Impacting Young Learners With Vertical Number Lines
Walk into a K-8 classroom and you will most likely see a horizontal number line posted on the wall. This is a great tool to help students visualize our number system. Teachers use number lines for more than just helping students learn how to count.
An important concept to teach students using the number line is that numbers to the right are greater than numbers to the left. This allows students to look at the number line and compare two numbers by their placement. Estimating value based on number line location is a great topic to work into a number talk session centered around number lines. Read more about number talks here.
But what about students, like me, who struggle with left and right?
A vertical number line offers a different way for kids to identify and compare numbers. Because it resembles a thermometer, some kids might relate better to it. The idea of increasing in value as you go up and decreasing as you descend often makes more sense to kids than the lateral change of a horizontal number line.
After my discovery of the Cyberchase episode “Less Than Zero” (read more about that here), my 5-year-old son and I started playing the integer game as we drove in the car. We would take turns asking each other, “Which is greater: 6 or -9?” Or perhaps, “Which is less: 1 or -4?” Because my son had this picture of a vertical number line in his head, and he knew the number on top was greater, he could accurately answer each time—even, “Which is greater: -1 or -4?” a concept my 7th graders constantly struggled with before I introduced them to the vertical number line.
Graphing of ordered pairs is another reason I recommend exposing all children to both vertical and horizontal number lines. What is graphing? The use of a vertical and horizontal number line (the axes) to locate a point. So if students have had exposure to both vertical and horizontal number lines before learning about graphing (x,y) the new idea and process just might be easier and make more sense.
How can you introduce or integrate both vertical and horizontal number lines into your home or classroom?
I feel so strongly that vertical numbers help students understand integers, I have a vertical number line printed on every Hunch card!
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