I always struggled with math. My grades didn’t reflect that. I was a straight-A student who excelled in math on paper, but the concepts never stuck with me, and I always felt like I was racing against a clock (probably because sometimes I was literally racing against a clock. The words “Mad Minute” still give me heart palpitations.) I conceived of math as a rotating list of “tricks” to memorize and apply, and the ideas had no long-lasting application.
I was recently reading this EdWeek article with the advice to “Nix the Tricks” in mathematics instruction. In it, Dr. Hilary Kriesberg explains how an over reliance on “tricks” in early math instruction frustrates the real goal of mathematics, which is to provide meaningful understanding of numeracy.
One interpretation of a trick is an illusion (or a false idea). Another definition is “liable to fail.” This is exactly why we need to stop teaching children tricks in mathematics. The tricks are liable to fail once they’ve “expired,” and they create false perceptions that they always work.
The article goes on to provide specific examples of “tricks” we teach kids in math that don’t hold up as they advance, causing confusion and frustration. (See “13 Rules that Expire“).
We Teach "Tricks" in Writing, Too
As I read the rest of the article (which includes a rejection of the mnemonic “PEMDAS” and a plea to give more partial credit on math problems), I started to see the parallels between the “tricks” we teach in math and those we teach in writing.
The problems are similar, too.
Plenty of students learn writing “tips and tricks” in the early stages of becoming academic writers and then internalize these “rules” as something inherent to writing itself.
Just like math, this creates more attention on a set of arbitrary (and, way too often, incorrect and overly simplified) tricks rather than a deep understanding of writing as a form of communication.
Writing Tips and Tricks that Don't Hold Up
Here are some of the writing “tips and tricks” that I’ve seen students have to unlearn before they can truly engage with writing in a meaningful way:
- Never start a sentence with “because.” I know why teachers say this. It’s because they’re trying to avoid sentence fragments. If I use a subordinate phrase on its own, it’s not a complete sentence. Because teachers want to make sure learners are crafting complete sentences, they give them this “trick” that is absolutely not true. You can see that it’s not true by re-reading my last sentence. We can start sentences with “because” (and the other subordinating conjunctions) with no problems as long as we keep going to make them complete.
- Paragraphs have 4-5 (or 5-7) sentences. We should never tell a student how many sentences to put in a paragraph. The number of sentences has nothing to do with whether or not we break a paragraph. A paragraph is a collection of sentences that all focus on a single topic. When you’re done with the topic, you break the paragraph and move on to the next one. Sometimes you can do that in two sentences. Sometimes it takes fourteen. Teaching learners that paragraphs are defined by the number of sentences within them creates serious problems with organization and cohesion in later writing.
- Papers have five paragraphs. I’m on record as rejecting the five-paragraph essay pretty thoroughly, but if it is ever used for one of its limited purposes, it needs to be made clear to the writer that this is a specific exercise and not a rule. Papers have as many paragraphs as they need to do the job. Sometimes that’s five. Sometimes that’s two. Sometimes that’s 37.
- A good sentence contains a conjunction. Somewhere around fourth or fifth grade, we start teaching students how to combine sentences with conjunctions. That’s great! Creating complex sentences is an important skill that makes writing more interesting and effective. Sometimes, though, we start penalizing short, simple sentences and give the impression that only long, complex sentences will do. We start making “rules” about what makes a “good” sentence instead of letting the ideas, context, and writer’s own style dictate those choices. Short sentences can be powerful.
Why Do We Teach Bad Tips and Tricks?
Getting to the root of bad tips and tricks involves considering the purpose behind them.
They’re shortcuts, and we pretend they’re shortcuts to help students, but they’re really shortcuts to help overwhelmed teachers. Teaching a subject for mastery with all of its complexity takes time and space that many teachers are simply not granted. If you have to “cover” a particular amount of material in a given time period, you may get desperate.
Furthermore, plenty of teachers were themselves not taught with mastery and deeper understanding in mind. Having more honest, less superficial explanations on hand is hard and intimidating. Tips and tricks are easy and comforting.
What to Do Instead
We don’t do our learners any favors by shying away from the complexities of writing (or math) just to make it “easier” in the early stages.
Writing is communication, and communication is — by its very nature — messy, shifting, and context-dependent. Our learners know that because they are communicating beings that are part of complex social situations from birth.
By embracing that complexity early on, we set our writers up for deeper understanding, more confidence, and the ability to confront novel communication needs with flexibility as they arise.