The Math Rules! program used to be called Math Initiative and was started in 2005 in only a handful of schools. It's continued to expand since then and now runs in nine elementary schools in the Boston Public Schools - the Blackstone in the South End, the Eliot in the North End, the Emerson in Roxbury, the Hale in Roxbury, the Marshall school in Dorchester, the Mission Hill in the Mission Hill neighborhood, the Orchard Gardens in Roxbury, the Quincy School in Chinatown, the Tobin also in the Mission Hill neighborhood. Math Rules! targets 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders with an occasional 6th grade student or class.
Math Rules! was created to close the achievement gap in math scores, to help boost MCAS math scores for students, and to develop academic and mentoring relationships with students. The idea is, if students have consistent adult support, they'll start feeling more confident in themselves, have a positive role model, start thinking about their future, and generally start to excel in school. Math Rules! is constantly trying to improve all of these things.
This year, Math Rules! tried some new changes to the program such as having volunteers work with a small group of students instead of just one on one. This served many more students than in previous years, and our statistical data shows increases in GPA, behavior, attitudes, and career goals. However, many volunteers and some teachers felt that working with a small group might've been too much to handle, especially for new volunteers. We're planning for next year, and will probably change how the program works.
Math curriculum in the Boston Public Schools is much different than when I learned math in grade school. The Investigations in Number, Data, and Space curriculum was developed by a company in Cambridge called TERC. It aims to develop a stronger grasp of number sense and problem solving through creative teamwork. Students are more encouraged to explore different approaches to a solution instead of focusing on the bottom line, the final answer. Many of the exercises and lessons are developed so students work in small groups with classmates on a worksheet. There are many more manipulative lessons and lots of "higher level" math topics are introduced very early on. For example, I worked with 3rd graders on multiplying simple fractions.
When I first started with Boston Partners and started tutoring in a few classrooms, I was pretty against the idea. I was used to my algorithms, long division and long multiplication. It was what I loved about math, that it was the same, and I could apply the same formulas to get what I needed. After this year though, I can see how Investigations works to help students become much more proficient in math and to understand the problem behind the numbers. Introducing ideas early on will help the students later in their academic careers.
While I still support the collaborative and creative problem solving skills aspects of the curriculum, I still feel like students are not getting enough computation skills that are required to quickly process math. Creative solutions are great, some students really thrive on being able to solve a problem multiple ways. However, later on in math, quick computations are necessary to being good at math. No matter the level, if students are good at math, they'll like it. If multiple steps and solving problems gets in the way, students get discouraged and stop enjoying math.
New volunteers in Math Rules! were put into a jarring new situation working with a small group of students on an unfamiliar curriculum. I'd like to give props to all new volunteers who handled this year. I personally was not equipped to manage a small group of students. Sometimes, the students don't mesh well together, which would lead to really tough volunteer sessions. Sometimes, the students don't mesh with the volunteer and the volunteer never really connects to a student and can't form such a close bond. A lot of the time, we didn't have enough time to bond and develop more of a mentoring relationship. Being in the classroom with a limited amount of time to work with four students doesn't let volunteers have a lot of time to get to really know the students. I found that when I was working with only two or three students, we could really joke around a bit, but we still had enough personal attention and time to get through all the work.
For next year, we will be revamping the training to address small group management. We will also be checking in with the volunteer to make sure they are comfortable working with however many students they can handle.
For more information, you can check out my blog:
Math Rules! where I talked about Math Rules!, volunteering in general, tutoring tips and tricks, the Math Awareness Month series, Boston Partners, and the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship.
