Mathematics is a Story

As I look forward to entering my 40th school year, 26 in the mathematics classroom and the rest as a secondary mathematics resource teacher, I spend most of my waking hours thinking about the art and science of teaching. I have finally hit upon a metaphor that seems to resonate with educators.

I believe that mathematics is a complete and coherent (beautiful) story that begins at birth and ends, I guess, at death. For most, it formally begins in school and continues until a child is out of school. Each of a child's teachers is the sacred keeper of a chapter of this story. It is the teacher's job to make their chapter the most engaging piece of the story possible. Characters, plot, storyline must all develop in a logical sequence. These story aspects must fit coherently into place based on what came before. Connections must be made to previous characters and students need to understand how the characters will fit into the subsequent chapters. The story needs to be exciting, must capture attention, must motivate the students to want to hear and learn more. Think about what has happened to each and every one of us when we started to read a book and it was boring or, for whatever reason, didn't grab our attention. It doesn't matter if someone else tells you what a great book it is, most of us will not pick it back up. Especially when there are so many other options available. Once interest is lost in a story, it's difficult to gain that interest back. Now, think about a story where you were interested but all of a sudden, new characters are introduced or the plot line seems to diverge. Well, now the story loses me for another reason and, most likely, I've lost interest.

I'm thinking about teachers who use slang instead of correct mathematics terminology. As a student, I'm losing the storyline and the characters. Think about the teacher who teaches tricks instead of conceptual understanding. As a student, I can't follow the plot line. Think of the teacher who never lets students engage in a discussion about the story. As a student, I'm tuning out because I have all these thoughts in my head about the story but no one lets me share. Wow! What is the actual probability of any student getting 12+ amazing storytellers in their school life? Unfortunately, the probability must be near zero. This has to change! Every student is entitled to teachers who believe that their chapter of the story is sacred and worth conveying as if it is the beautiful wisdom, the flame of life. This means that teachers need to understand the content and they need to understand the pedagogy that underpins that content.

As I begin this new school year, I am committed to having conversations with math teachers about how their chapter of the mathematics story can be developed and shared with students to keep them clambering for more. I want every math teacher to know the joy when their class period is over and the students say, "WHAT, class is over already?!"

Is It Really New?

Went to a mandatory two-day training last week to be introduced to a digital platform for housing our curriculum. The platform is a component of a system our county has been using for about 8 years. Throughout the training, the facilitators touted the benefits for teachers of having the curriculum available digitally. We were shown how the teachers would be able to take the core documents and develop and change them to fit the needs of their students. They would be able to add resources to make the curriculum fit their needs. WAIT! HOLD UP! Haven't our teachers been doing that forever? Maybe not storing their changes digitally but certainly they have been supplementing the county curriculum however and whenever they chose. Many of them have supplemented and changed programs so much that the core purpose of the course is barely recognizable. As our office has pushed to make courses student-centered; writing instructional guides for the curriculum that suggest interactive activities, connections among content, and ways to improve the pedagogy, many teachers have consistently supplemented or ignored the suggestions giving students worksheets and tricks; offering the same old same old and wondering why their students can't retain information or problem solve. How will a digital platform change instruction?

Regardless of how the curriculum is housed, the teacher is the strongest indicator of whether students will learn the content. Great teachers need nothing more than a good, solid curriculum and their expertise, creativity, and relationship-building skills. It doesn't matter whether the course is built on paper, carried around on a thumb-drive, or accessible online. Showing a video that peels away the layers of a cell is no more effective than when a teacher had a pile of transparencies overlaid in such a way to peel away those same layers. If we think students are more receptive to watching and hearing a stranger on a video present content then we better look inward to find out why they aren't tuned into us as their teachers.

The biggest disappointment at the end of the last day of the training was when the facilitator showed a video of the digital platform being used by a teacher in another state. This commercial for the program did more to turn off the audience in the room than anything that had happened previously. It was the end of the second day and we were starting to brainstorm the capabilities of the program. This video showed the worse case scenario. The teacher in the video had built a 'playlist' of assets that became her 'lesson'. She then turned on the playlist, which played on a Smartboard, and the students sat taking notes. She basically was unnecessary after she hit 'play'. REALLY?! How is this different than death by PowerPoint or death by teacher droning on for 45 minutes? This was new? No, this was kids staring at a screen taking notes while someone spewed information.

Thank goodness our curriculum office personnel were appalled at this scenario. The video gave us a chance to share ideas for using the platform that would make our classrooms look different; a chance to talk about how to use the platform to individualize learning, and a chance to realize that without the principals on our side this will not work. We have been trying to change what happens in the classroom for many years. But, what is evaluated at the schoolhouse level will always trump any pedagogy shifts initiated in the curriculum offices. If our principals interpret what that teacher did as 'using technology', no change will occur.

Nothing is really new. Great teachers will use whatever means necessary to help students achieve. The means may look different but great teachers will never become obsolete because they will continue to grow and reflect. It will be up to the rest of us, principals and curriculum offices, to make sure the other teachers step up and attempt to achieve greatness or at least effectiveness.

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There's Never Enough Time

I've been in a number of classrooms lately when the displayed objective has been something to the general effect of "SWBAT (teachers will know that stupid combination of letters) review content in order to be successful on tomorrow's test." The teacher then proceeds to hand out a packet of worksheets, play a game, or have the students skim their textbook to determine what topics they are shaky on.

What is the purpose of taking a whole class period to review? Is there a good way to do it? Most math teachers seem to feel that this is a valuable use of time. What I've determined from observing and listening to the students is that this becomes the time to confirm that they might not do well on tomorrow's test. Does it motivate them to go home and study for the test? Not, if the students I spoke to are being honest. One young man didn't have a single problem correct on his worksheet. When I tried to help him, he said, "I know how to do this stuff." I guess because I was a visitor in the classroom, he didn't quite trust my opinion that he needed some help. In another class, the teacher had the class broken into 2 teams to play a game that used problems from the chapter. As I watched I realized that only the team member who was 'on' was doing the problem. Her teammates were encouraging her but the teacher said they couldn't help her. Everyone was supposed to be doing all the problems and confirming their answers. the 'good' kids were doing that. When all was said and done, not every student on either team had a chance to solve a problem. Plus, what does the teacher really know about what the students understand? The teacher might know that a student knows or doesn't know how to solve one specific example. There has to be a better way!

My opinion...if you're going to spend a whole class period to review the day before a test, find and use a rich task that utilizes all the skills of the unit. Allow the students to work in collaborative teams to work on an engaging task together. Make sure the problem requires the students to use the content from the chapter in connection with prior learning. If the teacher circulates while the students work, he may have a chance to find out where the students are being successful and where they are still struggling. Individual intervention can be done or the teacher can pull the class together briefly to clarify something with which everyone is struggling.

I just think that if one class period is used for every test review...hmmmmmm, about 10 to 12 units times 2 (1 for review, 1 for test), the teacher and students have used 20 to 24 days. Add in a possible day after the test for error analysis and all the days lost for mandatory standardized testing AND there goes more than a month of valuable instruction. No wonder there is never enough time.

I think that teachers need to learn to be more efficient at continually building review into their lessons. If mathematics is truly a 'building block' curriculum, then each day should have very natural connections to the day before and the day after. We need to look at the big picture, the story of the entire course, and find ways to tell that story without chopping it up. Maybe there's never enough time because we are blaming all the wrong reasons? Again, hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

 

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