Math teachers Dionne Olamiju and Dawn Grant in East Ramapo Central School District's Pomona Middle School are in their second year of developing Learner-Active, Technology-Infused ™ math classrooms. With the challenge of district and state tests for math achievement, they discussed how they have begun the process of creating truly differentiated math classrooms. Last summer, IDE consultant Chris Turner provided East Ramapo teachers with five days of summer training in developing problem-based learning units and structures for implemeting Learner Active Classrooms. View some of Dionne's and Dawn's instructional units What do you suggest as "first steps" for math teachers to begin differentiating? Dionne: I would start with looking at the curriculum content and then begin writing PBLs. Start with the questions, "What do kids need to know? How do we apply these concepts in real world?" For example, I'm doing a PBL this fall in which the students need to find area/circumference of polygons, circles, and other shapes. Right now, I'm buying a house and I need to carpet floors and paint the walls. I have a certain amount of money to spend, and I have to make choices- circular carpet? square? rectangular? I keep that in mind when I design my units. I want the students to answer, "What's the best way to go?" I've got a lot of students who are in honors for other classes, but they're in regular math. They have good study skills and are very motivateed. I'm going to rely on the rubric (see samples below) to be able to exceed the 'regular' requirements [the Practitioner column]. I have them working in groups, individually, and with me when they start working through the content- this allows them to work in their preferred learning style. Dawn: I would start with learning centers. I'd recommend having students doing different tasks, or different level problems. They would all be based on the same themes- for example, number theory. Some questions would be remedial, others on grade level, others above grade level. I also would recommend a variety of types of questions on tests and exams. I would include various questions for all different levels, including bonus questions with different degrees of difficulty. Every student could get at least partial credit. I would also include more open-ended questions in class to give students a chance to explore different ways of achieving certain answers. Some kids think a lot and like to go deep. Others struggle and get simple solutions, but this gets the conversation started. What challenges to you see in differentiating math? Dawn: I don't know if math teachers have a harder time than other teachers.The way the curriculum and tests are being developed, we are looking for kids to come up with new ideas. Math teachers have got to break away from the old "drill-and-kill" approach. I remember when I was a student, we had to answer 40 questions, and everyone had to answer the same 40 questions. It turned me off from school. We've got to think outside the box. We've got to be creative. How have you seen students change since you started teaching? Dionne: I feel like the students are more conscientious. They're also more aware of the testing and the importance of testing. They understand that they have a responsibility for themselves to do what they can to be prepared for the test. I stress to them the need for them to know and be successful and take whatever action they need to be successful. More kids come for extra help than in the past. More stay after class to ask questions: "I didn't understand, can you help me?" I see more effort and I see more responsibility. They're raised being tested, they're raised in a world of heavy testing, and they realize that that's going to be their big challenge at the end of 8th grade. Dawn: I think of the students I taught in NYC. I think that students aren't as independent. They are afraid to take risks. In just about everything else, they're the same. But they're kind of hesitant. After working with them, that changes, but they're not naturally risk takers. How do you use technology in math instruction? Dionne: We use the internet for research. When we did floor plans in the spring, we went to architects' Web sites to see floor plans for restaurants so the students could see what real floor plans look like. We've used Excel for making graphs, pie charts to analyze data. If I had more computers, I'd be able to differentiate more- I'd definitely use more Web sites that reinforce skills with instant feedback, especially for the higher-level kids who would go the extra mile and do additional research. Dawn: My favorite activity was when we did an activity with taxis. Students used Excel spreadsheets to calculate cost based on the formula of the prices ($3.00 for the first mile, $1.00 for every 1/5 mile, etc.). Students created the formulas, generated graphs and charts, and manipulated variables to explore their results. What has your experience been with problem-based learning? Dawn: Since I started using PBL, I've integrated lots of technology. I used to teach spreadsheets, but now with PBLs, the technology enhances the process, and spreadsheets are just a part of the project. I'd like their tech use to be the norm- just something they'd use. They're more comfortable than before with computers. Sometimes they teach me. Using PBL has been very positive for me as well as for the kids. I'm getting more comfortable with it, but I wish I could do it all year- I wish I had the time between units to prepare the next one. This year, our students did our "Exemplars of Excellence" PBL. The students had to conduct surveys about what makes a good student and then analyze data. It gave me a first look at what they could do- what their skills are. They had to convert, find mode, do decimals and percentages. It was a lot of recall on skills some of them learned last year. It gave me a chance to reuse the old skills. It was great. We were blown away by the results. We [the team] are getting the kids ready to do more, and it's good because it has the children more engaged. When I use a PBL, I get to sit and talk to the students. When I did "chalk talk," I didn't have that opportunity. These kids need support and I can do that better and give them that little nudge. The PBL approach excites them and requires that they be better organized. It also builds trust because the students are responsible to be done at a certain date. I'm blown away. I was sold from the first one, but there are still things I'm tweaking. My classes told me, "We like it better." It's a way to make learning fun. Not to be corny, but I was thinking of a career change. This has given me a new interest- I can do more with the kids to impact their achievement. Dionne: The kids get very excited now. I've heard comments like, "We''re not doing math. This is fun." PBLs help them to remember concepts better becuase they have a situation that ties in with their lives. They are excited because they want to solve the problem. They have felt need because they need help to get to the next step, to move on. But they really want to complete it and solve the problem- they want the conclusion. It's great because when they work in teams, some kids keep the others on track. They know they need to be on time and complete certain activities by certain dates. I see them get excited. They are connecting to the real world. That helps them understand and remember math. My kids performed really well on the district tests at the end of the PBL units. I believe it is because they had to stretch their thinking. Some of the questions I thought would have been challenging, but the students came up with answers. I also like that PBL requires literacy and writing in math class. This is great because the state test requires writing and explaining your answers. I was particularly proud of my inclusion kids. Many of them got 3s ("on grade level"), and went from 1s to 3s, which is excellent! Sample Units: Dawn Grant Design Expo The activity is about how students use floor plans to do interior decorating for the flooring and wall borders of a house. I gave students various floor plans and put together a flooring and border catalog using the Lowe's Website. Students had to calculate the areas and perimeter of various rooms in the house, make recommendations for flooring and wall borders, and create an estimate of their services. Our technology in the building was not working so I took the liberty of making a template of the proposal so that students would pay more attention to the subject matter and not the fluff. Dionne Olamiju Bad Boys Eat II I gave students actual menus of local restaurants to use to plan the dinner. They were able to really plan and write up the proposal and pay specific attention to sales tax and gratuity. Vibe Teen Magazine Vibe Teen Magazine was challenging at first because it actually deals with almost every single skill in the statistics unit. Students had to collect data, organize it and create a magazine article. I taught them how to collect samples and use all of the tools to visually show the data. When students actually took the District Assessment exams they did well. Pools Architect Pool Architects was a quick activity to help students understand the differences between area, perimeter and volume. This activity occurred over a three day period. I was pleased with the students overall work. Students actually remembered the formulas for area, perimeter and volume for rectangles and circles because they had to look them up for themselves to complete the varied tasks. JobQuest Jobquest was challenging at first because the students got too involved with the technology piece. So to remedy that I made up a template for them to write their responses and left it to the students if they wanted to use a word processor program to put it together.

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