Dear LREI Community,
Three very different sets of comments today.
1)
Just before Spring Break I sent a message home regarding new measures implemented by the NY State Department of Education to create an additional layer of oversight of independent schools. We have reached a level of resolution in this matter. See the following excerpt from a New York State Association of Independent Schools
“…Supreme Court Justice Christina L. Ryba ruled that, ‘the new guidelines are ‘rules’ that were not implemented in compliance with the SAPA (NY State Administrative Procedures Act) and are hereby nullified.’ These 18 words are the culmination of over 2 years-worth of work by NYSAIS and the entire NYSAIS community that ultimately led to NYSAIS and 11 member schools (the same number of schools that founded NYSAIS) filing an Article 78 action against Commissioner MaryEllen Elia and the New York State Education Department (NYSED)….At its core, the NYSAIS Article 78 filing was about preserving the independence of curricular and staffing decisions for each NYSAIS school….While recognizing that there is a role for the NYSED in assuring that all New York schools adhere to the statutory requirements under New York Education Law, the approach advanced by the Commissioner was a bridge too far. …. ‘the NYSAIS accreditation process has been assessing the substantial equivalence of all schools for over a half century. While the Supreme Court ruling is significant, there remains much work to be done to ensure that, over the long run, all NYSAIS schools remain independent to create the educational environments which best serve their missions and the students who are entrusted to them.’”
I will, of course, keep you up to date on this issue.
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2)
A couple of weeks ago I was meandering around the internet and took a break from the news of the day by visiting a parent bulletin board, as I do from time to time. The first entry was a question asking how to explain to a child (upper elementary/early middle school aged I assumed) how to find the answer to the question, “Which is bigger 3/4 or 2/3?” A few folks responded, some helpfully, some less so, most suggesting the use of common denominators, a strategy that would certainly lead to the right answer. That said, how can we discern if this student understood the concept as well as how to find the answer to this particular question as these are not always the same thing?
I decided to do a little research. I asked this same question of a former middle schooler who was hanging around. He suggested that the way to find this answer is to think about which missing part is larger. Good answer, I thought, and one that was true to his LREI math education as this strategy, using a wider lens, was about both concept and solution. It is possible, maybe likely, that the student about whom the question was posed was used to being asked to focus on how to manipulate fractions (computation) but was less comfortable with the concept of fractions. This is not a critique of this child, but more an indication about what is common in math education, manipulation rather than understanding, or, learn to compute first and foremost and conceptual understanding will come later, time permitting. Our feeling is that if you spend the time on the concept first not only will your understanding be longer lasting but the computational understanding will be easier to achieve and the combination of the two– a deep understanding and a facility with mathematic manipulation – will be more fluid and fluent.
This idea, address the big ideas – the mathematics – first, and through this learn to manipulate the numbers is key to what we do each day. Tackle big problems with the time and support needed to really understand the math and to develop a tool kit of strategies, and then practice, practice, practice. This combination, deep understanding, hard problems, and practice allow our young mathematicians to develop a variety of strategies. To create this outcome, we have to provide ample time to work and we have to be comfortable with allowing the children to struggle through the problem to understanding. We do and we are.
Want more thinking on how to best learn math? I suggest listening to this podcast. It is quite interesting.
A last thought. If I was the teacher posing this problem I would have asked, “Which is larger, 2/3 or 3/4, and by how much? Concept and computation!
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3)
Lastly, Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!! Click here to see what this is all about.