As I developed the story for Newton’s Nemesis, I wanted the underlying narrative to reinforce growth mindset, or more specifically, mathematical mindset. Jo Boaler, a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, authored a wonderful book entitled Mathematical Mindset that encourages a culture shift in classrooms that rewards children for exploring mathematics. If children are […]
The other day, a math teacher sent me a lovely compliment about Newton’s Nemesis and asked if I knew much about how students with dyscalculia
In Newton’s Nemesis, I wanted to provide a nice variety of visual and mental images of division with both whole numbers and fractions. The idea was to help children connect how operations have the same underlying meaning. When children connect the structural elements of whole number division and fraction division, they are reasoning by creating
I was telling a math teacher friend about the comic book series I was developing about teaching fraction division, which really was based on how division is understood. She excitedly asked, “Which model of division are you using?” I said, “Both!”  If you search for the two models of division on the Internet you’ll
In Newton’s Nemesis, I created Theo’s precocious little sister Leah not only because I was like that to my older sister (yes, I regret that a little bit now) but because I wanted to connect division with whole numbers and fractions. There is some evidence that the difficulties with fraction division are rooted in understanding division…
