From Presenter to Facilitator

Throughout my teacher preparation courses, I have been challenged to make my teaching style one that promotes active learning rather than passive learning. In other words, I have been encouraged to move away from traditional methods, such as the so-called "drill and kill" method, and move toward progressive models that force students to think actively about the mathematics they are learning while mucking around in it as well as having students not only thinking critically, but also articulating it to their peers and the teacher. Essentially, I have learned that the mathematics classroom should be a place where students are actively being mathematicians.

From the beginning, I have jumped on board with this mentality, and I cannot be more excited about reading about a model that can be implemented in the classroom that promotes students to be mathematicians. In Minds on Mathematics by Wendy Ward Hoffer, she argues that teachers should employ a type of lesson called a "Math Workshop" to have students develop deep understanding of the mathematical concepts being taught. Just from Chapter 1, I have a strong first impression of this method and believe that it can provide avenues for students to explore mathematical concepts like a mathematician rather than be a passive learner who memorizes algorithms and processes and mindlessly executes them on assessments. With the latter, students can fall into saying things like what Michael Scott says.

Since this type of experience is not one that I desire for my current and future students, let's explore what this Math Workshop style of lesson is precisely. As Hoffer states, the purpose of such a lesson is to "put into practice our belief in all students' mathematical abilities by creating and facilitating learning experiences that invite individuals to construct and negotiate deep conceptual understanding, as well as develop fluency with numbers" (Hoffer, 2). 

Woah, now isn't that one jam-packed purpose?! Why don't we unpack that to characterize what a Math Workshop style of lesson by going through the purpose phrase by phrase. 

"put into practice our belief in all students' mathematical abilities..."

A friend of mine once said, "Students don't care what you know until they know that you care." With all the negative stereotypes surrounding mathematics and the seemingly abundant lack of self-efficacy when it comes to mathematics, I think that this style of lesson definitely actively works to combat these by putting a positive light on mathematics and pushing students in a healthy way while simultaneously communicating that understanding the mathematical concepts at hand is, in fact, able to be accomplished. Through the structure of this type of lesson, we can demonstrate that each and every one of our students has the capability to learn the concepts being taught, and, thus, showing our students that we do care. 

"...by creating and facilitating learning experiences..."

Further, it is that structure that allows for this type of lesson to be centered around being engaged in thinking about the mathematics through "minds-on tasks that require deep thinking and evoke understanding" (Hoffer, 6). The goal here is to have learning experiences that demand thinking to be not only internally transparent within the student's mins, but also externally transparent by having a student share their thinking with their peers, where appropriate, and the teacher so that, in combination, come to an understanding of the mathematical concepts. To accomplish that goal, the duty of the teacher is to then have created minds-on tasks that allow for deep understanding to occur and do so in a way where the teacher is a facilitator rather than a presenter by conferring with students instead of presenting the material to the students directly and/or rescuing students when they are struggling with the material. 

"...that invite individuals to construct and negotiate deep conceptual understanding,..." 

It is critical that these minds-on have the students actively being engaged in the learning process, not the teacher; the teacher should not be doing the thinking for the students. Therefore, the workshops have the students looking at a given concept from numerous angles. As a result, rich discourse on the concept can occur and student thinking is put on display. Students are then, in fact, constructing their knowledge and negotiating deep conceptual understanding through communicating their thinking and being exposed to other ways of thinking about the given concept. 

"...as well as develop fluency with numbers."

Moreover, this lesson style will allow students to be fluent with numbers through the amount of dialogue built into a math workshop. The teacher is conferring with students throughout and students are discussing with each other. In both cases, students are making their thinking visible. Thus, student misconceptions are actively being made known and are being actively combated as the lesson unfolds. This only allows for the misconceptions to not be held as long as they would be in a traditional classroom and the hurdles to achieving number fluency are being eliminated quicker.

Now wouldn't it be cool to see students be as determined and confident
as Lolo Jones when going through a lesson because of its structure? 

At the heart of a Math Workshop style of lesson is "students [building] confidence and competence as members of a community of mathematics" (Hoffer, 5). Through its general structure of an opening, minilesson, work time, and reflection, the deep thinking and active discourse that occurs has students building a mathematical community that builds confidence and competence. It does so by having students construct the big ideas in the lesson. Thus, problem sets will become easier to manage. 

As Hoffer states, "once students grasp the concept, practice will be more efficient because the big idea is already solidified" (Hoffer, 15). Rather than trying to come to the big idea through the problem set, any remaining misconceptions can be cleared up through the problem set, since the big ideas have already been established. 

In short, I would characterize a Math Workshop style of lesson as one that efficiently leads a student to a deep conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts while having students engage with them in the same way a mathematician would. As I continue through this book, I am excited to see the nuances of the method and see what other benefits it has to offer students as I dig deep into each aspect of the method and the teacher skills necessary to execute this method.