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Higher test scores pursued with rigor
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 By
Sheena Dooley
sdooley@news-sentinel.com
Tolbert: Said program builds on other areas
Smith: Method ‘makes them own their learning’
Marchand: Said students become better thinkers
Using a page filled with dots, squares and triangles, fourth- and
fifth-graders at Village Elementary are learning how to master math.
Students record in journals math problems, their answers and an
explanation of why the answer is correct. The dots and shapes turn
into problems involving such things as fractions and aid them in
learning the basic concepts of math.
“It makes them own their learning and puts it back on them,
where it should be,” said Julie Smith, a fifth-grade teacher
at Village.
Fourth-grade teachers last school year implemented Rigorous Mathematical
Thinking in their classrooms to combat lagging scores on state standardized
tests. The teaching method prompts students to solve math problems
and provide the thinking process they used to get their answers.
The Indiana Department of Education judges whether schools are
doing an adequate job in the classroom based on results from the
standardized tests. For the last two years, Village has failed to
meet state targets and is in Year 3 of school improvement. With
each year it stays on the state’s list, the school faces consequences
that become more severe and range from providing free tutoring to
replacing staff and restructuring the school.
Administrators and teachers hope the new teaching method will help
students make enough gains to meet state targets as they expand
it into other grades. Last year, fourth-grade teachers were the
first to implement it in their classrooms. In one year, those teachers
saw an 18 percent increase in the number of fourth-graders passing
the state math test.
“We are seeing gains in not only math, but it’s also
stemming into other areas,” Smith said. “These kids
are actually thinkers.”
This year, the fourth-grade teachers made the move into fifth grade
with their students from last year. The new fourth-grade teachers
received training and introduced Rigorous Mathematical Thinking
to their students. Juanita Tolbert, Village principal, said she
plans to add a grade each year until every teacher is using the
method in the classroom.
“It builds an academic base and is building on academic programs
to really take (students) to the top,” Tolbert said.
Michelle Marchand, a fifth-grade teacher at Village, and Smith
said the teaching strategy works because, instead of teachers providing
them with ways to get the answers, students have to find them themselves.
That causes them to become better thinkers, while mastering the
basic concepts of math to the point they become second nature, the
teachers said.
As the two further integrate the teaching method, they have seen
it strengthen student achievement in other areas. Marchand said
her students’ vocabulary has expanded rapidly this year, with
fifth-graders using phrases such as “logical evidence”
and “critical attributes” on a regular basis.
“As a teacher, it’s challenging,” Marchand said.
“It’s not one of those things you can tell them; it
has to be pulled from them.”
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/14528716.htm
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