Interested in student-driven classrooms? Join Dr. Nancy Sulla @nsulla (author of Students Taking Charge, Its Not What You Teach But How, Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement, and more) and educators from all over in #LATICchat on Thursday nights at 8pm ET. We hope to bring together a community of educators to share insights, stories, examples, pictures from their classrooms, and more. We welcome all educators to join; no need to be running a #LATIC classroom.
A1 I love everything about teaching math because it was struggle for me in school. I had a teacher tell me that I just wasn’t good at math and it stuck with me. I refuse to let any student think that because math may be challenging that they are not good at it. #LATICchat
A1: I love how #math helps out to make sense of the world & find solutions to problems, literally! But as an English T, I love that #MathIsaLanguage :) #LATICchat
A1b. I also love that the focus of math with the implementation of the CCSS is on the application and synthesis of math practices not just about teaching math procedures. Teaching kids to really understand the concepts and not just get an answer. #LATICchat
Yes! Love that! I started to struggle in 5th gr in math. My 6th gr #Math teacher convinced me I could do it and because of him, I made it to -
and through! - Calculus, Trig, and Statistics in HS ... and again in college. #LATICchat
A1 Math was never the easiest subject for me as a student but I had some amazing teachers that still made me love it! Now I try to do that for my Ss #LATICchat
A1) a great definition I heard about “Math” is that it’s the study of patterns. Math is a search for understanding patterns. Ss love looking for patterns #LATICChat
A2 Why not? I see #math as the perfect opportunity because there are SO many real-life problems involving math! Clocks, money, sharing things (fractions), seeing if we have enough money to buy etc. Math is all around us! #LATICchat
A2a) I think people think math skills must be taught in a prescribed order with a narrow focus; I find the skills all connect and that needing one can build a felt-need for learning another ... I think math is more art than science. #LATICchat
A2 Why not? I see #math as the perfect opportunity because there are SO many real-life problems involving math! Clocks, money, sharing things (fractions), seeing if we have enough money to buy etc. Math is all around us; felt need galore! #LATICchat
A2b) And the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom (#LATIC) is all about real world situations leading to a felt need to learn skills and having the opportunity to then receive instruction. Great for learning math! #LATICchat
Another great early math survey is for students to record a diary of sorts “How did you use math all day?” The clock to get up,estimating how much milk to use on your cereal, counting lunch money..eat #LATICChat
Yes! Giving students the application creates the #feltneed for them to learn the skills. And the world is chock full of awesome applications to excite students about #Math#LATICchat
Another great early math survey is for students to record a diary of sorts “How did you use math all day?” The clock to get up,estimating how much milk to use on your cereal, counting lunch money..eat #LATICChat
A2 being able to apply the learner active style to math instruction takes a true understanding of the concept being taught. It’s not impossible but takes time. Math is sequential so you can see how topics build. Progression maps are essential when building ALUs #LATICchat
A3) So many problems to solve in #LATIC ... including problems within problems ... constantly challenging Ss to apply math skills to new situations ... which requires understanding! #LATICchat
A3) one of the major standards in grade 3 is to “Understand the meaning of multiplication ...” Conceptual . Ss need to know why we multiply in order to know when to. #LATICchat
A3 I'm just starting to introduce #LATIC structures in math, but an activity I've always loved is having Ss come up with problems using the skills they've learned and then solve each others' #LATICchat
A4) When Ss understand a math concept and are in classrooms where they are solving real-world problems, they will keep drawing upon their knowledge of math procedures. One path leads to another. #LATICchat
A4: I'm always inspired when Ts tell me Ss struggled with a procedure they need to solve a word problem in a math lesson but then apply it to their ALU. Building a golf course, designing a recipe, developing a budget, analyzing cell phone plans: #FeltNeed for #MATH#LATICchat
A4 creating an ALU focused on a felt need supports procedural fluency. Ss need to have mastered standards in order to solve the problem. The transfer task also helps to show mastery and the ability to apply knowledge to a new situation. #LATICchat
