I think there's a deeper problem here than not having "a teacher that really knew math and taught it so we would understand," and unfortunately it's a problem for the entire preK-16 profession, and we have little control over it at our levels. People who teach math to the preK-5 or -8 take math "methods" in college which in a perfect world would prepare them to teach the little ones. It has been my experience as I watch both experienced and new teachers come with credit on their transcript for teaching math methods, that what they received was, in fact, just another math content class. And why? Maybe the instructors believed for one reason or another that the people in the class really didn't "get" math and they wanted to "cure" that. Unfortunately, I think the root for most was that the math methods instructors had NO IDEA of how children learn math. He/she had no idea of how to use manipulatives. Higher-level thinking. Inductive teaching/learning. Coming to know. Articulating thinking. Problem-solving. Understanding rather than rote memorization. In other words, I think there's an abundance of math methods instructors who are mathematicians knowing nothing at all about the pedagogy of teaching math to children. It's pathetic that it seems as if the greatest elementary math teachers got their math methods instruction by eventually buying enough material from Creative Publications, Marilyn Burns, and Kathy Richardson that they taught themselves how to teach. I appreciate Jennifer's gentle reminder, but it's hard for us all to separate issues here when the common problem is lack of knowing how to teach for deep comprehension and understanding--no matter what the discipline. If I look deeper at the Everyday Math/Saxon Math (to choose some strange bedfellows) issue, I find that the problem lies with professional development, both pre- and in-service. Our teachers colleges get to share some blame with the public school districts for putting teachers in the classroom without teaching them to teach. I'd like to think that a little of the "Mosaic movement" had its roots in the NCTM Standards, the first content standards. For the first time, people came together and said that all students could be mathematicians. That was a revolutionary thought at the time. For years, people had thought there were just a few, genetically-fortunate who could think and do higher level mathematics. And basically the same thing happened in math as happened to those following Kenneth Goodman. He put books in kids hands and watched and listened to what early readers actually do (which, of course, correlated dramatically to excellent comprehenders) so that we could do for all what the few had done for themselves. The math thinkers/talkers began to articulate what they thought and HOW THEY CAME TO THINK IT, maybe because of the NCTM standards. The thinking became transparent and transferrable and, for one brief shining moment, math understanding was available to all. At about the same time, Ellin Keene and company began to explore WHY and HOW EXCELLENT COMPREHENDERS COMPREHEND and were able to identify, amplify, and cluster the now-understood comprehension strategies we all know and use. We say that ALL readers can comprehend, and indeed do, if they are reading, AND we accepted the responsibility of making available to each one the tools to do so. Enter Dubya. NCLB. Saxon. Accountability. High-stakes. So--my apologies to Jennifer and you all for muddying the waters of on- and off-topic once again. And inserting politics. But...to me, it's all the same issue. Teaching/pedagogy/learning/understanding. And not to play the blame game, but when the roots of math pedagogy are so miniscule that they can barely be identified as roots, the profession has to take over teaching teachers, or we'll never teach kids. Is there anyone that thinks that visualizing, questioning, inferring, etcetera isn't how we learn math? Bev, who is really feeling crotchety today!
> Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 12:18:59 -0400> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: > [email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] suzanne & everyday math> > > Hey Renee,> > I think the brief course requirements for math instruction at > the elementary level do not really prepare folks to understand the depth of > the math that they are teaching. I know, I know...we did go to school for > years BEFORE our teacher training, but for most of us the math instruction > did not address much more than math procedures: "This is how we add > fractions, blah blah." Except for a fortunate few who might have had a > teacher that really knew math and taught it so we would understand.> > So, > even though the teacher is supposed to be making the teaching decisions (in > my perfect world), schools and districts are relying on "programs" to fix > what teachers do not know. It would be more beneficial to help teachers to > know--even if they choose to do that with a program that "assists" the > teacher along the way(like the ones described in this discussion). Quality > professional development is key. (I stress quality and I know that opens a > whole other can o' worms for crotchety people like you and me).> > :)Bonita> > > ---- Renee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I have to make a comment here. If > a teacher thinks a program "moves too > > quickly" then why is that teacher > not slowing down and supplementing > > where supplementing is due? In my > mind, this is a ridiculous criticism > > of a program..... any program. > Programs do not teach students. Teachers > > teach students. Do people not > learn any more how to actually teach?> > > > _______________________________________________> Mosaic mailing list> > [email protected]> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please > go to> > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.> > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _________________________________________________________________ Make Windows Vista more reliable and secure with Windows Vista Service Pack 1. http://www.windowsvista.com/SP1?WT.mc_id=hotmailvistasp1banner _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
