Beating the Math Game: Helping Students Embrace the Struggle

Doc Running at Everything Ed has organized another great blog hop, this time on strategies to help students who struggle in math:

Gaming is such an integral part of today’s culture that it can be hard to remember that in the early 80’s, video games were still a novelty one step away from pinball machines. Today, the graphics and audio as well as the complexity of the narrative have advanced to cinematic proportions, and today’s online multi-player games allow extensive social interaction and coordination. But my 20^th century adventures with the pixelated worlds of Atari and Nintendo 64 were nearly as compelling. How is that possible?

Ten Tricks for Effective Group Work

When I first considered putting students in small groups to work on missions the biggest fear was that students would run amuck, losing focus and wasting time when they weren’t being told what to do. Even more, I was worried that some elements of the activities not might not work, and imagined the exhausting challenge of dealing with the pandemonium of various groups variously confused. It would be so much easier to simply keep a tight reign on a quiet class as I gave them a solid and entertaining lecture. And yet it seemed that group work provided an opportunity for students to engage in the risk-taking, creativity, conversation, failure and recovery which gives students greater ownership over learning. Was I willing to take the personal risk to give up some control and allow students to become the principle agents of their own success?

Better Together: 11 Tips for Great Group Work in Middle and High School - Teachers Pay Teachers

Courage To Core materials are designed for students to work in small groups to explore math deeply. It can be a challenge to organize and manage groups successfully. Jodi Rigotti at Teachers Pay Teachers recently assembled a fine list of teacher tips on how to help students get the most out of their group work. My personal favorite is that we set clear expectations knowing that students will need to practice in order to work effectively in groups. What's your favorite, or do you have any tips to add? On an upcoming post I'll discuss in detail the structures and techniques I use to get the most out of group work.

Better Together: 11 Tips for Great Group Work in Middle and High School - Teachers Pay Teachers

An Introduction To Courage To Core

Introduction
My first year of math teaching was in 1995 at an innovative private high school in San Francisco named Lick-Wilmerding. Students worked in small groups to explore algebra and geometry, reporting their findings in documents written as if they were lab reports. Students would receive direct instruction when necessary, but frequently, questions were explored and answered by members of the groups themselves. I adapted hesitantly to this new structure, as I myself had been taught by teachers and professors using lecture combined with extensive homework practice. Over my subsequent years of teaching in the states I explored a range of methods tailored to the various cultures of the schools at which I taught. This included straight lecture and homework, a mixture of lecture and independent class work, and collaborative group work supported by a textbook. Over the last 8 years of teaching at La Jolla Country Day in San Diego and two international schools in Spain, the American School of Valencia and the American School of Madrid, I’ve developed Courage To Core which allows my ninth and tenth grade math students to explore mathematical concepts as if exploring scientific concepts in laboratories.