Children\'s Mathematics

Figure 7.2b Louisa

Narrative actions

At this point, children often represent their graphic calculations as narratives. There

is a sense that the children are recounting a story, providing a strong sense of intro-

duction, sequenced narrative and conclusion. The operants ‘+’ and ‘–’ could be said

to act as ‘verbs’ and the numerals or objects as ‘nouns’. But this is not a ‘number

story’ in the traditional sense, as for example when teachers ask children to make up

a ‘story’ for the calculation 3 + 8.

William, 5:7, drew the total amount of books in two piles that he wanted to add

and then drew his hand linked to the one book he wanted to keep to read

(Figure 7.3b).The remaining grapes and books that these children had drawn

could then be counted to arrive at the answer.

John’s strategy (Figure 7.3a) is similar to Alice’s. John, 5:4, represented the total

number of grapes with numerals and in addition to crossing out those he wanted

to subtract, he had drawn arrows pointing to the two he was physically taking

away. We discuss this ‘narrative action’ and ‘narrative operations’ below.

112 Children’s Mathematics

Figure 7.2aAlice

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