Some math notes

Hello,

I wanted to write a little bit about math this year.  We used to have math homework every night from Monday through Thursday.  I don't think that will be the case this year with the new math program.  If your child does have math homework, like tonight, you can be assured that it will be review.  Your child is responsible for bringing that work home, completing it, and then bringing it back to class the next day.  You may want to review with your child the procedures they use to make this happen.  By this time they should be familiar with their assignment book and they should have some type of binder or folder that goes back and forth from school to home every night. 

          Each Monday I will also give out a weekly challenge.  This isn’t due until Friday, and this will be work that they may be a bit unfamiliar with.  I will introduce the challenges to get them started, but they are designed so that most students will struggle a bit on them.  These challenges are graded on effort only.  I am much less concerned in the right answer than I am in how students react when they don’t immediately find the solution.  I want students to come in on Tues, Wed, and Thursday and keep asking questions.  I will gladly help those who are putting in the effort.  I think these challenges are going to be especially important this year because we aren't able to group according to skills.  This will be one area where everyone in the class should have some questions. 

           I hope you will help your child as well, but please don’t just give answers.  Allow them to try different methods.  Allow them to struggle a bit.  Ask what they have tried out so far.  If they can show you that they have tried, then you can help, but “I don’t know what to do!” or “I don’t get it!” shouldn’t cut it.  I believe that these challenges are sorely needed.  Many students don't have much of an opportunity to struggle with a problem anymore before someone comes rushing to their aid.  I want them to struggle.  They will get credit for struggling.  Please allow them to.

  

          Every year, countries are ranked according to the math ability of their children.  Unfortunately, American children have been slowly falling in these rankings for years.  I subscribe, in part, to Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that this is largely cultural.  He states, “Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent. If you take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch, the American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.” 

          Research shows that there is validity to Gladwell’s tests.  A country’s math ability ranking positively correlates with the time its students will give to a problem before giving up.  In fact, the two ranking lists are nearly identical. 

          So what can we do to get them to be more persistent?  As I said, I think that many kids are never allowed to struggle.  Many American adults, including teachers, do what they can so their children are never uncomfortable.  I’m asking you to let them be uncomfortable on these challenges.  Make them come in and ask for help.  If we can get them to achieve a bit of success after struggling, they won’t be so averse to it the next time. 

          Teaching fourth grade over the past six years, I have to mention this: I am amazed at how difficult that it is for many kids to admit that they don’t know something.  The only way to learn anything is to come from a place of not knowing.  I try very hard to create an atmosphere in class where everyone can feel safe to ask questions.  I praise everyone with a question, thanking them for asking what I am sure others are wondering about.  It isn’t nearly enough.  There obviously is a lot of pressure to know it all or to not look bad.  Unfortunately this pressure is really getting in the way of learning.  Please encourage your kids to speak up when they have a question.       

          One last thing that you can do is play games with your kids.  Dice games and card games are great for their addition skills and number familiarity.  I am always surprised at how many fourth graders have to count the dots on dice.  So please, have fun and help them learn at the same time.  All year long I’ll be introducing games that you can play at home.  

         I will also be introducing a homework club in the coming weeks that will run until 5:00, once a week.  We will do homework for the first 45 minutes and play games for the last 45 minutes.  Last year, we did fun science for the last part of the sessions, but I think there is more of a need for playing games this year.  Math, strategy, sportsmanship, responsibility and camaraderie are just some of the reasons that I think that games are the way to go this year.  I'll let you know the day of the week when I know myself.  Everyone in the class will be invited, but attendance will always be optional.

          And lastly, I don't think that I've mentioned it yet, but I love my job.  It is ridiculously challenging and I think ridiculously important.  I understand what your children mean to you and I do my absolute best to educate them to the best of my ability.  In my opinion, this only works if the children know that we are on the same page.  The sooner we can meet or have a conversation, with or without your child, the better.  Please email, call, or drop in if you’d like to speak to me about anything.

Thanks,

Mr. Shea