Saturday, June 25, 2005

Math instruction and differentiation

I was recently reading an article by Marilyn Burns on teaching for understanding in math. You can catch lots of useful articles and ideas on the Eisenshower National Clearinghouse site. Her emphasis on teaching for understanding instead of just memorizing skills and facts was reinforced by an example of learning stations found on pp. 62-65 of Carol Ann Tomlinson's book. The 4th grade example has stations that include:

Teacher Direct Instruction where the teacher gives min-lessons to small groups.

Proof Place where students use manipulatives and drawn examples to explain their answers.

Practice Plaza where students practice difficult concepts and reflect on their work.

The Shop where students apply math concepts to help Mr. Fuddle run his store or shop for items.

Project Place where students use math and connect it to a larger world that includes topics of high student interest.


There is a lot more detail provided in the book as to the specifics of organizing these stations. I'll just emphasize that these stations not only provide lots of opportunities for giving students work at their readiness level, but they present math problems in a variety of contexts which truly builds understading.

3 comments:

danw said...

Welcome Junie B.

I like your thinking. I can definitely see those stations as part of our Family Math Night and math literature would be a great addition (no pun intended). The Math Challenge idea surfaced last spring. That also has promise. Keep those great ideas coming.

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