Promote Deep and Purposeful Learning
“There has never been a more important time to teach young people to suspend judgment, weigh evidence, consider multiple perspectives, and speak up with wisdom and grace on behalf of themselves and others.”
This quote shared by Annie Fretter at the NCTM conference this April resonates loudly with me. Some might think this is what we do in a history class, not math class, however, Ehrenworth discusses how this is the exact purpose of ALL disciplines. As educators, it is our social responsibility to disrupt inequity and promote deep and purposeful learning.
In the field of Mathematics, we do this by presenting our students with genuine problems to solve.
It is imperative that we allow students to struggle and construct meaning of new and complex situations.
The work of teaching math in 2017 is not a presentation of rules and procedures to be practiced and perfected. This generation is way to savvy, and what is required for their success is most definitely not the skill of how to simply listen and practice procedures. Students today are thinkers, creators, and problem solvers by nature. Just ask any parent learning new technology how they figured it out, and they are likely to tell you their child explained. Students today seek answers and jump into situations with a curious mindset. It is time to capitalize on this in all math classrooms. These are not just opportunities for certain students as a form of enrichment, this is for each and every student.
Like Annie Ehrenworth said, there has never been a more important time ...
My challenge to you is to embed even more problem solving into the classroom.
Maybe this is done by adding in an opening problem of WODB or Estimation 180 each day. Or maybe students are given monthly opportunities to select and solve a problem that requires mathematics and that is relevant to their world. Or maybe students have a problem-solving journal as a station in a guided math rotation where they show and explain their thinking about a solution and a math forum is established where students share and debate their answers every Friday. You can start small or go big. It's all up to you - but we must start and encourage others around us to join the call!
Have a mathy day!
Sue Looney