At Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York, Nina Gribetz teaches math at the middle school level. Nina Gribetz comes to her work as a Math for America Master Teacher and a semifinalist for the Big Apple Teaching Award.
A math teacher’s goal is to cultivate not only subject knowledge, but also the ability to think mathematically. To do this, a teacher must integrate a number of proven effective practices, including the following:
- Engage students in active problem-solving and the use of reasoning. Problems should have multiple approaches and more than one pathway to a solution.
- Build conceptual understanding as a foundation for the use of mathematical procedures.
- Place and support students in situations that require them to face mathematical challenges.
- Encourage students to share their thinking. Let those thought processes direct instruction.
- Integrate regular checks for student understanding. Design mini-assessments that let students report on their comfort level without interrupting lesson flow.
- Keep overall instruction on grade level. Integrate any unmastered material from previous grades in the context of the current topic.
Mathematics is a complicated field at any level, as is teaching. There are many more practices that are essential to a math teacher’s success, but these offer a solid foundation that can keep the teacher on track.
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