While I was doing a read aloud during tutoring, I came across a snippet that I thought was interesting. Although it was meant to be humorous, I can’t help but think that it’s a realistic situation in many classrooms. Teachers are quizzing students on skills that they know how to do, but they’re bored with the way it is presented.
To setup the scene, the student (Andrew) is doodling instead of completing his math problems at his desk while his teacher is watching.
In the front of the room, the tall teacher looked up from his large metal desk. “Andrew, get busy,” he called out. “Let’s start working.”
Andrew nodded. He filled in two more answers before doodling a vampire with fangs dripping blood in the upper corner.
“Stop wasting time, Andrew,” called the teacher. “If that math work isn’t completed by recess, you’ll stay inside doing it.”
Andrew counted the remaining problems. “Let’s see, I have seven minutes to do twenty more problems,” he told himself. “That’s… let’s see, seven times sixty is four hundred and twenty seconds divided by twenty. That’s only twenty-one seconds per problem. How can I ever get all this math done in time?”
Any thoughts?
I personally believe that if we presented problems in a "real life" sort of way, it would interest students a lot more. I understand that with standards to meet and Common Core Curriculum modules and units, we feel as if we have more expectations to reach and less freedom when it comes to what we do in our classrooms, but that doesn't mean every single day is dictated for us. If we want to reach our students, we need to make learning more fun and engaging for them.
Excerpt from Math Rashes and Other Classroom Tales by Douglas Evans (2000)