A4) Becoming fluent with math facts allows student to use that knowledge when grappling with real world problems. Fluency becomes a useful, problem solving tool. #LATICchat
A4) My 7th grade math Ss were having a horrible time in home arts class with recipes (converting for diff #s of servings) until I told them it was math. And then they got it! Ah the disconnects. #LATICchat
A4 Ss work through each skill is scaffolded through the same procedures--learning skills through activities, practicing those skills in activities, applying them again for the task and transferring the skills to a new problem #LATICchat
A5) I love Designer Pizza (https://t.co/3zi1DXSI0r) ... create menus for a pizza place to sell slices of various sizes, mixing different sizes. I heard one of our schools now has a local pizza shop implementing Ss solutions. #LATICchat
A5 Again, just starting (week 1!) but our current task is for Ss to develop their own math game that corresponds with a skill we learn! Our math program has so many that they learn to play, but why not add some of our own? #LATICchat
A5 I created a transfer task for a geometry/fractions unit that incorporated cubism. The Ss learned all about Picasso, shapes, and made beautiful art. They were so engaged they didn’t want to stop and even continued to study Picasso after the unit #LATICchat
A5: An ES art and math teacher teamed up to have students mathematically design and then create new homes for Haiti's hurricane victims. Sent their designs to the consulate general in NYC. #LATICchat
Show Ss diff "levels" of questions. This is a page from my book It's Not What You Teach But How ... when you show students diff levels of problems, they work hard to make the tougher ones. #LATICchat
A5) I love spending and budgeting . Ss study holiday sales flier to create a shopping list that fits in with their allowance. Now we use it with the PTAs holiday shopping day at my school. Place value, adding and subtracting #LATICChat
A6: I love when Ss say to Ts that they remember learning something earlier in the year/last year in the ____ ALU in math, and now they are using it for this new ALU. Helping Ss see the #coherence is critical. It's not only about the Ts owning it. #LATICchat
A6) I think working backwards creates "felt need" and builds coherence. e.g. adding up diff fractional pizza slices means needing equiv fractions, which needs LCM, which needs prime #s. Why do we teach the skills in the other order? ;-)
#LATICchat
A6 coherence helps ts plan ALUs. Knowing what Ss should know, need to know now, and where their learning is going is essential to creating activities for practice and learning. I use coherence maps to plan all my instruction. https://t.co/bfGusaK7hf has a great map #LATICchat
A6 With so many opportunities to learn and apply skills, it's harder for Ss to forget; moving up from 1st to 2nd, <3 when they say "We learned this already! I remember it from 1st grade!" The felt need tasks also create they "why" of the learning #LATICchat
yes yes yes that's what it's all about! If Ss engage in learning math through problems and application, they have a felt need to learn, and they learn and retain to the next year! #LATICchat
A7 The first one for me is HUGE! Sometimes I worry Ss are given the answer to even "easy" problems all too often. We need to encourage them to think critically in all subject areas/in life! There's not always an easy answer; we have to grapple! #LATICchat
A7) I find that the math practice standards apply so easily across the subject areas ... it's good, however, to post them and show Ss how they are using these "math mindsets" every day. #LATICchat
A7. I use these statements everyday in math. Ss need to hear that these are things that all mathematicians do. I need to record myself saying did you attend to precision and how did you make sense #LATICchat
CA After a coteaching session (and the first week of math #LATI style), my coteacher and I are reworking our activity lists to make more connections to our task/rubric #LATICchat
A7) This Q reminds me of a quote from the movie Contact. Jody Fosters character says “Math is the only truly universal language.” It is a form of communicating information and understanding in any subject area #LATICchat
A7. I use these statements everyday in math. Ss need to hear that these are things that all mathematicians do. Even my Ss say use precision and make sense of what the problem is asking Its become second nature #LATICchat
so true ... we talk about wait time for Ss after a T asks a question ... we need to apply the same to helping students work through problems. Use the facilitation roadmap ... guide, don't always just show them! #LATICchathttps://t.co/KsSYSOqROn
CA After a coaching session (and the first week of math #LATI style), my coteacher and I are reworking our activity lists to make more connections to our task/rubric #LATICchat
