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It has been way too long since I last posted! I have had MANY new ideas over the last (almost) year, and have had just too little time to write about it. Now that it is summer, I am hoping to renew my commitment to blogging about assistive tech and special ed.
During the last school year, I began teaching specialized math to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in a pull out setting. It was truly an eye opening experience, and I have learned so much from my students. Now, as summer is in full swing, and I am beginning to think about my classes for next fall, I am wondering about how to best teach math to students who struggle to understand and retain concepts due to the nature of their learning differences.
Current Mathematical Methods:
Our current curriculum frameworks in Massachusetts are divided into 5 areas of concentration: Ratios and Proportions, The Number System, Expressions and Equations, Geometry and Statistics and Probability. At each middle school level, students explore and learn material from each strand, every year.
So, the question I have been asking is... is this the best way to teach math to special education students? Is it better to have student learn a "smattering" of each topic area, each year? Most of my students have difficulty with acquiring and retaining mathematical concepts. I can teach them fractions this year, and by next year's fraction unit, they have difficulty accessing previously learned concepts, even with frequent review/spiraling.
My Big Question:
This of course led me to wonder whether there is a better way to teach math to this population of learners. What if we teach each strand in depth? What if I spend more time teaching fewer strands each year, but teach them in depth? For example, what if I teach number systems to my 6th grade class, but continue to teach them 7th and even 8th grade topics after they have mastered 6th grade material. Keeping brain development in mind, what if I hold off teaching more difficult concepts, such as linear expression, proportions and ratios until 8th grade, but teach them the 6th, 7th and 8th grade material sequentially in one year? If I do this, my students will have been exposed to ALL strands for each middle school topics by the end of 8th grade, just not according to the flow of the state frameworks. Doing this, I think that students would have the opportunity to see how math knowledge is sequential, and how it builds upon previously learned concepts. I am not so sure that they make this connection in our current "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" math process.
Ahhh, yes, the down side...of course this would be reflected in our MCAS scores, as 6th grade students would not have learned all 6th grade content material, etc... However, they will have learned concepts above grade level in other areas. But my mind keeps spinning back to my question: would this approach help my struggling math students?
So What Now?
I have been asking both seasoned special educators and math teachers this question. The answer I get from most of them is surprising. They like this crazy idea of teaching fewer units each year, teaching them in depth, across grade levels. One math teacher told me that she agrees that the current flow of curriculum is fine for typical learners, but that my crazy idea might just be a better way to approach teaching math to students with learning differences. Now if only I can figure out a way to try this in the classroom.
Please feel free to leave me your opinion on this! I am interested in hearing all points of view, ideas and feedback.
