On Today’s Episode We’re Entering My Thinking Classroom:
- How a student-centered classroom looks in math
- Why and how students should lead in a math classroom
- The 3 rules I have for people entering my classroom (download them here for free!)
My classroom is different than most “math classrooms”
It’s a thinking classroom. Which means…
You won’t find me at the board explaining. You WILL find me as a scribe as students explain their thinking.
You won’t find me showing students what to do. Instead, you WILL find me encouraging students to use their resources, prior knowledge, and current understanding to try first.
You won’t find me rescuing students that are struggling. But, you WILL find me watching them closely, monitoring their body language and conversations to ensure their struggle is productive.
My Classroom is STUDENT CENTERED
That means, students are required to do the most thinking in my classroom. They are in the drivers seat and expected to take the wheel… if the wheel was the thinking and doing of mathematics. Which it is in this metaphor.
To continue on with the car metaphor for my student centered classroom, I have the drivers instructor guide book (and the emergency break). I’m in the passenger seat, with the plans, and the helpful hints along the way. I’ll grab the wheel and pressure the break as needed. But THIS is a place (my math classroom) where students lead. They drive.
Because that is how real learning happens
Real learning happens when we get the EXPERIENCE to try it on our own.
Will we get it perfect? No, of course not. But how will we ever know what we can do unless we try on our own?
My kids took swim lessons at a local swim class place. Tt’s fancy– heated pool, tiki changing rooms, and a prize after every 30 minute swim class. It is VERY scaffolded.. The pool is shallow. There’s a step for them to sit on and platforms in the water to swim to. And the whole time the instructor held them giving them reminders to kick and paddle. Mind you my kids at the time were 4 and 2, so you want them to be safe in the pool with the adult right there.
However, we spend the summer in Michigan and I enrolled my kids at the local high school for swim classes. High school kids taught them at the 4 foot shallowest end of the diving pool. My 2 year old stood on an office chair with her face barley above the water and my 4 year old had to hold on after he climbs in and had to swim to the edge and inch his way across. The high school students taught them strokes, face in, floating, etc.
They supported them…. But they also LET THEM SWIM or at least try to.
There were several seconds of my kids struggling in the pool while they tried to swim. That would NEVER happen at that posh swim class in Chicago, but honestly I was a little uncomfortable… but the outcome was unbelievable. It’s hard to watch your kids struggle or ANY child struggle. But let me tell you about the difference in their confidence and ability.
After the high school lessons my kids were SO much more confident and their skills grew noticeably from week to week. Skills they had been working on for MONTHS at the place in the city.
I attribute their growth and confidence to the space they were given to try to do the hard thing and the small success they found because of their efforts.
So, that’s just one reason I believe in STUDENTS being able to do the dang thing in math class.
I want THEM doing the thinking and reasoning… not adults that are uncomfortable seeing them struggle “supporting them”. So, I have some rules for when you enter my classroom… that might seem odd.
However, these rules allow me to support my students in their struggle. They allow my students to get the opportunity to lead the thinking and then doing of mathematics, without being rescued too soon by an on-looker.
Trigger Warning for People Entering My Thinking Classroom…
Here are my Thinking Classroom Rules:
- Dont give me answers
- Have a neutral stance
- You can ask: “What are you up to? How are you solving? What have you done so far? Can you draw a picture of the problem? What in the problem tells you that?
- Push my thinking by asking: Can you solve this in another way?
I put these on my door and provide them to visitors when they enter my classroom. It’s that serious.
Let’s Talk About Why I have these rules
- Don’t give answers – Because answers don’t matter nearly as much as thinning in my class. So, even if you give the answer it won’t make much of a difference because students are doing the THINKING and required to show that thinking on their paper.
- Have a neutral stance – Because that leads to students’ staying in the thinking. If you confirm or deny if they are on the right track or you tell them GREAT yes you got it. Then, they can be done. That’s like a free ride to giving up. So, instead… listen intensely, ask questions, wonder, find their ideas interesting, but do not take a stand.
- You can ask: open ended questions to find out more about my students thinking. You can ask about models, strategies, the problem, all of these things SUPPORT students thinking and provides them a frame for their thinking.
So, as you enter my classroom or that of others’ thinking classrooms that are centered on STUDENT thinking… remember these rules because they provide the opportunity for students to struggle, reason, and thinking mathematically.
Click here for a free download of my door sign.
Links mentioned in this episode:
5 Steps to a Student Centered Math Class
Math Rules for your classroom
Other episodes you might like:
93: Consolidation with Peter Liljeddahl, author of Building Thinking Classrooms
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