This weeks reading was very interesting. The two articles
that I will be focusing on are the readings from the 5 practices book and
Turning traditional textbook problems into open-ended problems. These two
readings were very intriguing to me because I agree with both and would like to
implement them into my classroom. Explicit learning goals should be
incorporated into each lesson that is present to students so that they
understand why and how math is important. The most important thing is for
students to know and understand the targeted point of the lesson. Within every
problem should be an opportunity for new student thinking ideas, and this could
be done by using problems that have more than one way to derive at the answer.
This allows students to feel apart of the learning community and can also
support classroom management. Giving students the learning goals of a problem
and having them come up with their own solutions will demonstrate student
thinking.
In my classroom my MT does not give the learning goals of a
lesson and every problem she uses has one way of getting to the answer. Mrs.
Henderson has showed the students how to solve certain problems, however many
of them solve the problems in a way that they understand best. Even though she
has not implanted this strategy for students, they have taken it upon
themselves to engage in the math that relates to them. Most times she gets
angry with these students and tell them to solve the problem the way she has
showed them. I have noticed that the students who struggle in math either miss
important steps in problem solving, or don’t understand the way in which the
teacher has shown them how to solve the problem. Giving the students the
learning goals at the beginning of a lesson, and providing them the opportunity
to solve the problem the way they best see fit will allow the students to
challenge their own thinking and can present some creative responses.
I completely agree with Tatianna. After reading the readings and also working on the monthly math assignment, I have realized it is extremely vital to allow students to solve a problem however they want to. Every student is not the same, you can not give one student a way to solve a problem and expect all 25 or so of your students to understand problem solving the exact same way. We have discussed several times in our classroom about how important it is to realize everyone learns and problem solves in different ways. As a teacher it is not acceptable to believe that one way will benefit all. Explicit learning goals that are established for the students ahead of time before they are asked to solve a problem would benefit their learning experience as well as the teachers. By leaving the math problem solving as an open ended task, the teacher can assess the students work and begin to understand how a student complete and thinks about math.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad to hear that Tatianna's mentor teacher doesn't allow or encourage different ways to problem solve a math problem. What is even sadder is that my mentor teacher does the same thing. My MT gives her students worksheets and handouts that the students will use to practice their math lessons. Although these math worksheets could be constructed into open ended tasks, my teacher doesn't actively monitor the students or encourage multiple solutions to a problem, she just wants the work to be completed. Mary and I try to help the students by circling around the room and helping students finish the worksheet. What I've come to realize is that I don't know how to create it encourage multiple solutions to one problems. I accidentally catch myself showing the student I would solve the problem and forget that they may not be understanding my method. After reading the readings it helps a little to understand methods and solution types but I feel I won't understand how to enforce them or encourage them without practice and this concerns me.
The idea of allowing students to solve math problems in ways that benefits them is very important to me. Last semester I took a class focused on disabilities and technology and most classes we would discuss how some educators and parents argue that students with disabilities who utilize technology to help them succeed are not really getting an education because of the help technology gives them. From these discussions, I have learned that if implemented correctly and presented to students in various ways that could help them understand the material, technology can be a great way to help students reach the intended learning goals. I relate these ideas back to the math reading and agree that explicit learning goals are necessary so that students can begin to assess what can be done to help them reach the goals in the most beneficial way for them. Although some teachers would like to gear lessons toward specific strategies, the most important thing to remember about receiving an education is that every student is different and may have various ways of reaching their goals. What's important is that students are trying to complete the problem in a way they see fit which gives educators the opportunity to observe and even learn from students to see other ideas of instruction we may not have recognized previously.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my MT does do a ton of hands-on math activities and games to keep the students engaged, there are work sheets that are not open ended that do get handed out to the students. I do see how some of these specific worksheets are beneficial since they do target certain strategies that the teacher wants the students to learn. After worksheets that are specific and closed-ended are handed out, however, it would be nice if the MT would provide problems for the students and have them solve them in any way that benefits them the most. This way, students would have access to multiples strategies in completing various math concepts and see that any of the strategies can be used to reach the learning goal of the concept.
(This is a duplicate reply, I posted it on the old post by accident!)
DeleteI completely agree with all of you ladies. I think that it is extremely important for students to be able to solve problems, using the best method for them. I feel that there is, however, a limit to doing the problem. The limit should be that the students are able to use a method that can be explained, whether it was taught by the teacher or not. I really liked what Tracy mentioned about technology on the classroom, because it is an issue that I have often discussed in many of my classes. I call it the "calculator controversy". There are a lot of educators that feel that students should be able to use calculators. Some feel like calculators should not be given to students until they are old enough for simple math to be a thing of the past. In other words, they should not be learning about calculators and adding and subtracting with double-digits, while using calculators to solve he problems at the same time. Then, there are those that feel that calculators should be banned from school all-together. They feel that they should only be used at the college level. Regardless, I think that it is more important to focus on making sure the students truly know what they need to know about mathematics.
In the Five Practices book, chapter two talked a lot about selecting appropriate math problems for students. I found this reading very helpful, because it gave me ideas of what I need to consider when assigning math problems. I think that many teachers get caught up in worksheets and book work, that they forget to make up individualized assignments. I think it is one thing to assign some math problems. But, it is something completely different to be able to find structured and appropriate work for your students.