Final Blog Post

I see myself using high-level tasks a lot more often than I see myself having grand mathematical discussions with my students. Something I have definitely learned this semester is that we can hold students accountable for much higher thinking by simply presenting the mathematics involved in a different way. For instance, I was at first shocked that a first or second grader can already do multiplication and division when it is presented in a word problem and they are provided with manipulatives to help them. Now, after watching many students do these problems at this age, and watching the successes of my fourth graders in my placement classroom solve problems that I didn’t think they would be able to, I now plan to introduce more complicated problems to my students through word problems in this way. The way I envision it, I would have a grand math discussion at the beginning of a big, new topic, such as multiplication. Get the students thinking about multiplication in their own way, with their own invented algorithms or methods, then introduce to them the traditional algorithm and the math facts that are just more easily memorized. This way, they make their own connections first, then learn the formal method of expressing what they already know how to do. I will also use a lot of word problems in my classroom, rather than repeated practice from a textbook. Even the brightest students can think more deeply if the problem is presented in a word problem rather than a simple algorithm that they understand quickly. I want the students to feel comfortable sharing their methods in front of the class by having them present new and different ideas when they come up with them as often as possible. I have also learned in my placement class that mathematics assessment can be done for effectively and with less stress on the students when it is informal, rather than formal. The students in my placement classroom do really well when they are doing “classwork,” but as soon as it turns into completing a “test” the whole dynamic changes and the students literally panic. I don’t want my students to feel that pressure or that stress. I want to instill confidence in their mathematic abilities, rather than this fear of something graded. I also think it is important to have tiered learning in mathematics, just like in literacy. Some topics simply take longer for some students to learn. I think if a group of students is doing really well, they should be learning more complicated math so that they do not become bored during the school day. Similarly, I think if a group of students is struggling with one concept, they should spend more time on it until they feel as though they understand what they are doing. I think if I can tier their learning in this way, I can help students be stronger learners in general, as well as in math. I do also understand that I have to fit all of this into the standards set by the state and my future school district, so it may be a little idealized at the current moment.