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Monday, August 31, 2009
who to teach to?
In my level 2 SIMMS class I have 17 kids. Three of them are honor students. Eight or ten of them are average students who work really hard at it, and the rest are less than motivated kids who may not get it if they tried their hardest. They are determined they cannot do it so why try. My question to all of you is which of these 3 groups do you teach to? Thanks Jim
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HONOR STUDENTS:
ReplyDeleteI think one of the strengths of SIMMS is the ability to deepen the learning experience for such students rather than simply have them do the same stuff 'regular' kids do except a year earlier or perhaps faster. By 'deepening the experience', I really mean having them delve deeper into the mathematics of a module by doing the Research Projects and reporting in some depth and with some increasing sophistication.
A start I think for such students. Expect more of them--because they are capable.
REGULAR STUDENTS:
I am back in a traditional classroom with a terrible traditional book so I have some new appreciation for SIMMS and how it engages students. Today in my Algebra 1 class I took a lesson from another integrated series (dealt with matrices) and the kids--even the more reluctant ones--actually got into it a bit. I think for REGULAR STUDENTS this is something to cultivate within the class--that importance of learning to be a thinker, a reasoner--a real problem solver. That is natural within this curriculum..
LESS MOTIVATED GROUP:
Clearly this is the tough group but let us remember a few things. Many of those have not had a positive experience in math class for some time--and they really do not believe they can do the work because they have failed repeatedly.My suggestion--keep encouraging, help them with more structure as needed, and be patient. They did not get discouraged in a day and are not likely to become motivated in a day either. That is easier said than done for sure.
SO MY REPONSE IS--don't teach to 'one of these groups' but use SIMMS to reach to the needs of each group.
Gary Bauer
I had a really heterogeneously group of level 1 students 1 year, and I was struggling w/the same thing. But lo and behold It worked like a charm. The "honor kids" helped out and learned quite a bit, I also gave them some of those extra starred problems for extra credit. Just checked it on the rubric. It was pretty amazing, because the honors kids just went into the math at a deeper level. I had 2 kids who just couldn't get it, but I think they got more out of it than they would have in a traditional class anyway. One worked really hard, and the other didn't put much effort into it. Then of course there was the girl who was on the "2 day a week " plan.
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