MASTER’S PORTFOLIO: MATH

Master’s Portfolio: Math

Violet R. Brooks

University of Alaska Southeast

10/27/2018

Katy Spangler
MASTER’S PORTFOLIO: MATH

Framing Statement

Below is my Statement of Understanding essay from the University of Alaska

Southeast’s Math Methods in the k-8 classroom. The piece is written to demonstrate my

understanding of the place of mathematics not only within the classroom but in everyday life as

well. Math has the distinct power of being an overwhelming force in our daily lives, so students

simply do not have the luxury of ignoring it.

I find myself often telling students within the classroom that math is the asset of their life

they will rely the most on because it is so directly related to the use of money. It is not a

concept that needs to be abstract, especially at lower grade levels. Math is concrete, it is

everywhere and used every day. In everything from telling time to balancing a budget, to

estimating the materials needed for a project, or the cost of it, to reading and negotiating a

contract, math literacy is the surest and most powerful tool a student can gain to help them live a

happy and successful life (Meyer, 2010).

My opinions in the following piece are clear, and my passion is well demonstrated.

Although this piece is from two years prior, I still feel very much connected to it. At the time, I

was in a 3rd-grade classroom and I was overwhelmed by the amount of work the teachers were

pouring into helping students form concrete ideas around the math they were teaching. From

volume demonstrations using different sized containers to the area and perimeter work where

students were crawling across the floor on hands and knees to measure tile length, the teachers

work tirelessly to show students how math is all around them. In the younger grades, this is the

best way to capture hearts and minds and build math literacy (Palisoc, 2014).

I stand by my theory. Traditional math settings have failed students that do not respond

well to traditional learning methods. There’s no reason we can’t include more tactile and
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kinesthetic learning into mathematics curriculum (Newcombe, 2010). We can make it more

concrete by including more science and STEM activities in the classroom. The two disciplines

go hand in hand with so much of science relying on measurable data.

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References:

Meyer, D. (2010, May 13). Math class needs a makeover | Dan Meyer. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUFjb8w9Ps

Newcombe, N. S. (2010, Summer). Picture this: Improving Math and Science Learning by

Increasing Spatial Thinking. American Educator, 29-43.

Palisoc, R. (2014, December 05). Math isn't hard, it's a language | Randy Palisoc |

TEDxManhattanBeach.
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“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about

understanding.” –William Paul Thurston

Math, in the classroom, is not about rote memorization. It is not about standards or even

about the need to show growth. Math in the classroom is about understanding the world and the

events within it. We use math hand in hand with science to show students how actions and

reactions occur. In younger grades, we set up the foundation for this exploration. Too often,

teachers struggle to simply cover their workload, and due to pressure, fail to find opportunities to

make real-world connections with their students. This is the flaw of coverage. The role of the

teacher is not to fill in pages of a book, the role of the teacher is to plant knowledge in the

student that can be fostered and grown into full understanding. This is a challenge many faces

with an open heart. Math has power, and students can fail to see that when they are presented

with a daily slew of problems they find pointless. Providing real tasks within the classroom that

allow students to use their hands and minds to solve problems can help cement connections and

let students see how their algorithms can create or destroy. How proper measurement and

accurate equations can be utilized to make their world a better place.

The struggle of the teacher is monumental. A poor teacher can teach for survival,

explaining what is necessary to prepare students for a test, teaching tricks and algorithms that

produce correct answers but fail to deliver true understanding. In his TED talk, “Math Class

Makeover”, Dan Meyer refers to this coverage teaching as the Sitcom of Math Education. All

problems are wrapped up in 22 minutes and they students don’t think about or have a deeper

understanding once they leave the classroom. They memorize a simple problem and how to

solve it within in a very unique context but can struggle to adapt what they’ve learned to new

setting or situations (including word problems). This is no cheap trick. Having students be able
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to give correct answers is a noble part of the battle, but the ultimate task is to foster a desire to

grow.

That is what separates a good teacher from a poor one. A great math teacher looks not

only at the standards for their grade, but looks beyond them. A good teacher prepares students to

learn more by examining their needs, their culture and their learning style. Students present and

grow at different rates, it is our goal as instructors not to drag them along or force feed them rote

knowledge but to understand them well enough to help them collect the tools they need to reach

their fullest potential. Math’s place is to empower a person to control and better their lives, as is

any fundamental discipline, but math has a unique core in art and science. Too often does

society simplify the place of mathematics by limiting it to addition and subtraction, to simple

arithmetic. We must learn to shine a broader beam and show students how math blooms

exponentially. We, as teachers, must bring this knowledge outside of the theoretical. Story

problems lay a good foundation, but why not have a performance task with real-world tools?

Why not have students model with blocks or paper?

With the rise of technology, there is absolutely no reason not to have modeling programs

within the classroom. Have students create, have students think. Yes, teach algorithms, teach

formulas, teach tricks, teach strategies, but give them more than a page of hypothetical problems

that hypothetical people have. Have students invest in their learning, have them make something

they can hold up and say “I made this, this is how” and see how their engagement and energy

changes. Give them a chance to really problem solve by forcing them to dig deeper into what is

being asked of them, to assess information and sort out what they need from what is irrelevant.

