Fun in Mathematics: Welcome to my blog!
My name is Hong Zhang, and I ...: Welcome to my blog! My name is Hong Zhang, and I am doing my student teaching in Los Alto High School now.
I am currently doing Math Algebra II teaching in the school, and students' grades are 9th to 12th. For the everyday class I was there, students did homework correction, took quiz, learned new materials, and practiced exercises. I helped them and graded quiz each day and found some of students' math foundations were weak. Both students wanted to learn and teachers wanted to help, but the time was short, even we used the time of the lunch and after school. It was really challenged for these struggle students to master math knowledge.
Hi Mrs. Zhang!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to meet you in a small group. We are in the same boat. Don't be disappointed about some students having very weak math skills. This phenomena is very common in every school classroom, many students don't have the basic knowledge, some don't have a very good previous math teacher, and many other reasons. However, you just go in the middle. Don't go so fast nor slow, and it will be good enough. That is what I think.
Have a nice winter break
Hi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI was glad to chat with your last Saturday and felt we had similar feelings about student teaching. Thank you for your comments. Yes, you are right, and we are in the middle and will try to fit in the new situation.
Hope we will have more chat in the next meeting, and enjoy your time off also.
Thanks,
--Hong
My master teacher has offered to share with me her lesson plans from the first half of the school year. I would be interested to see how much time she spent reviewing as most of her students have basic math knowledge. In addition, she has an intervention class where her weakest students attend an extra period of math (first period) instead of taking an elective in middle school. All the intervention students also go to her regular math class which I think is a huge advantage (well, maybe if you have a good math teacher) because she can review what they are working on and she also gives them a practice quiz before their actual one on the day of testing.
ReplyDeleteIs algebra II required for graduation in the Los Altos school district? According to my master teacher, there is some research that shows that pushing down math (having students take advanced math at such a young age) is not beneficial to some students. In strong socio-economic districts, this is usually the case, and not all students are ready. My children's middle school does not offer Math8 as an alternative to Algebra in 8th grade so some students struggle and then have to repeat it in high school. By this point, they may be turned off by math and just give up. They do the bare minimum to get by. Students who take Math8 and then algebra tend to do better because they get taught half the algebra work in 8th grade, and the teacher can cover it more slowly and in depth. They instead teach to the state standards for 8th grade and also cover half the algebra textbook. It would be interesting to see if students who struggle in algebra 2 were in this frustrated group of students.
Hi Carol,
DeleteThank you for your comments. Actually, Algebra II is not required for graduation in any schools, and students who take this class use it for their college purpose. I agree with you that students need get more time prepared for this class, especially for the struggle students. School may also take this one-year course teaching in two-years, as I saw in another high school, so the struggle students can still be able to catch this class with slowing down the paces. School and teachers should try new ways to help these students.
--Hong
Hello Hong,
ReplyDeleteYes it is common to have a very diverse group of students in mathematics. By high school students tend to have strong beliefs about which subjects they can and can not do well in. This can be challenging for teachers to not only teach the material but change their beliefs. You mentioned that many students do not have the prerequisite skills. What strategies might you implement that you read about in Tomilson's book regarding differentiation?
Hello Professor Dickenson,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information about high school students. Yes, I have learned many strategies from two textbooks as well as from my student teaching experience. In Wong's book, he mentioned that teacher should give students more than they expect, and I believe it is really true in my student teaching practice. One senior student in my Algebra II class told me at my first day of student teaching that he didn't understand anything taught in the class, and I told him that he was able to learn the radical functions that the class were studying and then I tutored him one by one steps. Finally, he understood and told me: "That is easy." By the individual help of following days, he finished his homework and got good grades on quizzes. The another strategy that was montioned in Tomilson's book about Algebra II teaching is also very useful. A math teacher from the book uses compacting out the students who are fast learner to study independently on math projects with his guidance, while he teaches the rest of students with the whole-class instructions and works directly with struggle students. Then he uses cooperative learning to help the students to learn from their peers. In my teaching experience, my master teacher always grouped students by 4 or 5 people each group, and they corrected their homework, studied new materials, and did exercises together, so they could figured out the questions and shared their learning each other. In addition, the math department of the school has a program to help struggle students. For two days of each week, some upper grade students and teachers (including me) use lunch time helping struggle students to learn and review the Algebra II materials starting from the first chapter, and we hoped the individual tutors could help the struggle students to catch up their Algebra II studies.
Therefore, both my textbooks and student teaching open my eyes on how to differentiated teaching and will benefit my future teaching practice.
Regards,
--Hong