Embedded Files
About Me
About Me
Hi! My name is Mackenzie Hart and I am a sophomore Mathematics Secondary Education major at The College of New Jersey. My passion for math roots all the way back to elementary school, as it has always been my favorite subject. I would love to share my passion with others, as I want to teach high school math and coach. While math may have come more naturally to me as opposed to the other subjects, I understand that this is not the case for everyone. However, as a future educator, I do not want my students to think that they aren't "math people". I want to make math interesting and fun for all of my students, and to do this, I need to make the content relatable for them. The following articles explain the concept of Social Justice Math and the benefits it has on student engagement, confidence, and achievement.
Summary:
Usually when people think about implementing fairness and equality into math education, they are referring to higher quality instruction and finer accessible resources. This also includes higher accomplishments for historically disadvantaged and low-performing students, such as students from low-income areas. While higher quality math instruction has its benefits, the school math curriculum already has biases within it, including political, racial, and gender biases. The mathematics that we learn tends to consider the viewpoint of the dominant groups in our society: typically white, middle class, heterosexual, male, ect. This provides a reason as to why some kids find it difficult to succeed in math and why some students purposefully choose to not even try. To combat this issue, the curriculum should focus on social justice in mathematics education. This form of teaching fosters fairness within the classroom and aims to give students the tools they need to recognize and address injustices outside of it. The article provides some teaching strategies to use by giving lesson plan examples. For example, their lesson on Data Analysis involves “Exploring School Segregation”, and their Linear Equations lesson discusses “Fair Living Wages”.
Strategies Adopted:
As a future math educator, I believe that teaching math alongside relevant topics will best help keep my students engaged. I will implement the plans discussed in the article into my teaching, in hopes of making it easier for all of my students to succeed. By teaching math through this social justice lens, I will help students who are a part of some type of minority group feel heard and be able to see themselves within mathematics. Additionally, I will give my students the means to be successful by using math to question other significant issues they have in their lives.
Summary:
This article discusses deficit views of mathematics learning. Many children are labeled at such a young age on their math readiness specifically based on their standardized test scores. Many black, latino, and poor children are positioned under their fellow white and middle class/wealthy classmates, and these labels can affect the type of math instruction that they receive. In order to achieve a more equitable mathematics education, it is first important to focus on the learning rather than the unfair labels that bestow privilege. A social justice lens in mathematics education challenges this deficit thinking that upholds static beliefs about children’s mathematical abilities. Many of the children who are labeled and placed into “low” groups unfortunately tend to experience math as an isolating activity, as they are provided with fact-driven, low-demanding cognitive activities. Educators believe that these students need to first “master the basics”, so they are constantly placed into lower tracks with less access to meticulous courses, leading to harmful impacts on these students' achievements in math. The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and TODOS: Mathematics for ALL believes that social justice is key to the advancement of math education. They say that this stance requires an approach that includes high expectations for all students, access to relevant math, strong community relationships, and equitable teaching practices which overall promotes positive achievement. NCSM and TODOS say that these approaches require change in institutional structures, but they believe that the three key steps towards the right direction are acknowledgment, action, and accountability. If teachers implement these three strategies into their classroom, it will provide great benefits for their students.
Strategies Adopted:
As a future math teacher, I will implement the strategies I learned in this article into my teaching habits. First, I need to acknowledge that the current math education system is unjust and it involves institutional discrimination. Additionally, I need to acknowledge that implementing social justice into mathematics is a complex process and since some students benefit from the current unjust system, they may not want to adjust to a new one and give up their privilege. Then, I need to take action and create policies and practices that lead to equitable experiences and opportunities for all of my students. Also, I will need to hold myself accountable to making fair math education a sustainable reality. Specifically, an example of a practice I will implement into my classroom is providing math resources in multiple languages to my students and their families in order to keep my classroom diverse and equal for all.
Summary:
This video provides feedback from students regarding a specific curriculum entitled “Math that Matters.” “Math that Matters” is a teacher resource that links social justice and math, and its main focus is to teach students math while also teaching them about the real world. Creators of this resource feel that it is most effective to give word problems regarding topics such as race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, power, oppression, homelessness, capitalism, ect. The speaker in the video states “Real life math is not about finding the volume or the ravioli can in the cupboard or slicing up your pizza into a bunch of fractions…” He believes that by focusing on real life content, students will then become empowered to make the world a better place beyond the classroom. A student describes her personal experience from using this resource… “I have learned math a lot better than I would have just from a textbook. With a textbook, you only learn numbers and basic facts, but with social justice math problems you learn about something and it is relevant work so the math stays with you more.” Political Scientist from York University, Sam Gindin, believes that education is all about learning so that you could understand the world, so the issue of justice should be incorporated into all courses. There were some concerns throughout the video as to whether this content is too political for young students. Gindin debunks the concept that it is too political by saying “the idea that politics should be left out of the classroom is a way of saying that we should not understand society,” as he feels that politics is tied into everything.
