NCTM Journal Review
As the title of this article suggests, the main focus of this piece of writing has to do with strategies that will encourage equitable participation among your students in the classroom. The first point to consider has to do with barriers to participation, particularly in terms of student status. There can be social pressures that students are feeling and they do not want to look "dumb" in front of their peers, or English may not be their first language and speaking in front of the entire class may cause great stress to the student. To combat these barriers, this article bring into play a concept called "complex instruction." The first and most important main idea that CI encapsulates is that ALL students are capable of solving complex mathematical problems and that everyone brings unique skills and mathematical strengths to the classroom. By leveraging these skills and differences, teachers can begin to break down some participation barriers and involve all students.
The key here is providing students with tasks that have a variety of entry points! This allows all possible opportunity for every type of student to engage with the material at hand. After this, the article moves into the 8 moves a teacher can make, which are as follows : Focus on participation instead of student ability, expand what counts as mathematical competence, make "... yet!" a norm, give students responsibility for managing work, observe unobtrusively, highlight student strengths, take group questions, establish a norm that "no one is finished until everyone understands." All of these strategies have the same main goal in mind, to create a safe and welcoming classroom environment in which we all work together towards comprehension, free of judgement. Taking the time to establish these goals as classroom norms will enable the students who typically are not willing to participate suddenly being more engaged while also encouraging those who love to participate become leaders and teachers. This article provides teachers with techniques to ensure learning for all types of students!
The key here is providing students with tasks that have a variety of entry points! This allows all possible opportunity for every type of student to engage with the material at hand. After this, the article moves into the 8 moves a teacher can make, which are as follows : Focus on participation instead of student ability, expand what counts as mathematical competence, make "... yet!" a norm, give students responsibility for managing work, observe unobtrusively, highlight student strengths, take group questions, establish a norm that "no one is finished until everyone understands." All of these strategies have the same main goal in mind, to create a safe and welcoming classroom environment in which we all work together towards comprehension, free of judgement. Taking the time to establish these goals as classroom norms will enable the students who typically are not willing to participate suddenly being more engaged while also encouraging those who love to participate become leaders and teachers. This article provides teachers with techniques to ensure learning for all types of students!