Teaching Strategies
As this unit is student-focused and problem-based, the development of consensus through questioning is tantamount. Building a communal classroom culture is dependent upon group work. Breaking students up into small groups provides opportunity for students to share ideas in a less threatening space. The teacher should avoid ability grouping in the construction of the groups, encouraging students to see the value in the perspectives of students who have not been labeled high achievers and those who have labeled themselves “not math people.” Mixed-ability grouping necessitates teacher check-in and frameworks for promoting equity of voice.
The teacher and students should establish and monitor for the implementation of student discourse agreements which promote a safe space for academic risk-taking and strategy sharing. Students should be encouraged to ask questions of one another before asking the teacher to promote critical thinking, sense-making through trial, and ultimately, learning transfer. Mixed-ability grouping messages to students that all members of the classroom community are math people because we are all problem solvers who are worthy of demystifying the language of data that can hide or promote oppression. To assist students in acquiring and using this language, the following teaching strategies will be used.
Notice and Wonder- Students are presented with an idea via media such as images, videos, graphs, or quotes and asked to record what they notice or wonder about the media. This routine, which does not prioritize producing a right answer provides a low-stakes entry point for students with high leverage for student engagement and contextualization. Notice and Wonder activities involving data visualizations can promote the development of interpretive, critical thinking, analytical, and visual literacy skills[21]
The following strategies are Math Language Routines (MLRs), developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, were created to support sense-making, optimize output, cultivate conversation, and maximize meta-awareness as students acquire mathematical language.[22]
Stronger and Clearer Each Time- Students will think about and preferably write a response to data or visuals with which they are presented. Then, in at least two rounds of successive pair sharing, students will have multiple opportunities to clarify and revise their response.
Collect and Display- The teacher listens to and scribes student responses and displays the collection to students. The teacher may revoice or make connections to formal vocabulary to promote sense-making. The collection can occur during a whole group discussion or while a teacher circulates listening to small group conversations.
Critique, Correct, and Clarify- Students will be provided with an incomplete, incorrect, or ambiguous piece of mathematical solutions and will reflect on how errors can be corrected. The teacher will model through meta-think-alouds how to respectfully critique others’ work.
Information Gap- This strategy prompts students to identify additional data that is needed to solve a problem. At times, the teacher may provide members of a group with different types of information, and they must work together to create a complete picture to answer a question posed. They determine why additional information is needed and learn to articulate the need for more data.
Co-Craft Questions and Problems- Given a situation or visual, students will write down possible mathematical questions that might be asked about the visual. This strategy is especially helpful when students are presented with primary sources and are expected to extract the math.
Compare and Connect- This strategy prompts students to compare mathematical approaches, and specifically for this unit, various types of representations. Students are expected to reflect on why certain choices were made and how different choices could affect how the information is received by an audience.
Comments: