Let’s Count On Math™ is a teaching framework that helps students understand mathematics by focusing on one fundamental idea:
Every mathematical concept begins by counting a quantity.
Over a student’s Kindergarten to Grade 12 school career, mathematics can appear to be hundreds of seemingly unrelated concepts, procedures, and algorithms. Let’s Count On Math™ provides teachers with an organizational framework that helps students recognize the common structure that connects these ideas.
These ideas are based in simple Sesame Street teachings - but run through much of K-12 mathematics.
First: Identifying like things (One of these things is not like the others...)
Second: Counting together things which fit the desired or described category (The Count)
The analogous structure of adding/subtracting covers many aspects of counting: cats, dogs, multiple additions or removals of a number, decimal operations, metric or imperial units, currencies, time units, fraction pieces, integers, algebraic expressions and equations, radicals, rational expressions, trigonometric terms, logarithmic terms, etc. Any time you are adding or subtracting "things", teaching these as analogous problems can make it much easier for students to understand.
The underlying supporting strategy to all of the counting like things is also simple: If things are "not alike", can we make them alike by "making change", i.e., converting whatever it is we are working with so that pieces can be counted together? Look at the list above and reflect on how often we teach students K-12 how to convert terms to an alternate form of equivalent value so that mathematics can continue.
To uncover that structure, students learn to ask three questions:
The first question, "What are we counting?" also informs us of when we cannot count things together because they are different, here are similar ideas:
cats/dogs → unlike fractional parts → unlike units → unlike algebraic terms → different variables → different trig forms → different logarithmic bases
These questions help students identify the quantity they are working with, recognize when they need to make change by rewriting quantities into equivalent forms so counting becomes possible, and connect new learning to ideas they already understand, thereby reducing cognitive load and anxiety.
The goal is not to replace existing mathematics curriculum or algorithms. It is to provide a simple organizational framework that helps mathematics make more sense, feel more connected, and become easier to understand, remember, and apply as students progress from Kindergarten to Grade 12.
Looking for an overview/summary with some easy examples? Download the LCOM Overview PDF here
LCOMOVERVIEW.pdf 326.23 KB
YouTube video: Introduction to Let's Count On Math
