Entry #29 - April 12, 1999
"I no longer see myself as math phobic or deficient and I wouldn't
label myself as a non-math person, but too many adults still do. . .I know
I'm not alone or the first to have this idea, but I'm concerned that the
old, abstract way of teaching math is still the rule rather than the exception."
The Annenberg Institute held its "Making Teaching Public" Colloquium
in Phila. this past week. Over 600 educators and advocates came together
to share student work, hold text-based discussions, hear visiting authors
and renew our committment to our students and their achievement.
On Thursday we began in full session with a videotape of a lesson. We watched
as high school students worked in cooperative teams to graph equations and
present their work. We observed the teacher acting as a coach as she facilitated
the students' efforts to find patterns and rules, make tables, draw graphs
and correctly use graphing calculators.
The math anxiety in the audience hung like a thick cloud over the proceedings.
Educational leaders repeatedly prefaced their public remarks with comments
like, "I'm not a math person, but...", while sidebar conversations
were peppered with questions like, "Why do kids need to know about
square roots and variables anyway...I never use this stuff, do you?".
When we moved into smaller groups we were able to discuss all of the positive
interactions we witnessed in the video. There was a high level of cooperation
and student engagement and many quality graphs were developed, but the question
we were trying to answer was, "What are my students learning, and how
do you know?".
We were stumped by the question. It was very hard to say what students really
learned. While it was clear that the kids could graph equations, I wasn't
sure they could apply the skill to the real world. In fact, most of us had
a hard time remembering why this skill was important or useful.
I know that math was a stumbling block for me in high school and it wasn't
until college that I found a teacher who made it real. When my teacher told
me to imagine that I was working for GM in production planning and that
I had to decide how many two-door, four-door or hatchback models to produce,
the variables fell into place. "X, Y & Z" suddenly had meaning
and I could successfully solve and graph linear equations.
I don't think making higher level math authentic should be seen as an accommodation
for slow learners or "special" groups. I think all kids would
benefit from an approach that was authentic.
I no longer see myself as math phobic or deficient and I wouldn't label
myself as a non-math person, but too many adults still do. And far too many
students are failing to us to ignore the need for a fundamental shift in
mathematics instruction. I know I'm not alone or the first to have this
idea, but I'm concerned that the old, abstract way of teaching math is still
the rule rather than the exception.
We broke for lunch after our small group discussions and reconvened in strand
sessions in the afternoon. My principal and I attended "A New Vision
for the Urban Learner" which was presented by Belinda Williams.
Ms. Williams presented material from the "Urban Learner Framework"
and showed a video called "Status Treatment for the Classroom."
My principal is ordering the video for our school. The film showed quite
dramatically that some students are ignored or devalued by their classroom
peers, but more importantly it showed concrete ways that teachers can affect
changes in student status.
In addition to ordering the film, I am sending for Ms. Williams' book, "Closing
the Achievement Gap" from ASCD. I'm also going to check out the
study group/inquiry kits which Ms. Williams mentioned, which are also available
through ASCD.
On Friday we spent the early morning in a text based discussion about Gloria
Ladson-Billing's book, "Dreamkeepers,
Successful Teachers of African American Children". Our discussion
was centered on Ms. Billing's definition of culturally relevant teaching
and its implications for all of our students and classrooms.
After our discussions, we returned to a full session to hear Ms. Billing's
speak about the research and development which led to the book's premise
that we must in fact acknowledge our students' cultures in order to value
and effectively teach them.
Ms. Billing's speech and her book acted as a wake-up call for all of us.
I don't think any of us left the session without some question or idea about
the need to restructure our lessons to make them more respectful of the
students' abilities to connect with and enrich their/our learning.
On Saturday, I presented a videotape of one of my 8th grade sections exploring
the convection of warm and cool air masses. We spent a three-hour block
of time watching the tape and discussing the lesson and students' grasp
of the materials as seen through their lab sketches and test answers.
After the group watched the film they shared their observations of my teaching
goals and the mutually respectful tone of my classroom. As I listened to
their feedback, I was pleased by their recognition of many of the strengths
of the lesson, BUT I was bothered by the nagging question, "If everything's
so wonderful, why aren't the kids learning more?"
When we got into the tuning protocol and really started peeling away the
layers of the work I was left with the notion that good teaching has to
lead to student understanding or else it's an illusory performance. I have
visited this issue before and I expect I'll continue to revisit it, but
this time it's from a slightly different angle.
After all of the presentations and discussions of the last three days, I
am looking at my curriculum and realizing that it is just that, my curriculum.
It is mine and it is a teacher's predetermined attempt to present what I
see as a reasonable amount of information to present in a school year. It
is not an attempt to facilitate student understanding first and curriculum
coverage last. It is just the opposite.
We ended the Colloquium with an activity in which we made an individual
committment about our teaching. We wrote the committment down and shared
it with another participant. I wrote, with a little help from Simon and
Garfunkel, "Slow down, you move too fast. You've got to make the 'learning'
last..."
To be continued...
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