Math and Work

Balance.

If there is one thing I've learnt over the years, it's that balance is key.



Teaching math comes out with all sorts of different instructional strategies and technologies.

However, attaining fluency in math is just like anything else - practice is key.  Today's learners are less and less receptive to repetitive drill and grill - which is fine.   Drill and grill is for the assembly line workers of the 1900s.

The way English is taught in schools when I attended was that it was never really explicitly taught.  English was always implicitly a part of the curriculum from what I could remember.  Even grammar.  I was taught English in many different contexts, whether it was experiential by going out to the local fair or interacting with people from other schools in the collaborative learning environment.  Sure, there were some explicit grammar lesson to keep things in balance, but the learning occurred without me even realizing it.

I have been trying to attain this balance in the math classroom with those 3-act problems introduced by Dan Meyer.

Introducing a problem through a vague video is that first step.

Inviting the students for any questions or comments about the video is the hook.  Sometimes those videos are something that they would recognize from their world (ie:  a videogame) or sometimes the video can be about an abstract math concept.  I have to balance the context of the problem with their world and the 'outside' world to both connect with them and also teach them about something outside their world.

Spiraling through the curriculum is also a form of balance.  We stay long enough on a topic such as linear relations to challenge their attention span, but also switch to 2D measurement perimeter and area to keep them engaged.   We provide problems that vary and cross the different strands to show that math is not just one dimensional.

However, after problem solving we must go back to do some focused learning.  Usually in the form of worksheets that focus on a particular skill, I find that students have a little more motivation to practice the skill that we just introduced through the video that we just problem solved.

It's interesting to see them focus on practice and drilling and grilling.

One of my friends, who plays in a band for a living, stated that music and sports are probably the only subjects that students 'practice' anymore, where they are willing to try and do it over and over and over again.

The students still need practice.   I tried to vary the practice in a few different ways - with the use of whiteboards.  The whiteboards are super important as they are MEANT to be erased, which encourages students to try - regardlesss whether or not they fail.

Balancing differentiation.  These are the only two things that I have seen work consistently.  But it's hard to pull it off.