[Ohiogift] Content Less Important

[Gifted and Talented in Ohio Discussion List]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Will Fitzhugh <fitzhugh at tcr.org>
Date: June 19, 2014 3:35:06 PM EDT
To: "sstern9447 at aol.com Stern" <SStern9447 at aol.com>
Subject: Is this what you hoped for?


“He says it’s the other way around: the content is there for students to learn the Standards for Mathematical Practice,” 


Saturday, June 14, 2014

Conversations on the Rifle Range, I: Not Your Mother’s Algebra 1 and the Guy Who Really Knows


Barry Garelick, who wrote various letters under the name Huck Finn and which were published here is at work writing what will become "Conversations on the Rifle Range".  This will be a documentation of his experiences teaching math as a long-term substitute. OILF [out in left field] proudly presents the first episode:

Those familiar with my writing on math education know me from my previous incarnations as John Dewey and Huck Finn, whose adventures I recounted in a book called “Letters from John Dewey/Letters from Huck Finn.” I am in a second career which for lack of a better title is known as “trying to obtain a permanent math teaching position in a desirable area of California.” I retired a few years ago and obtained a math teaching credential. Although I have applied for various math teaching jobs, I have only managed to get two interviews, so I’ve had to make do by being a substitute teacher. This situation may be due to age, or perhaps my views on math education are becoming known, or both. 

In the course of the 2013-2014 school year, however, I took on two long-term substitute assignments. The first one was for six weeks at a high school which started at the beginning of the school year. The second was for an entire semester at a middle school, starting in January and ending in June. 

Both assignments took place amidst the media hype that focused on the 50th anniversary of events occurring in 1963 and 2964 including but not limited to the Kennedy assassination, the Beatles’ arrival in the U.S. and performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Not mentioned by the press but every bit as important is the fact that it was also the 50th anniversary of my taking Algebra 1. And while I am not an outright proponent of the philosophy that “If you want something done right, you have to live in the past,” when it comes to how to teach math there are worse philosophies to embrace. 

As if to keep me from delving too far into my past, my teaching assignments occurred during a year of transition to the Common Core standards. In both assignments, I came to know the person from the District office, who I shall call Sally, whose role was to get the teachers—as part of the transition effort—to try various Common Core-type activities with their students. I met her for the first time on the teacher workday held before the first day of school. 

Sally started out the meeting by telling us that she had been meeting with the person in charge of putting together the California "Framework" for Common Core. “So he REALLY KNOWS what's going on,” she said. This stated, she then talked about this in-the-know person’s view of Common Core’s Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs). 

For those who may not know what these are, the SMPs are eight practices that 1) supposedly embody the work habits and general mode of thought of mathematicians, 2) were defined largely by non-mathematicians, and 3) which most real mathematicians believe are nonsense. Yes, criticizing and analyzing the reasoning of others (one of the SMPs) is what mathematicians may do, but it is something learned through accumulation of expertise in the subject area. But distinctions between novices and experts have never bothered the non-experts who write this stuff and even some mathematicians are swayed by the “wouldn’t it be nice if students could do this” quality of such daydreams. 

Sally was therefore quite excited to tell us about the person who REALLY KNOWS’ view of the role of the SMP’s. “Up to now everyone thought the Standards for Mathematical Practice were the instructional methodology for teaching the content,” she said and then quickly added that the guy who REALLY KNOWS says, no, that's wrong. 

I was getting hopeful here. 

“He says it’s the other way around: the content is there for students to learn the Standards for Mathematical Practice,” Sally announced triumphantly. While this view can be interpreted to mean that math procedures and content lead to understanding I don't think that's what the guy who really knows meant. In all likelihood he meant that the Common Core content standards require students to work in groups, discuss, conjecture, critique each other’s arguments and that teachers are to be (in Sally’s words) "the guides on the side." 

She talked about how the District was phasing out the “accelerated math” in which students in 8th and even 7th grade could take Algebra 1. She then put up a slide from a Power Point presentation titled “Not Your Mother’s Algebra 1” referring to Common Core’s approach to algebra. The whole idea being that Common Core gets into “deeper learning.” Which means that students will now get a smattering of algebra in 8th grade, and the rest of it in 9th, thus taking two years to do what used to be done in one—with some topics left out. She did say they are working on pathways for those students who may “really truly” be gifted and for which algebra in 7th or 8th grade may be appropriate. She also alluded that they are working on a pathway for those who did not qualify. I would in fact find out what the various math pathways would be and how one qualified to take a normal class in algebra. But that would be when I started my second assignment. 

This was likely not going to sit well with some parents, she said and that for "back to school night" expect some questions on Common Core. “There's been a lot of parent pushback,” she said. She put some talking points up on the screen for us and said to feel free to use them. One of them was "writing and deep thinking" which I decided would not appear on my board on back to school night or any other night. 

That evening I decided to look at the website for information about the “guy who really knows.” I found nothing. But I did find some information about the Superintendent of my school district. In particular, he wrote a piece on his philosophy of teaching and even made it available for downloading. I saw this: 

I believe students in the 21st century are different. They are digital natives and live in a world where “any knowledge” can be found immediately on Google. Therefore, why regurgitate knowledge (like an “academic rationalist”) when it is far more reasonable to expect a student to apply this knowledge and to make new meaning from this knowledge. Relevance is critical among this generation of students in order to motivate them to move beyond what I see as low-level thinking. 

I pretended I never saw it and decided to just stay invisible and teach math.

- See more at: http://oilf.blogspot.com/2014/06/conversations-on-rifle-range-i-not-your.html#sthash.zHTsDAHt.dpuf



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