Balanced Mathematics

With the endless humdrum of the math wars happening, it is easy to forget that what teachers really need is simple help to understand practical ways to improve or acknowledge their math program.  We have heard both sides for decades. One side is about the context and deeper conceptual understanding while the other side worries about the basics. To be fair there really shouldn’t be any sides. Mathematics is a combination of both concepts and procedures. Even more realistic you will never find a teacher that doesn’t do both.

The picture above is from one of the presentations that Matthew Oldridge and I do on this topic:

What it shows is a continuum of teaching. At times, we may be closer to the fully guided while at times we do some unstructured unguided lessons. However, most of the time we are some where near the middle. For myself I lean more towards the 3/4 mark of the line.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about a balanced math class but since then I’ve had some small tweaks that I thought would be useful to highlight.

When I first thought of this subject I thought of six things that should be in the program (you can read about each section in my post):

1. Guided Mathematics
2. Shared Mathematics: Students work together to “Mathematize”
3. Conferencing/ Monitoring
4. Congress
5. Reflection
6. Math Games and Math Facts

Now my opinion about these things haven’t changed I still think you need to have all of these components but I want to simplify a bit and think more about the practical side.  For this reason I want to steal a little line from the Leaf’s Head Coach Mike Babcock, think of a five day block of time.

Now, before I go into detail I want to preface that this is just my opinion and in no way is this the only way. I think as teachers we need to have professional judgement to choose what is best. I also don’t expect to have these ideas prescribed like a five day must follow. I just want you to reflect on these components.

I broke it into five days because I really felt that it was easy to look a five day segment in time. Some times these components may take more time or less but on average I try hard to stick to this.

Day 1: Problem Solving

I am a firm believer that our math program should be predominately a place where students are problem solving and exploring math concepts. During this time, the teachers role is to explore the concepts with the students. It is a fine balance between a guided approach for some to a more let kids explore. As a teacher I am also conferencing, questioning and monitoring students work. I am checking it to landscapes of learning and thinking about how I will debrief the learning. What misconceptions are students having? How are they tackling the problem? What collective conclusions are they making? are all questions that go through my head.

Day 2: Congress

This to me is one of the most important things we can do in a math class and where that shared, guided and explicit instruction is happening. During this time, I am questioning and explicitly linking the math concepts to their problem solving. Where I may allow students to wander a bit in exploration I am tightly keeping the reigns around the big ideas and misconceptions I observed in the problem.

Day 3: Number Talks

These have been one of the best decisions that I have made as a teacher. Number talks allow me to discuss strategies, talk through misconceptions and help students visually see the mathematics that is happening around them. Number talks is also a 15 to 20 minute exercise so they happen frequently and often in the classroom. Another great aspect is that it allows students to communicate and talk about math in a meaningful way.

Day 4: Reflection

The more I read about this topic the more I believe that this needs to be integrated more in the classroom. We need to explicitly show students how to reflect about their learning and how to set goals in order to improve. This year in my class I have purposefully set time aside for students to regularly talk about their math learning.

Day 5: Purposeful Practise (Math games, Centers and regular practise)

Yes I said it Purposeful practise. This may be in a worksheet but if it is I hope it is geared toward each child’s needs. For me purposeful practise is about seeing where a child is developmentally and finding things that may work for them. This year it has been center work, using board games or math games and digital games like knowledgehook and Mpower.  The important part is understanding that it is purposeful and meaningful.

Overall, I think we need to think less of this war between concept and procedure and meet in the middle. How can we help our students learn and build bridges mathematically.

I would also love to hear your thoughts. If you have any opinions or questions please feel free to leave a comment.

Here is my slide deck on a balanced math approach.