INSIDE THE CLASSROOM: MATH
Shauntay Hallett, Third-Grade teacher, Brooklyn Charter School, Brooklyn
I call my third-graders “math magicians.” As math magicians, we show our work, we never give up, and we try our best.
The Common Core approach asks students to think about math differently. We want them to get the correct answer, but also to explain mathematical strategies with detail, to fully understand the process.
Our daily 90-minute math block lets us dive deep into the curriculum, but it’s a challenge to keep 8-year-olds engaged for that long, so within that block I have rounds of games, practice, and repetition. The third-grade standards are built on multiplication and division, so we have to reinforce those fundamental skills.
We often play the “skip-counting game,” a sequential review of multiplication facts. As their skills improve, we introduce elimination rounds, and the competition gets them really excited. When they miss one and go down, they’ll cheer for their classmates. The best part is, it’s not always the star students who win — anyone can be the student who goes the farthest that day.
This group responds strongly to praise and recognition, and classroom cheers are part of that. We may do two claps and raise the roof, or say, “Good job, me.” If someone doesn’t get an answer quite right, we’ll say, “Sooo close!” I’ll also give a daily shout-out to one student, not necessarily someone who got everything right, but who exemplified our math magician rules. Boosting confidence is an important part of our classroom culture.
In our multiplication and area unit, students spend several days making their own floor plans for a fantasy house. They figure out the area of each room and the area of the whole dwelling. Their plans can include anything they can imagine — “Ooh, I want a pool, I want a movie theater!”
But they also have to think about it from a real-life perspective: that a bedroom has to fit, as does a kitchen and bathroom. I pass out grid paper and let them go. Then they have to consider, “Do I really want the bathroom in the middle of the bedroom? Let’s think about that realistically.” It creates huge excitement with the class as they use their critical-thinking minds.
Sample questions:
Students will complete 44 multiple-choice questions on the 2017 exam, as well as eight open-response questions requiring them to demonstrate their use of mathematical methods. 1) Which two values are located at the same point on the number line? A. 4 and 4 1 B. 1 and 3 3 C. 8 and 8 8 D. 6 and 4 2
2) A baker made 232 muffins. He sent 190 of the muffins to a local hotel. He will put the rest of the muffins in boxes. Each box can hold 6 muffins. Which equation can be used to find b, the number of boxes the baker will need? A. (232 - 190) ÷6 = b B. (232 ÷ 190) x6 = b C. (232 - 190) x6 = b D. (232 ÷ 190) ÷6 = b
3) Nadia had a strip of green paper that was 18 inches long. She cut the green paper into 3 pieces of equal lengths. She also had a strip of red paper that was 24 inches long. She cut the red paper into pieces that were the same length as each cut piece of green paper. When she was finished cutting, how many pieces of red and green paper did Nadia have in total? Show your work. ANSWERS: 1. A; 2. A; 3. Two points possible.