Math Team Reflections :: Collaborative Learning Centers Project

IMPACT OF MATH THEIR WAY

In the following discussion team members reflect about how Math Their Way has affected their classroom practice and their students' learning. They talk about how learning takes place, cooperative grouping, the importance of the materials in building concepts, implementation issues, classroom organization, team building and staff development. CLC facilitator Anne Stapleton leads the discussion.

Anne Stapleton: What does your math instruction look like now with Math Their Way? Is there a different kind of teaching or a different kind of learning going on?

Janette Gruszeczki (2nd grade teacher): With Math Their Way the children are more cooperative and they work together more. Before when you gave an assignment you told them what they had to do and everyone was working on their own.

Now with Math Their Way they learn it's OK to help someone else. They feel more comfortable asking for help when they are not sure of something. Kids explain better than a teacher sometimes so kids feel more free to help each other.

Carol Argyrakis (3rd grade teacher): Before Math Their Way I was stuck in the paper and pencil mode of doing mathematics. Now however, my room is filled with manipulatives so that my students will have a hands-on approach to learning math. There is a cooperative learning spirit that carries over to other subjects as well!

Karen Kahle (2nd grade teacher): I think they discover more on their own. We're doing renaming [borrowing and carrying] now . It has always been a really difficult concept to get across and so I just backed off [the textbook] and worked with manipulatives. They're coming to an understanding on their own. Hopefully it will be a better way to learn it.

Nancy McGurn (1st grade teacher): One concept in first grade is matching the equation to the picture. For example, they see a picture of four pumpkins and two pumpkins and that makes six pumpkins. So it matches to 4+2=6. Instead of doing that we make our own equation. We did a Halloween activity about ghosts with the students working in teams of two. "How many ghosts in the haunted house? How many flew away?" It turns into a subtraction problem. It really showed them what these equations mean. It brought the concrete to the abstract.

We tie it into language arts by writing a story-- "There were 5 ghosts in the house. A black cat scared them. Three ghosts ran away. There were 2 ghosts left in the house. 5-2=3." --and put them all together to make a class book.

AS: This example of the ghosts, is this something that you did before Math Their Way?

McGurn: I never thought of it before I saw it in the Math Their Way workshop. The Math Their Way instructor has an activity like this for each month--turkeys in November, gingerbread men in December. Each month has a different theme where we would draw a model and write a story about it and then put all the stories together in a book. That one little idea ties in with several different subject areas for me.

AS: So it's more than these particular manipulatives that you bought through Math Their Way?

McGurn: Oh, yes. Every month we do an estimation game where we get a jar and fill it with pumpkin seeds, jelly beans or whatever is appropriate and the children estimate how many are in the jar. I give them a few days to think about it and then as part of a craft project we count them. But we count them in groups of ten. Ten groups of ten and we put them in the 100's jar. The children are seeing place value as well as estimation. It isn't just the manipulatives we purchased.

Gruszeczki: Even with graphing it works. I remember before with graphing I would explain to them--"OK, this is how we do it"--and they would look at me like "what's she talking about?" But with Math Their Way, because they do so much graphing, when they see it in [the formal curriculum] it's not that surprising to them . So it's much easier and they understand it better. The concepts are easier for them. It clicks because it's everyday stuff that they use. That's the good part about it.

McGurn: Just something simple like counting the days we've been in school using straws can make a big impact. When you get to 10 you put them in a rubber band and put the bundle in the tens box. You have a ones box, a tens box, a hundreds box. I don't even have to say it anymore. I hold up the straws and they do it.

Yesterday was the 45th day of school so they say "4 groups of ten and 5 ones. How many more to 50?" They're really getting it.

Now in our math book we're getting to grouping 10s and ones. Well, we're already doing it every day. You only do it for 2 minutes. But if you do it every day for two minutes they own it.

AS: It sounds like you feel the students are getting the concepts with Math Their Way techniques. Is there any other impact the program has had on them?

Lois Reaux (4th grade teacher): Yesterday I gave one of my special education students five simple multiplication problems. He said "Now Ms. Reaux, you know I can't do these." I said "You can use unifix cubes." He got them out and was stacking them up but he was still having a hard time with it so another little girl showed him how to put them into groups and work it out. I didn't even have to intervene. So now they know they can go and get the cubes themselves when they need them.

Melinda Stapleton (special education teacher): It eliminates the fear of math. I have special education students. A lot of them feel they just can't do it. They try to do multiplication on their fingers but it doesn't work. But when they can actually group links in sets of three or four or whatever they can understand it. There's a lot of self esteem involved too! No one wants to feel dumb. This material puts everyone on the same level. Even the A+ students are going to do it because it's fun. When everybody's doing it, you're just as smart as the next person.

