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Mrs. D.’s Classroom Edit display name

  • MA
  • More than a third of students from low‑income households

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I spent this summer learning about a better way to teach math. My teaching used to be based on the theory that breaking math into bite-sized chunks and presenting it to students in a logical sequence, sprinkled with engagement, would meet the needs of students. Experience has taught me that that theory only helps some students. Children come to school with a wide variety of backstories and degrees of readiness for certain types of instruction. Rather than requiring students to accommodate traditional teaching, I want to meet my many different students where they each are through "complex instruction". This means my deductive teaching habits must yield to inquiry and inductive reasoning. Complex instruction includes: (1) open-ended group work activities organized around a central concept or big idea, requiring a wide array of abilities so each student can make meaningful contributions; (2) training in the use of cooperative norms and specific roles so students can manage their own groups; and (3) equal access to learning by intentional treatment of "status" issues. My hope in teaching through open-ended group work supported by equity-based norms is to ignite my students' natural curiosity and teach them how to see their intellectual value and how much they have to offer the world. To facilitate activities and structures I learned about this summer, I will need a plethora of math materials that I do not already have, as well as items to help my students with special needs (mindfulness tools, cushions, stools, and fidget putty). This project provides these materials for projects including paper and the ability to laminate items for reuse, adhesives of various kinds, pipe cleaners, clay, pencils, and math manipulatives for place value, multiplication and division, and measurement. I have also included books containing group projects that support fourth grade standards.

About my class

I spent this summer learning about a better way to teach math. My teaching used to be based on the theory that breaking math into bite-sized chunks and presenting it to students in a logical sequence, sprinkled with engagement, would meet the needs of students. Experience has taught me that that theory only helps some students. Children come to school with a wide variety of backstories and degrees of readiness for certain types of instruction. Rather than requiring students to accommodate traditional teaching, I want to meet my many different students where they each are through "complex instruction". This means my deductive teaching habits must yield to inquiry and inductive reasoning. Complex instruction includes: (1) open-ended group work activities organized around a central concept or big idea, requiring a wide array of abilities so each student can make meaningful contributions; (2) training in the use of cooperative norms and specific roles so students can manage their own groups; and (3) equal access to learning by intentional treatment of "status" issues. My hope in teaching through open-ended group work supported by equity-based norms is to ignite my students' natural curiosity and teach them how to see their intellectual value and how much they have to offer the world. To facilitate activities and structures I learned about this summer, I will need a plethora of math materials that I do not already have, as well as items to help my students with special needs (mindfulness tools, cushions, stools, and fidget putty). This project provides these materials for projects including paper and the ability to laminate items for reuse, adhesives of various kinds, pipe cleaners, clay, pencils, and math manipulatives for place value, multiplication and division, and measurement. I have also included books containing group projects that support fourth grade standards.

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