Dr. Rochelle Gutierrez describes a “rehumanized mathematics” as one that “would depart from a purely logical perspective and invite students to draw upon other parts of themselves (e.g., voice, vision, touch, intuition).”
That’s why we encourage teachers to start with student senses early in the activity, focusing first on what students can notice and wonder and later on what they can calculate or compute.
Start with their senses.
On this screen in Balancing Act, for example, we hope you’ll consider celebrating all kinds of student noticings, taking care not to favor those that are more abstract (”Lychees are in a 3:4 ratio with strawberries”) over those that are more concrete (”The scale balances when there are more strawberries than lychees” or even “Lychees are purplish . . . I didn’t realize that”).
Mathematics often invites students to think abstractly—using numbers instead of objects, then variables instead of numbers. But students have so many valuable thoughts that are concrete and sensory.
When different kinds of thinking are valued in your math class, it’s more likely that different kinds of students will feel valued as well. We’re excited to partner with you and help extend those invitations.
Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team
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