The kindergarten classroom that I am placed in this year is much different from the type of school that I went to as a kid. The school that I was in was predominantly filled with white, middle class families. This is in contrast to the highly diverse group of students that I placed in now. There are students from many different ethnic groups and socioeconomic status brackets. The Rosebery article that we read this week opened by saying that classroom populations are becoming more diverse, but the population of new teachers is not changing; it is still predominately white, female, and middle class. I definitely see this in field now, most of the teachers in the school fit this demographic and overall there is a very diverse population of students.
Because of this new more diverse group of learners that is being seen in schools, we as teachers must keep in mind that not all students learn the same way. The Lester reading highlighted this in a very interesting way. Lester points out that as teachers we should from day one have different types of lessons planned for math. This will help us get to know our students as learners and as people. It will help us plan and carry out the rest of our lessons for the year. The Kabiri article from last week talked about how it is important to turn traditional textbook problems into open-ended problems to create higher level thinking. Because classrooms are becoming more diverse, that means that students come into school with different experiences and it is important for us as teachers to help give each and every student an opportunity to learn and grow as a math learner. The best way that we can do this is what Lester and Kabiri suggest.
I agree that open-ended questions are a great way to learn more about how our students think, and it gives each student the opportunity to learn the best way they know how. In a class I took last semester I learned about a philosophy of teaching called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It was created as a way to promote inclusion of special education students in general ed classrooms, but it is an idea that can be used with all students. Essentially UDL involves changing the curriculum to meet the individual needs of students so they can learn in an environment that fits their unique abilities. As opposed to getting all students to learn one way (as is the case with close-ended questions), questions and methods of teaching are adjusted so that each student is able to use their strengths to help them succeed. Providing students with open-ended questions is a great way to support UDL in the math curriculum since it gives students the flexibility to solve problems in multiple ways.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as Jill Lester pointed out in her article, Establishing a Community of Learners, teaching in this new open-ended way is going to be very difficult for both the teachers and students. Because I did not experience this kind of math learning in my own schooling, its going to take a lot of conscious effort to change the way I approach math. I am hoping with practice I will be able to establish a classroom community like the one featured in Lester's story, but I think it's important to remember it takes time to feel comfortable with this approach to teaching.
Carrie I too had a similar experience in my schooling as a child, and I am also in a very diverse classroom for my placement. I agree that it is interesting that the students all come from a different background. I agree that incorporating open-ended questions will be a lot more beneficial to the student's learning instead of sticking with the same old textbook like answers. I enjoyed the activity we did in class last week where we discussed with out table mates how to change textbook questions.I found it to be quite easy, which is inspiring since I plan to use this tool in my lesson I plan to teach later in the semester.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to have some experiences with open-ended questions in school but I realize most students today still are not exposed to them. I think the most important thing to remember with this new style of questioning is the wording. If a students reads the question to think that they need to come up with an actually number of ways (2,3,4 answers) then they won't actually be solving the problems.