“Digital Mathematics Storytelling is a mechanism in which students use videos, photographs, and audio to craft and share mathematically rich narratives from their families and communities”
While youths in urban emergent communities live mathematically rich lives, they are provided few opportunities to connect their out-of-school mathematical knowledge to in-school mathematics tasks that are unproportionally based on non-culturally relevant examples, such as measuring ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. As a result of this disconnect, fractions and other rational numbers effectively become gatekeepers, pushing youths in urban emergent communities out of a pathway to develop proportional reasoning and algebraic thinking knowledge. This disconnect violently severs opportunities for youth in urban emergent communities to develop their own mathematics narratives in their own voices and languages, thereby pushing them away from a future STEM-related career.
Hence, our research team explores the use of Digital Storytelling for children in urban emergent communities to document, share, and showcase the rich mathematical knowledge that exists in their own communities. Not only will this research use current technology to engage children in creating their own mathematics narratives, it will develop a repository of authentic digital mathematics stories that will be available for all teachers and families to disrupt the canon of mathematics examples centered on white, middle-class norms.
Digital Mathematics Storytelling revolves around telling a personal story, one that centers on a students’ experiences and insight. Think of stories that you would share around a meal or family gathering, tales that can be told and retold. These stories often do not follow traditional three-act framework common in Western media, but instead draw upon local community storytelling archetypes involving folktales and family histories. Therefore, it does not involve just creating explanation videos of how one solved a mathematics problem based. Rather, Digital Mathematics Storytelling shows mathematics as it really exists within the community, showcasing not only mathematics, but the beauty of the community itself.
WE ARE ALL MATHEMATICAL BEINGS
In the story circle figure, a 4th-grade child tells a story about measuring flour when making biscuits, making a surface-level connection to mathematics. The child tells a story about how she sees fractions when following cooking recipes. A community volunteer mentions that, in her own kitchen, she rarely measures ingredients, but cooks using experience and “feel” and wonders if the child’s family cooks similarly.
The community member and other children suggest the story delve into how the child actually “lives” mathematics at home. A week later, in a second storycircle, the child reveals a new story about the rich mathematics she experiences with her mother and aunts when they cook a seven-dish family dinner together.
The story details the intricate mathematics necessary to ration the ingredients and time so that all seven dishes are ready at exactly 6PM. The story details the body language, laughter, and kitchen shorthand that make up this mathematically rich space, positioning the mother and aunts as mathematical beings.
The Storycircle
Families often do things together that connect to math–even if at first it doesn’t seem that way. Digital math storytelling is a process where you and your family can share the stories that make you unique, while also seeing the math that is a part of your daily life. Family stories aren’t just special memories you all share, they are powerful resources for your child’s learning. When you make digital math stories, your child’s teacher will be able to better create instruction that connects to your child, your family and your community.