Numeracy Development and Mathematical Reasoning (Part 2)
I need one day of virtual professional development to support our math team in planning to best address student needs!
$1,528 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
As a small school in a high-needs section of the South Bronx, our students come in at a wide range of levels but an average of two years behind, some much further. They are enthusiastic and hard working, but many have large gaps in number sense and/or basic math skills. Even those who demonstrate procedural fluency, often have large gaps in number sense and rely heavily on memorized procedures rather than making use of place value or number relationships. For example, when asked to multiply by 100, many write out the standard algorithm rather than using shortcuts or place value.
Entering this school year, this disparity was further compounded by the varied experiences our students had with distance learning.
While a few of our students thrived in this new reality, the majority struggled without the personal daily interaction of in-person learning. Many are also dealing with personal circumstances that make attending to online instruction nearly impossible. As we rethink how we structure our classroom communities, we need to consider both the academic learning that has been lost but more importantly, ensure that our students feel safe, secure and supported.
My Project
Over the years our small team of teachers has become skilled at implementing grade-level curriculum but we are still challenged to simultaneously address the gaps in numeracy and place value we see daily. Several of us began successfully experimenting with routines (such as number talks or number strings) in our classrooms before the 2019-2020 school year was interrupted.
This year 80% of our student body is fully remote and the rest are only in school 1-2 days per week.
Unless we are cognizant of the impact that this pandemic has had on our students and open to the flexibility that will be needed to address both their academic and socio-emotional needs, we will deepen the inequities they already face.
Most importantly we need to improve our virtual instruction quickly. The dedicated support of a curriculum consultant skilled in working with high-needs students who have historically struggled with mathematics will be critical in helping us to set goals, develop the best strategies to support our students, and monitor our progress over the year. With her support, we can ensure that we are providing all students with an appropriate entry point that pushes them beyond rote memorization and that we are engaging students who might otherwise find math intimidating and inaccessible. The real-time feedback that a coach can provide will push our learning and will maximize the impact of the routines on our students.
Finally, directly addressing numeracy will not only help our students who struggle with basic skills but will improve all students’ performance by ensuring they have a better sense of scale and reasonableness in problem-solving. It will also improve their openness to and appreciation of multiple strategies for a given problem leading to the development of more efficient approaches and stronger connections across varied mathematics content.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Makiya and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
