Mathematics Instruction

WOW!  After 12 years of teaching 2nd Grade, I changed schools and began teaching 4th grade ELA.  What a change that turned out to be.  I went from being self-contained to departmentalized and in a totally different grade-level.  It's no secret to anyone who knows me, I hate teaching in a departmentalized classroom.  I'm always rushed and hate not having the time to REALLY get to know my kids and meet their needs.  I love that in a self-contained classroom you get to know your students' individual strengths and weaknesses and build upon them.  WELL, next year I'm getting to have my very own self-contained 4th Grade classroom where I will be teaching ALL subjects.  I have been on cloud nine since I found out.  BUT, now I have to figure out Math at the 4th Grade level.  OMG!!!  It's quite different from 2nd Grade.  

 What you'll find here is me working through what I know about teaching and learning and applying it to Math at this level.  

 

For anyone who might find themselves in my shoes and needing to learn how to teach Math, I HIGHLY recommend you getting on EBAY or Amazon.com and purchasing a Teacher's set of the Everyday Mathematics by the University of Chicago.  This is the most comprehensive set of Math instruction I've ever seen.  What I love about it is that it is based on the idea that students learn differently and it exposes students to many different methods, or strategies, of working their tasks.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Ok, so starting with what I know...the gradual release model. Here the teacher begins by assuming all of the responsibility for the work and then gradually shifts to guiding the students in how to assume responsibility and then releases the responsibility to the student.

 

 

When trying to fit your daily teaching styles into one of these frameworks, my best advice is that these are teaching strategies so, you should think in terms of what the teacher is doing.  If the teacher is doing all or most of the work, you're probably modeling and instructing.  If the work is equally divided between the student and teacher, then you're probably guiding their practice.  If the teacher is observing while the students do the work, then you're most likely in practice and application.