Limiting “Teacher Talk,” Increasing Student Work! “Wah waah wah waah wah wah…” We all know the famous muted trumpet of adults in Charlie Brown’s world, especially their teacher, Miss Othmar. After five years teaching elementary school, I’m confident that I’m not boring my kids to sleep but I do wonder if I strike the right balance between “teacher talk” and student work. Research has long supported the idea that students benefit from “doing.” Regular practice with reading and re-reading increases comprehension and fluency (National Reading Panel, 2000), as well as builds vocabulary and knowledge (Cunning & Stanovich, 1998). As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set in our literacy classrooms, could it be that we’re missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there? What if we did less and let students do more? Enter the “Who’s Doing the Work?” Our hope was that by increasing opportunities to engage deeply with literacy, we could create richer opportunities for all students.
7 Effective Strategies for Teaching Elementary Math - Mathseeds Schools Edition Back to Articles Teaching in today's mixed-ability classroom can be a challenge. These days, it's not uncommon to find a wide range of abilities in the one classroom—from students struggling to grasp new concepts, to those who are way ahead of their peers from day one. This factor has contributed to a range of problems for early math learners, including a large achievement gap between students. While individual students do benefit from different learning styles, there are a range of effective strategies which can help all students to succeed. Additionally, the highly engaging, self-paced Mathseeds program offers a research-based solution for mixed-ability K–3 math classrooms, making math fun, interactive, and personalized for young learners. Here are seven effective strategies for teaching elementary math: 1. Elementary math can be difficult because it involves learning new, abstract concepts that can be tricky for children to visualize. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Do you teach elementary math?
6 Ways to Help Students Understand Math The ultimate goals of mathematics instruction are students understanding the material presented, applying the skills, and recalling the concepts in the future. There's little benefit in students recalling a formula or procedure to prepare for an assessment tomorrow only to forget the core concept by next week. It's imperative for teachers to focus on making sure that the students understand the material and not just memorize the procedures. Here are six ways to teach for understanding in the mathematics classroom: 1. The first five minutes of the class period set the tone for the entire lesson. video 2. The more types of representations that you can present to students addressing their different learning styles, the more likely they will truly understand the concept being presented. 3. In the best classroom environment, the teacher is able to show different ways to solve the same problem and encourage the students to come up with their own creative ways to solve them. 4. 5. 6.
"Student-Centered" vs "Traditional" Math Teaching | Marilyn Burns Math Blog I’d like to reframe the divide that seems to exist when we talk about “student-centered teaching” and “traditional teaching.” Instead, I suggest that we use these labels to describe, without blanket judgment, two different kinds of teaching decisions, each with its own purpose and value. To me, “student-centered teaching” relates to lessons where I offer students experiences to figure things out for themselves. “Traditional teaching” is when I present information to students that I’d like them to learn. I use both approaches in my teaching all the time, but I’m mindful about when I choose each. As an example, the other day I was teaching at the school in San Francisco I visit regularly. When I looked at the cover photo, I recalled the lesson I was teaching when it was taken. Some of the shapes I drew were polygons and some weren’t polygons, but I didn’t use the terminology of polygon with the class or present a definition of what a polygon is. Then I held up another shape:
Five Math Strategies for Struggling Students Any student can become an expert mathematician through hard work and continuous practice. One of the challenging parts of being an educator is teaching to the wide range of abilities in the classroom. In this article, we'll explore eight strategies that will help struggling math students. Plus, download free resources to assist you in supporting all math learners! As you walk down the hallway of an elementary or middle school, it is not uncommon to overhear students' say: “I can’t do math,” “I will never have to use this,” or “math is too hard.” Luckily, there are lots of strategies that math teachers can use to support struggling students. A common misconception is that math is black and white; you either can do it or you can’t. Download the 5 Strategies to Help Struggling Math Learners Tip Sheet now. Download the Helping Struggling Learners in Math Tip Sheet now. Before Implementing Math Strategies for Struggling Students Engage with your students about their stories. In Summary
The fantastic new ways to teach math that most schools aren’t even using The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox. This is an exciting time to be a mathematics teacher-educator. In the past two decades, we have developed a much better understanding not only of how children learn math, but also of how to teach math – and how to prepare teachers to teach math. A short (though incomplete) list of teaching practices that we know work to support student learning includes posing challenging tasks that connect to children’s prior understandings and out-of-school experiences, providing opportunities for children to make sense of and talk about mathematics, and promoting the use of mental mathematics based on patterns in our number system. Yet it is also a challenging time to be a mathematics teacher educator because these teaching practices are not being used in most classrooms and schools. 3) Use your textbook as a tool.
Tips for Teachers: Critical ingredients for a successful mathematics lesson | Engaging Maths What are the ingredients for an effective mathematics lesson? Teachers are continually faced with a range of advice or ideas to improve their mathematics lessons and often this just creates confusion. It’s a little bit like being a cook. New recipes appear online and in cookbooks on bookstore shelves, but often they’re just adaptations of classic recipes that have been around before, their foundation ingredients are tried and tested, and often evidence based. There are always the staple ingredients and methods that are required for the meal to be successful. The following is a list of what I consider to be important ingredients when planning and teaching an effective mathematics lesson. Lesson planning: Be clear about your goal. Lesson Structure: Begin with a hook. Like this: Like Loading...
Effective Strategies for Teaching Students with Difficulties What instructional strategies are effective in helping students with difficulties in mathematics? Research points to several strategies that have been consistently effective in teaching students who experience difficulties in mathematics. The use of structured peer-assisted learning activities Systematic and explicit instruction using visual representations Modifying instruction based on data from formative assessment of students (such as classroom discussions or quizzes) Providing opportunities for students to think aloud while they work This is available to members of NCTM. Please log in now to view this content. Log In
Teaching Elementary Math The Christian Approach to Teaching Elementary Math The Christian approach to teaching elementary math begins with knowing and teaching that reality does have structure and order because it was created by a rational, orderly God. In elementary math, the students study one aspect of the order of the real world and indirectly begin to know more about the God Who has given them the world they live in. In the math processes, the students are not creating truth but learning truth; they are, in a sense, thinking God’s thoughts after Him. As the content of the math curriculum and the textbook has reason and order to it, so the math class must itself be taught according to an organized, reasonable plan. Elementary math, quite naturally, begins with the most elementary, basic processes of arithmetic. We are unabashed advocates of traditional math, not only because the students learn something that can be built upon, but also because it accords with our Christian viewpoints on education.