Reply To: Lesson 1-5: Question & Discussion

[Nicole Myers]

I think it is very clear from the learning so far that this style of learning involves making the students actually do most of the thinking. So often in traditional lessons I feel like I am the only one doing any thinking and students are either mimicking (the “good at math” ones) me or are just tuned out (the “not good at math” ones).

I think one of my reservations here is still how do you teach students truly fundamental skills (that they ideally should have learned in an earlier grade, but clearly have not grasped) through this method? I currently teach Grade 6 and I have multiple students whose basic ability to even add/subtract/multiply with single digits is very weak, let alone be able to identify what strategies would be most appropriate to use in a given context.

This is still something that I haven’t quite settled in my mind and I often wonder if it is just be defaulting back to what is “familiar” when it comes to teaching math/excuse making or if it’s a legitimate reservation, but these are my thoughts as they currently stand!