Many students moan and groan when it’s math time because they are bored of memorizing equations and doing countless math problems that all look the same. My goal is to help students see math in a different light and come to learn the fun in it. I believe that students should be critically thinking about problems and working with their peers to come up with a solution. The problems should be relevant and students should have options on how they want to solve the problem and the option to use manipulatives and other resources as aids.
Math Unit
At Mt. Hope Elementary, I taught a math unit on Graphing and Organizing Data. Mt. Hope has been transitioning into adopting the Common Core State Standards but still used the GLCEs for mathematics, so therefore, this unit is aligned with the GLCEs. During the unit, math was structured so that there was a teacher-led mini lesson at the beginning of class, but most of the time was spent working in groups on problems that required high-cognitive demand. In student groups, I would differentiate the problems so that students were working at a level that was right for them although all students were still learning the same concepts. I would track students’ progress and offer extra help at lunch, recess and before and after school. I also taught units on long division, fractions and decimals in a similar way.
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