Meyer again argues that math books dumb down problems by only giving the minimal amount of

information to solve an equation and then giving cookie cutter problems based on examples. He
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points out that students could do entire units and get good scores in some programs by simply

knowing how to ‘decode a textbook’. Students should be given problems with insufficient

information, along with problems where too much data is provided so they learn to think outside

the context of formula.

Do not fight standards. Breathe them. Pick your standards for the week, align them in

other disciplines throughout the day in elementary school. Relate fractions to students eating

school lunch, to how far you are in a book, to how many days are left in the school year, the

week. Measure often and compare measurements with others. Morning work is ideal for this.

Something to have students moving. Graph and chart information to show students how it’s

done. Take the extra 5 minutes to show how to label a graph.

Conrad Wolfram argues that there are 4 steps to math: posing the right question,

modifying a real-world problem into a math problem, computation, and math formulation back

into the real world to check that the proper solution was found. Wolfram feels that step three

should be handled by computers, that as educators, we spend too much time in math focusing on

making numbers work when students should be focusing on every other area of the problem.

Students who are raised on a steady diet of textbook knowledge find themselves rushing to the

formula instead of trying to ask the right questions. Meyer acknowledged this as well, stating he

often re-writes problems in his own classroom to make them as short as possible, forcing

students to talk to each other and discover what they need to know to find answers. “Math does

not equal calculation” Wolfram argues, pointing out that doctors, geologists, and many other

math professionals no longer do by hand calculation, instead of implementing tools. “ (Due to

computers) Math has been liberated from calculating, but that math liberation didn’t get into

education yet.”
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Make downtime about growth issues. Instead of having kids silently read when finished,

assign them to a station, be it science, math, art or engineering. Culture every form of growth

and know that a rising desire to learn lifts all boats. A student who finds a love of math or

engineering will more easily be turned on to literature about it. Conversely, a student who loves

baseball might be more keen to learn averages if it is connected to batting scores or more willing

to learn measurement and proportion when comparing Wrigley Field to Yankee Stadium. Use

standards to guide learning, but do not be driven exclusively by them. The greatest gift you can

give your class is to understand them enough to know what they need and to give them every

advantage moving forward.

Use informal assessment often. This is your greatest ally in maintaining a class’s trust

and attention. Informal assessment will allow you to see how students are growing. Go over

their book work, ask them questions about how they came to an answer. When they are using

math casually in one of the above-mentioned centers, check for understanding with them. Even

when they do have the right answer, ask them if there are other ways they can prove it. Utilize

base ten blocks, have them create models, encourage them to articulate similar problems with

different solutions and have them show you the appropriate use of tools, just like the state

standards demand of you.

Formal assessments can cause anxiety. That is just the rule of law. Use them when

necessary. There will be times that you are prompted to test. Take the advantage. Use these

moments to emphasize growth and see where some re-teaching is due. Don’t be afraid to slow

down, but give students adequate time to try. Encourage mistakes and have students walk you

through their misunderstandings. Always examine their why never discourage their effort.
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Always look for new ways. Encourage patient problem solving and stepping back from the

problem to ask students to define what is important, what they need to know to be successful.

This is our challenge. We must make tools available, have them make sense, and

encourage our students to grow. Most importantly, we must model grace when we make

mistakes. Students often make errors and shut down, stating they’ll never understand. We must

recognize a boundary here. The healthy struggle is positive for students. We cannot walk them

through every problem. They must be allowed to make and learn from miscalculations. We

must model what this looks like often enough for them to understand they can grow, but not so

often that they lose faith in us. We must know them well enough to raise them up and provide

them with the ability to help themselves, and we must challenge them to stay engaged and even

enjoy math.

We face a difficult road, but we must maintain a passion and willingness to help students

excel. There is no room for a survival teacher in a math classroom. Math needs to be shown to

be the universal, powerful, fun tool that it is. Students need to be empowered by it, learn it, grow

from it and demonstrate their mastery of it. This is our duty to our students and one I hope to

demonstrate with pride.

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A, V. D., Bay-Williams, J. M., McGarvey, L. M., & Karp, K. S. (2016). Elementary and middle

school mathematics: teaching developmentally (9th ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada.

Bachman, H. J., Votruba-Drzal, E., El Nokali, N. E., & Castle Heatly, M. (2015). Opportunities

for Learning Math in Elementary School: Implications for SES Disparities in Procedural

and Conceptual Math Skills. American Educational Research Journal, 52(5), 894–923

Bolley, S. (2013, January 1). Examining the Effects of Blended Learning for Ninth Grade

Students Who Struggle with Math. ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC

Smail, L. (2017). Using Bayesian Networks to Understand Relationships among Math Anxiety,

Genders, Personality Types, and Study Habits at a University in Jordan. Journal on

Mathematics Education, 8(1), 17–34.

Wolfram, C. (Director). (2012, July 1). TEDTalks: Conrad Wolfram--Teaching Kids Real Math

with Computers [Video file]. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from

https://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers#t

-662411

Meyer, D. (Director). (2010, March 1). TEDTalks: Dan Meyer--Math Class Needs a

Makeover [Video file]. Retrieved April 14, 2017, from

https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover