Relax, Relate, Release:Instructional Math

Strategies for At-Risk Students

Questions and Comments

Relax……

“If you go home dog tired at night, it’s probably because you growled

all day.”

How to Relax AND be effective

• Set expectations (and stick with them)

• Consistency is the key

• Yelling isn’t always the answer

• Remember it’s okay to smile

Relate……

Building Relationships

• Out of 150 influences on learning, teacher-student relationships was ranked number 12 (Hattie, 2012)

• For students to be engaged, they must believe that their work has meaning. Having a trusting relationship between the teacher and student is a critical piece to designing engaging work (Schlechty, 2011)

Making Connections

Making Connections

• Take two minutes to discuss with your neighbor some ways you can connect/relate to students in your content and outside the classroom?

• Post your suggestions on the TodaysMeet Online group

Making Connections

Release……

Instructional Focus for Today

• 1. Fluency

• 2. Problem Solving

• 3. Vocabulary

Why learn facts?• 1. Knowledge of simple facts is needed for proper use for calculators

• 2. Ability to estimate implies mastery of single digit facts

• 3. Students slow at facts are less likely to learn complex math problem types

• 4. Students must know multiplication facts quickly to be able to master fractions

• 5. Algebra is not open to those who haven’t mastered fractions

Crawford, 2002

Fluency & Automaticity

• Math fact fluency is the ability to accurately and quickly recall basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts (Burns, 2005; McCallum, Skinner, & Turner, 2006; Poncy, Skinner, & Jasper, 2006).

• Students who have fluency can recall facts with automaticity, which means they think no longer than two seconds before responding with the correct answer.

Steps to Fluency & Automaticity

Requires:1. Specific criterion for introducing new facts2. Intensive practice on newly introduced facts (more than 1x)3. Systematic practice on previously introduced facts4. Adequate allotted time (5-10 min/day)5. Record keeping6. Motivational procedures

3-4 Facts

Each fact on 4 cards

Continuous Cycle

Regular Schedule

What’s the “Take Back”?

• Card Activity • Important piece is to say the complete fact (3 x 7 = 21)

- “Three times seven is twenty-one.”• Error Correction:

• I Say• We Say• You Say• I Say

Data w/Fluency

- Took the lowest 25 students based on previous year’s scores and started them early in September on fluency practice 3 times a week during advisory time

- September – December (fluency only)

- Results:- Progress: 64% of students showed one to two years growth from previous year

- Met Standard: 40% of students that did not pass the previous year passed/met standard

- Average % gain: 20%

Problem Solving

• Write down your top two reasons students struggle with problem solving.

• Then turn and share with your neighbor your top two reasons.

StrategicLearners

Non-Strategic Learners

• Able to analyze a problem and develop a plan

• Able to organize multiple goals and switch flexibly from simple to more complicated goals

• Access their background knowledge and apply it to novel asks

• Develop new organizational or procedural strategies as the task becomes more complex

• Attribute high grades to their hard work and good study habit

• Unorganized, impulsive, unaware of where to begin an assignment

• Unaware of possible steps to break the problem into a management task, possibly due to the magnitude of the task

• Exhibit problems with memory

• Unable to focus on a task

• Lacks persistence

• Experience feelings of frustration, failure, or anxiety

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/srs/chalcycle.htm

Deep Practice

“This state occurs when the person is fully engaged in the task at hand; willing and able to not only spend extended time in practice, but also concentrate intensely and trust in the process.”

- Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code

Deep Practice • In an article “Not a Math Person” by Karina Swartz:

• Jo Boaler, Stanford

‘ “It is very difficult to have a growth mindset and to believe that you can grow or learn if you are constantly given short, closed questions with a right or wrong answer,” Boaler said. Instead, she recommends giving visual problems that provoke discussion and have multiple ways they could be solved.’

Deep Practice Example Non-Example

Micah has three types of sport collection cards. There are basketball, football, and baseball. 30 of the cards are basketball. There are half as many football cards as basketball cards. The rest are baseball cards. What percent of the cards are football if there are 200 total cards? Be prepared to explain/show your answer.

If Micah has 200 sport collection cards and 15 are football, what percent of the cards are football cards?

• Vol. 22, No. 2, September 2016; NCTM “Mathematics Teaching in Middle School”

• Article by Jennifer M. Lewis and S. Asli Ozgun-Koca

• “Perseverance can be developed only by using tasks that warrant perseverance. Task selection is key.”

Fostering Perseverance

Fostering Perseverance

• 1. Selecting appropriate tasks

• 2. Talking about strategies for problem solving

• 3. Demarcating phases in the problem-solving process

• 4. Naming feeling attendant to problem solving

• 5. Narrating internal processes

Vol. 22, No. 2, September 2016; NCTM “Mathematics Teaching in Middle School”

Fostering Perseverance

Fostering Perseverance

•www.insidemathematics.org

Why do we need vocabulary?

Vocabulary Instruction

General Guidelines for Math Instruction:

1. Establish a list of vocabulary for each subject area or unit

2. Evaluate comprehension of mathematics vocabulary on a periodic basis

3. Probe students’ previous knowledge and usage of important terms before it is introduced during instruction

4. Frame the context for new mathematics vocabulary

Vocabulary Instruction

5. Develop an environment where mathematics vocabulary is a normal part of instruction, curriculum, and assessment

6. Encourage students to ask about terms they don’t know

7. Teach students how to find meanings of vocabulary words (e.g., dictionary, internet, notes, etc).

Adams, 2003

RIGHT ANGLE

•Corner

•Right

•Left

Word Sneak

Word Walls

- Within one year of implementing these strategies and others, my campus showed the following growth and results:

- 3% gain in percent score- 16 point gain in raw score- 2% gain in Advanced Scores- LEP Students: 21% gain- Sub-Populations:

- African American Students: 87%- Hispanic Students: 93%- Low Socio-Economic Students: 88%

EVIDENCE OF STRATEGIES

References

• “Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work” by Phillip C. Schlechty

• “Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning” by John Hattie

• “The End of Molasses Classes: 101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers” by Ron Clark

• NCTM “Mathematics Teaching in Middle School” Journal; Vol. 22, No. 2, September 2016;