Introduction
VISION
During my student-teaching, I had opportunities to try out and observe a wide variety of strategies and activities with my students. Some of these included students working on math problems after showing them a new concept or skill through an “I-do We-do You-do” approach. Others included letting students try out their own strategies to open-ended problems and work with their classmates to share their ideas on which strategies were most effective through a model that flipped the I-do We-do You-do approach. With the “I-do We-do You-do” approach, I noticed some students seemed to ‘breeze’ through the problems with ease while other students struggled to apply the procedure I showed them earlier. I noticed that the students who showed they were able to apply the procedure/formula with ease, had trouble making sense of their work. When I would ask them conceptual questions such as “How do you know this answer makes sense?” and “Can you explain your reasoning?” those students would often repeat back the steps that they did without addressing my question, and I found myself unable to accurately address misconceptions of students who were struggling. On the other hand, with the latter approach, I found that more students seemed to be engaged in the activities, and classroom discussions were livelier. I was able to walk around the room and monitor students as they were trying out their own strategies, which allowed me to better assess their understandings and misconceptions. I asked probing questions such as “How did you know to multiply here?”. These experiences as well as the time I spent doing independent research helped form my vision for math education.
According to the book Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty, inequities in education will continue to persist until systemic and structural changes are made to provide equitable opportunities for all. While this is the ultimate goal, as a teacher, my main locus of control is in my classroom with my students. Seeing the narrow view of math and the brittle procedural skills that students had, as well as the disparities in achievement amongst my students, my vision is to redefine math learning and instruction through flipping the “I-do We-do You-do” model to a “YOU-do WE-do I/ME-do” model in order to equip all students with mathematical knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking to develop into independent, critically-thinking humans and be able to be successful in whatever paths they decided to pursue after high school.
For the purposes of this portfolio, I have classified the strategies of my vision for math instruction and learning into four categories: (1) Norms/Expectations (2) Learning Goals (3) Tasks and (4) Student Voice. These categories are built upon several equity frameworks - Equity Literacy, Freirian Pedagogy, and Growth Mindset. These four categories and three frameworks are described in greater detail in the following sections of this site.
Click here to learn about: Why the Call for Action?
Click here to learn about my student-teaching placement: School Profile
During my student-teaching, I had opportunities to try out and observe a wide variety of strategies and activities with my students. Some of these included students working on math problems after showing them a new concept or skill through an “I-do We-do You-do” approach. Others included letting students try out their own strategies to open-ended problems and work with their classmates to share their ideas on which strategies were most effective through a model that flipped the I-do We-do You-do approach. With the “I-do We-do You-do” approach, I noticed some students seemed to ‘breeze’ through the problems with ease while other students struggled to apply the procedure I showed them earlier. I noticed that the students who showed they were able to apply the procedure/formula with ease, had trouble making sense of their work. When I would ask them conceptual questions such as “How do you know this answer makes sense?” and “Can you explain your reasoning?” those students would often repeat back the steps that they did without addressing my question, and I found myself unable to accurately address misconceptions of students who were struggling. On the other hand, with the latter approach, I found that more students seemed to be engaged in the activities, and classroom discussions were livelier. I was able to walk around the room and monitor students as they were trying out their own strategies, which allowed me to better assess their understandings and misconceptions. I asked probing questions such as “How did you know to multiply here?”. These experiences as well as the time I spent doing independent research helped form my vision for math education.
According to the book Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty, inequities in education will continue to persist until systemic and structural changes are made to provide equitable opportunities for all. While this is the ultimate goal, as a teacher, my main locus of control is in my classroom with my students. Seeing the narrow view of math and the brittle procedural skills that students had, as well as the disparities in achievement amongst my students, my vision is to redefine math learning and instruction through flipping the “I-do We-do You-do” model to a “YOU-do WE-do I/ME-do” model in order to equip all students with mathematical knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking to develop into independent, critically-thinking humans and be able to be successful in whatever paths they decided to pursue after high school.
For the purposes of this portfolio, I have classified the strategies of my vision for math instruction and learning into four categories: (1) Norms/Expectations (2) Learning Goals (3) Tasks and (4) Student Voice. These categories are built upon several equity frameworks - Equity Literacy, Freirian Pedagogy, and Growth Mindset. These four categories and three frameworks are described in greater detail in the following sections of this site.
Click here to learn about: Why the Call for Action?
Click here to learn about my student-teaching placement: School Profile