Karen Kahle (2nd grade teacher): There's a lot more peer tutoring in the room. They don't become dependent on the manipulatives because they want to show you they don't need them anymore. They'll say "Oh, come take the number line off my desk. I don't need it anymore."

Argyrakis: It has taken away some of the fear of new math concepts for my students too. The use of manipulatives and cooperative learning in my classroom takes the learner from the concept level to the symbolic level painlessly.

AS: How about the impact on you and your teaching or your view of your teaching?

M. Stapleton: I've always done a lot of peer teaching because in special education we all sit and work together and help each other. So the impact

for me is that it is another tool, a better tool. Even the slowest child can come and get out the manipulatives and know how to use them.

AS: Does anybody else feel there has been a change in your teaching style or your view of what's most important or most effective?

McGurn: I do more cooperative grouping than I did before and I think it's beneficial. I teach first grade and sometimes it's hard but they have to learn the concept of teamwork. Sharing materials is an important concept for first graders to work on too.

AS: What did math instruction look like before Math Their Way?

Tanya Henderson-Wood (third grade teacher): I used to take a whole ream of paper home every night because we used to draw a lot of pictures--dots, circles for computation-- but now we have actual pieces to manipulate. We use less paper and they have more fun but I don't take a whole 500 papers home every day.

Reaux: With my 4th grade, I didn't have any manipulatives for the kids to work with. So it was hard for me to try to teach them a lot of things when I didn't have hands-on materials. When I attended Math Their Way it seemed to me at first to be geared more toward primary grades. But I found out that once you adapt it to 4th grade it really works well. I have seen the math scores for my class go up. The children really enjoy the unifix cubes. They really have a good time with them and it helps them with their multiplication.

AS: Is there any concern about the noise level? I remember at first there was some worry about of the noise level involved with using these materials.

Reaux: Anytime you have cooperative learning you're going to have that noise level. Math might be a little more noisy depending on what [Math Their Way] materials you have out. My students are not used to hands-on so I expect the noise level. I just close the door and let them explore.

Cussandra Steele-Smith (2nd grade teacher): But actually, it's a different kind of noise because you know they're learning. They are helping each other, not just making noise and talking. "No, you didn't do that right. Let me show you why." They're engaging in conversation about [the work] so I don't get too concerned about the noise level because I can walk around and see they're doing something.

They ask me, "Ms. Smith, is this right?" and I say "I don't know. Ask the next table." Then I hear "Well, what did you guys get?" They are comparing and sharing. That's better than anything I could say to correct their work. They're helping one another. The noise is not a problem.

AS: What about implementation? What are the most important ingredients to getting the program up and going?

Argyrakis: Acquiring the materials needed to implement the program and being willing to try something new. Also, as an older teacher, I needed to get rid of mind-sets about noise in the classroom.

M. Stapleton: Getting the teachers to buy into it, having the materials readily available, as well as the books to support you and give you ideas and resources.

AS: How do you get teachers to buy into it?

M. Stapleton: You form a team like this one--consisting of those willing to take on that challenge!

Steele-Smith: The only drawback is not having materials readily available. If I have to share material with two or three other people I might as well not do it because the children, once they have experienced it, want to do it all the time.

Kahle: You have to be really well-organized because if you just throw this out you're going to have chaos and you're going to lose your mind. The first couple times I did it it was like: "OK, forget this. We're done with this for today."

McGurn: They say in the Math Their Way classes to go slowly. Don't try to have a total Math Their Way classroom immediately. Do a couple activities and, when you feel comfortable with those activities, then add more. You don't jump into it because you'll be just totally overwhelmed.

AS: Was the Math Their Way training really essential?

Group: Yes, definitely

McGurn: I had that book for three or four years but until you see it in action. . . you don't really know how to use it. I wasn't using it correctly or seeing all the things that could be done.

AS: Are you still using the activities? More so, less so? What is the current work like?

McGurn: Our new math series uses a lot of Math Their Way techniques, far more than our old series so it seems that it's being incorporated into more the books. I think the whole trend in the nation is coming around to Math Their Way type activities. In first grade we use it every day.

AS: Are you still meeting together as a team? What about that aspect of it?

M. Stapleton: Every week we get together to share, to support each other informally, to discuss ideas, problems, concerns--to work them out. We have a nice cohesive team and we work together quite well.