Strategies Adopted:
As a future math teacher, it was helpful for me to hear feedback from students regarding tying real world issues into the math curriculum. Their positive feedback shows that it empowers them. The relevance to society keeps them informed about the world around them while also keeping them more engaged and motivated while doing the math problems. Therefore, I know that when I teach, I will make sure to incorporate relevant societal issues into my course. I believe this will be in the best interest of my students and it will increase their rates of success. My students will not want to constantly do math that seems boring and meaningless; they want to truly learn.
Summary:
This article discusses the ways to make math more culturally responsive, which is a practice that celebrates the culture of the students, making them feel seen and valued. The methods to making math more culturally responsive were divided into four main sections: Community, connections, & collaboration; Making it social; Role models, manipulatives, and literature; Including challenging and complex work. The first section discusses the importance of building relationships with diverse students by speaking with them in both structured and unstructured conversations. In doing so, it is significant for the teacher to study their diverse students so that they can instruct math in a way that allows their students to connect it to their personal lives and experiences. This section also discusses how incorporating real-word connections into math practices and allowing students to collaborate with their classmates help increase their engagement and achievement, allowing them to become excited about math. These both create diverse ways of thinking and learning. In the second section, it discusses how linguistically familiar presentations help to build interest of the students. Therefore, if teachers can present elements of a math problem, such as a grocery list, in the native language of the student, they will feel that they can directly relate to it. This helps reach students from diverse backgrounds, especially those who are struggling. In the following section, it discusses ways to appreciate the student’s cultures throughout the classroom. They said that an example that a teacher could say before a lesson is “Let’s pretend we are Aztec mathematicians while we solve these fractions.” Showing students that there are important math role models that may look like them (and are not only white males) can help to empower them. The final section discusses how depending on their culture, students may have different preferences of learning styles. Some may come from a culture where music is important, so using rhymes and chants are most effective for them. Some students may thrive in independent learning stations, while others need feedback from a partner in order to gain confidence. Therefore, teachers can keep it interesting by switching up how they teach their lessons. Overall, although math is a problem solving course and it is very different from courses such as history or english, it is still very possible and necessary for math educators to practice culturally responsive teaching.
Strategies Adopted:
As a future math teacher, I now understand the importance of every little thing I do in the classroom. From the videos I play, to the posters on the wall, to the color of the counting chips I use- it all has an impact. I now know the significance of making my classroom a diverse place where all cultures and languages are appreciated. I will incorporate a way to involve different cultures into my math problems so that all of my students feel valued and safe. For example, as discussed in the article, I can make Mexican American students feel seen by using red, white, and green counting chips and pointing out that they are the colors of the Mexican flag.
Summary:
The article discusses how many students lack math confidence because society has deemed it as okay to “not be a math person.” Dr. Cathery Yeh believes people started distancing themselves from math because of the stigma that math is simply memorization. She said that many students think of doing a lot of problems repeatedly and as quickly as possible. However, Yeh believes these teaching techniques give students a narrow view of what math really is. By connecting math to student’s culture and their everyday context, it shows them that math is truly everywhere. To combat this issue, Yeh has students interview a member of their family in their native language about how they use math in their everyday life. Then, she creates math lessons that pair together how the parents used math along with what the students are learning in class, allowing them to broaden their idea of what mathematics can be and increasing their confidence within the subject. Another way to build student’s confidence is by what Vilson describes as “mini-scaffolds.” When students are confused, he starts with the question “Tell me what you know,” allowing students to use their brains and realize they usually know more than they think. If a student gets a problem wrong, he will ask the class questions about the problem that lead towards the right answer. Overall, it is significant to help students develop their confidence in the math classroom by using real life examples that apply to them.
Strategies Adopted:
As a future math teacher, I never want my students to feel uncomfortable or unconfident in my classroom. As I previously mentioned, I will try to incorporate real life experiences into my math problems to allow the students to relate to the problems they are trying to solve. Additionally, I will never embarrass my students for answering incorrectly. Instead, I will try to get them to understand where they went wrong, and explain why they went wrong. I want my students to always feel safe to answer questions. This is something that I noticed during my practicum experience. The teacher in my classroom encouraged participation heavily, but she never embarrassed anyone for getting problems wrong. Instead, she was very helpful in showing them how to fix their mistakes in the future.
Page updated
Report abuse