7 Ways to Balance Joy With Rigor in Math Class

Math is everywhere, and most kids engage with it on a daily basis without even knowing. 

That’s easy to see when you observe a teen budgeting to save up for concert tickets or a tween expertly measuring milk to make instant macaroni and cheese. So when students say they hate math and just aren’t “math people,” the reality is that what they’re likely reacting to is feeling “confused, intimidated, and embarrassed” by their experiences in math class, says veteran math teacher and Mathnasium founder, Larry Martinek. “Consider this: I don’t think anybody hates knowing how to play blackjack, or Monopoly, or how to figure out a good deal on a car.”

In high school math teacher Ranjani Iyer’s classroom, getting kids to see the “beauty of math” involves designing her lessons to include an evolving mix of rigor, relevance, and relationship. “I love sharing my passion for math with my students and showing them that math is central to solving real-life problems,” Iyer says. “Creating a positive environment where my students feel safe, open, and encouraged to explore problem-solving is essential.” Sometimes the shifts can be small and the strategies simple—but together they can encourage students to “let go of their fear of math, be curious, and explore the beauty in math.”

Finding ways to bring a sense of purpose and fun into math class doesn’t, however, mean sacrificing instructional rigor. In fact, building “joyful mathematics classrooms,” says Amy Noelle Parks, a professor at Michigan State’s College of Education, isn’t necessarily about ensuring students are always having a good time, though that’s likely a byproduct. “I think there is this quieter kind of joy that comes from making mathematical connections, and understanding the world in new ways, and grasping the thinking and ideas of others,” she says. “When I'm pointing toward joy, that's part of what I'm trying to point toward.”

Here are seven teacher-tested ways to create the type of joyful math environment that motivates students to move beyond defeat and tackle tough math head-on: 

Poll Students: Each December, former math coach Mona Iehl conducted a quick needs assessment, surveying students about “where we’ve come from and where we’re going,” Iehl writes for Middleweb. The process helped her level set and prepare for the remainder of the school year. She’d ask three simple questions, which students would reflect on individually then discuss in small groups:

• What do you need?
• What do others in our community need?
• What can we give?

Consider adding a fourth question about the types of math activities that resonate for students, writes high school STEM teacher Katherine Rowe. For example, “What math activities do you enjoy the most, and why?” or “Can you think of a time when math class felt fun for you? What made it enjoyable?” This type of student feedback can help you make small adjustments to lessons and instructional materials to make them more engaging.

Experiment to Get Unstuck: “Good problem-solving tasks require students to get stuck and then to think, to experiment, to try and to fail, and to apply their knowledge in novel ways in order to get unstuck,” writes Peter Liljedahl, author of Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics. The process of mustering the courage to try, struggle, and still fail can be frustrating for many students and even push some to conclude they’re “not a math person.” 

At this point, it’s important to “validate students' sense of frustration when they are not getting it,” and intuitively adjust on the go—”stepping back to build a foundation to connect with the new skill,” says educator Lydia De Jesus. This could look like allowing a lesson to cover two periods instead of one, or “co-teaching with another educator to assist students who might need extra help,” writes instructional coach Peg Grafwallner.

Additionally, remind students that “being frustrated and struggling is normal,” according to learning scientist Manu Kapur. This flips students' perspective, reminding them that struggle is a normal part of learning. Kapur continues: “And if you do it long enough, when students are stuck, for example, or they struggle or they're frustrated, instead of giving up, the signal is, ‘Okay, maybe I'm in the right space now. Maybe I need to adapt.’” 

Find Opportunities for Choice: Students don’t have much choice in math class, Parks says. “Their experiences are often so constrained by adults,” she explains. Occasionally, consider letting students choose if they want to work with others or not. When you have the opportunity, offer students several different ways to complete the work, suggests elementary math teacher Jordan Sabinsky, such as in their notebooks or on a whiteboard. To explain their work, students could choose to record a short video or audio clip of themselves speaking, write out a written reflection, or use sketchnotes to represent their thinking. It’s a small shift—but it signals to kids that they can and should have some say in their learning.

Get Students Talking: A quiet classroom can be deceptive: students who are sitting silently might look composed and engaged but may in fact be feeling lost, distracted, or confused. The benefits of getting students talking about math are well-documented and can lead to improved math proficiency and understanding. The prospect of chatting with a peer, even about math, can perk a student up. 

Number talks—five- to 15-minute classroom conversations about purposefully crafted problems that are solved mentally—are a key strategy used by math lecturer Howie Hua to get his students thinking creatively about math. “Just throw a problem on the board, like 38 + 45, and then you have students hold the number of fingers up to show how many different ways they can think about it,” Hua says. “The teacher would say, ”OK, what’s the answer?” And then, “How many different ways are you able to see it?”

This activity gets students focusing on process rather than on final answers, which Hua prefers: “When people say math is boring, maybe it’s because the focus is on the final answer rather than on listening to other people’s thinking.” 

Open Strong: The first few moments of class are prime real estate; offering an opportunity to “enliven—or extinguish—student interest and learning,” writes former Kansas teacher of the year Curtis Chandler for MiddleWeb. Well-designed warm-up activities can capture student attention and open a window to introduce something new or revisit something familiar. 

Some days require jumping right into a traditional math problem, but when you can, consider starting class with an unexpected opener. Try out a math-related read-aloud, like a short story involving math or a passage about mathematics in art or sports, suggests Bonnie Duhé, vice president of math curriculum at Accelerate Learning. High school math teacher Lorenzo Robinson occasionally starts class with a math brain teaser: “It makes students feel as though this class is not going to be scary, it’s going to be interesting. ‘We’re going to be learning, but we’re also going to have some fun,’” Robinson says.

Make Connections: Making connections to the real world, where possible, helps make abstract concepts more accessible to students. Math teacher Alicia Wimberley asks her class to plan and budget for a hypothetical road trip from their home state of Texas to the Grand Canyon, while math educator Rachel Aleo-Cha has students calculate sales tax on items they covet—from Airpods to makeup palettes. 

Pressed for time? You’d be surprised how something as simple as slightly tweaking word problems can bring a smile to a student’s face, says educator Carol Johnston. Including details from sports they like or teachers in the school to classmates and siblings “makes the problem more realistic” and helps students “connect to it more and enjoy it.”

Get Moving, Doing, and Re-Doing: Former high school math teacher Rachel Fainstein suggests getting students up and moving frequently throughout class. “For example, ‘stand up, find a partner, explain your work as you walk and talk,’” she says. Alternatively, after 20-30 minutes of concentrated study, a three-to-five minute brain break where students cycle through a quick sequence of exercises can keep kids alert during a long lesson while providing a vehicle for joy and connection. 

Hands-on activities give students “opportunities to investigate, experiment and make connections on their own” while building core social-emotional competencies like collaboration and communication, says Duhé. In middle school math classes at the Vorbasse Skole in Denmark, sixth grade teacher Lea Kirkegaard and her co-teacher—with the help of a playful learning coordinator—transformed a geometry unit into a hands-on dynamic activity that got students out of their seats and collaborating. The room was filled with chatter as students used materials like sticks and clay to build three-dimensional models. During a different part of the lesson, students used string and chalk to draw a perfect circle on the floor. On their hands and knees, students worked through cycles of trial and error, wiping away their mistakes with ease and starting anew.