It was hard for me to decide what my first "math thought" would be. After finally making a decision, I then ended up switching it the next day. Original thought- give parents and families more information about the Singapore Math method of 'bar modeling' (which I still plan on doing). New thought - Acronyms (and yes, this does lead to math.)
While reading an email from our superintendent, Dr. Larry Nyland, last night about the upcoming state mandated assessments, I began to think about how many acronyms there are in the world of education. It's like we have some sort of secret code that only educators can understand. It's insane! Here are a few that I encounter almost daily:
CCSS - Common Core State Standards
The purpose of the CCSS is to make educational standards, measures, and practices look the same across the nation. In essence, if you move from Florida to Washington, there should be no disparity between what your child was learning at the old school vs. the new school. When my 6 nieces and 1 nephew were younger, I was consistently struck by the differences between their educations (they lived in Maryland, Arizona, and Alaska). I also noticed that what they were learning in their schools, differed from what I was teaching in my own classroom here in Washington.
SBAC - Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
This is the new state mandated assessment replacing the MSP (Measures of Student Progress), which itself replaced the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning).
**See what I meant about the acronyms??
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is Common Core aligned and is used across the country, not just in Washington as was the case for the MSP and the WASL. Now that Washington has adopted the CCSS, our state assessments will be following suit.
MIF - Math in Focus
Last year the Seattle School District adopted a new math curriculum for K-5. This is our first year using Math in Focus, which is Common Core aligned, and based on the Singapore method of teaching math.
Now on to my "math thought". I currently work with grades 1 - 5. This gives me a unique perspective as to how one building block in MIF leads to another, as well as any commonalities between grade levels. Problem Solving has been one of those commonalities (and challenges) across the board. The Common Core Mathematics Standards identify different types of problems (Add To, Take From, Put Together/Take Apart, Compare), and within those types there can be different situations. The focus is no longer - what is the total answer, but - what is the unknown at any point in the equation? The problems that your students are solving in Math in Focus, are asking them to look deeper at the question being asked, as opposed to just finding the answer.
I am currently working with a group of 2nd graders with whom I have been asking to write the equation that matches the story problem, NOT to answer the story problem. The first week of this activity was a challenge. The math problems on their own are actually easy to answer, therefore it's hard for them to not just shout the numbers out. Totally understandable... By the 2nd week of doing this however, my students have realized that I'm not interested in whether or not they can answer the question, but whether or not they understand the question.
I want to see: ___ + 6 = 18 or 12 - ___ = 7 or ___ - 8 = 12
Yesterday I let them loose on their own - no guiding or modeling - and wow did they deliver! The fascinating thing to me was that they seemed so unaware by how much they had learned, or even how far they had come since starting this activity. It was like second nature to them, which really is the goal right?
So my thought? I love this deeper 'looking at' and 'thinking about' problem solving - it's incredibly empowering ! I am also really excited to see the growth of our younger students as they progress through the grade levels in Math in Focus. My hope is that the more comfortable and empowered our students feel about Math, the less anxious they will be with any future assessments (or problems that need to be solved) that are headed their way!