Understanding forAlgebra." Children Mathematics 6 (4) Teaching (December1999): 232-36. Linda Dacey, Carol Greenes, Carole,MaryCavanagh, The resources listedbelowcontain balance-scale andMarianSmall.Navigating Findell, through Algeactivities in kindergarten bra in Prekindergarten-Grade 2. Reston, Va.: appropriate forstudents National CouncilofTeachers ofMathematics, 2001. through fifth grade. and Carol Findell. StuGilbert Greenes, Carole, Cuevas, J.,andKarolYeatts. "Developing Navigating through dents' Abilities." In Developing in Grades3-5. Reston, Va.: National CounAlgebraic Reasoning Algebra Mathematical inGradesK-12, 1999Yearcil ofTeachers ofMathematics, 2001. Reasoning bookof theNational Councilof Teachers of MatheCarol R. Findell, Carole E. Gavin, M. Katherine, editedby Lee V. Stiff. Va.: National andLindaJensen Sheffield. Awesome Math matics, Reston, Greenes, CouncilofTeachers ofMathematics, 1999. Problems Seriesof six books. for Creative Thinking. Jane andBradford Mountain 2000. Swafford, Findell, View,Calif.:Creative Kilpatrick, Jeremy, Publications, eds.Adding It Up: Helping Children LearnMathematGroundworks: Greenes, Carole,andCarolFindell. Algeics.Washington, D.C.: National 2001. braic Thinking. Palo Alto,Calif.: Creative PublicaPress, Academy National Councilor leachersor Mathematics 1999. tions, (NCTM). and Standards Linda Dacey, Carol Greenes, Carole,MaryCavanagh, Principles for School Mathematics. Va.: NCTM, 2000. A andMarian Small.Navigating Reston, Findell, through Alge-

ration for manipulating equations in secondary school, students should learn how to create and maintain balance (equality) in the lower grades (Greenes et al. 2001). Thinking algebraically should not be thedomain of middle school or high school students. The foundation can be, and should be, set duringtheprimary years.

bra in Prekindergarten-Grade 2. Reston, Va.: National CouncilofTeachers ofMathematics, 2001. and JudyGoodnow.Beginning Hoogeboom,Shirley, Ideal AlgebraThinking for Grades 3-4. Alsip,111.: SchoolSupply 1994. Company,

References

Resources for Teaching Equivalency

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