Saturday, March 14, 2015
CC = CR
Still thinking about math teaching. Now that Common Core is well underway, a pretty fair sampling of short videos have showed up online, from real math teachers in real classrooms.
I'm IMPRESSED. From reading the standards I knew CC could become a vast improvement over existing methods, but I hadn't seen it in action before.
This demo of the block multiplication method almost knocked me over. It's a trick that any good teacher COULD have developed at any time ... but they DIDN'T. Hell, I could have developed it when I was teaching math. But I DIDN'T. Some anonymous writer in the CC staff DID develop it, and it WORKS. I wish this had been around when I was a kid.
CC wants lots of interaction and discussion, and it wants fast work. That's the magic recipe for effective learning. The recipe has never been officially recommended before, though the best teachers have always used it. In these clips the better teachers have met these requirements with good old Call and Response. Don't wait for raised hands; get a volley going between solo and chorus. I suspect it works best when you've got some black kids in the class, because they know C & R from church and can 'phase-lock' everyone else.
Among these clips, oddly enough the least effective C & R teacher is a big black lady who undoubtedly gives a fine Word-of-knowledge down at Zion Fire Baptism Holiness Temple. But in the classroom she's restrained and stiff, waiting for hands. Maybe she was over-corrected in college Ed classes. Come on big lady, loosen up. Swing it. The kids will benefit greatly from Fire-Baptism Subtraction, and you'll enjoy the work more. Might even subtract a few demons, and we SURE AS HELL could use some of that.
Labels: Experiential education
¶ 7:11 AM
