My class cheered out loud whenever I announced we were going to do a story/lesson from Zip and Abby. They loved it, and it worked. They learned to pay attention to the whole sentence, not just part of it. The focus on math words and phrases inside full sentences greatly improved my students’ ability to hear and read word problems with understanding – and that is what they had struggled most with.
Before Zip and Abby, if a word problem said something like ‘Sal has 2 more books than Kim,’ many of my kids would be thinking that Sal has 2 books. Now they are in the habit of picturing the meaning of a number or math term in context, not in isolation.
It’s a bonus that students can use Zip and Abby whenever they have access to a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone. The app engages kids whether they use it on their own or in class.
Common core math wasparticularly challenging for my class of second graders, most of whom began the year behind in math. But Zip and Abby made my job easier because it gave my students the language skills they needed in order to better understand me and the math program we used.
I’m already using Zip and Abby this school year with a Kindergarten class. So far, I am finding the same engagement, and am looking forward to similar results.
