Teaching Math with Care: a growth mindset approach to starting the new school year (updated)
Despite the challenges of teaching through a pandemic, the start of a new school year is ripe with opportunities. Students are often eager and curious about what is ahead. It is one of my favorite parts of the entire school year because of all of the energy and buzz that occurs.
This time is also a highlight for me because it is when I introduce strategies for thinking like a mathematician: Strategies that focus on students’ social emotional learning and building a math community that is supportive.
Before jumping into baseline assessments and the first units of study, I begin the year teaching about brain elasticity, habits of mind, and strategies for problem solving. These tools are useful at every grade level, and can be modified for early learners as well older students. Getting all students to think and act like a mathematician early will go a long way!
Brain Elasticity
Written by JoAnn Deak
Illustrated by Sarah Ackerley
Brain elasticity refers to the ability of human beings to strengthen and “stretch” the different parts of the brain through neural network development. One of the first read alouds I share with students is Your Fantasitc Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak. Students learn all about the parts of the brain, their functions, and how they can hone in on those functions because of neuroplasticity.
I have watched my students light up in understanding more about the inner-workings of their mind, and discovering that they can tap into strengthening different areas. During the read aloud, I get students moving (and thinking) by tapping on their heads where the different parts of the brain are before reading their descriptions. Following the reading, I usually ask students to identify the part of the brain they use to kick a soccer ball, solve a math problem, laugh during a movie, or recall a friend’s birthday.
Activity:
To tie what students have learned about brain elasticity to math, I provide them a template of the brain (Little Pickle Press, Source Books), and label its parts. Students then write about a time they haeve used each part of their mind in math.
I have had kids share about using their prefrontal cortex to help them plan how to solve a word problem, or how their amygdala caused them to feel nervous before a test. Equipping students with this language and understanding helps them to feel more agency over how they learn and their approach to math. They begin to develop a growth mindset, and focus on developing skills, rather than developing a fixed identity as a mathematician. Learning about the brain and how it works can be empowering for students and helpful for working towards a positive sense of self.
Helpful Habits
Habits of Mind
habitsofmindinstitute.org
After we map our minds, another tool I introduce to students early on is the Habits of Mind poster. The HOMs are a collection of sixteen “habits” used by people to intelligently and effectively approach problems. Given that math is all about discovering how to solve problems, helping students develop these habits early can be very helpful.
The source for the Habits of Mind come from Dr. Bena Kallick and Dr. Art Costa’s book by the same name. The infographic makes the ideas in the text accessible and applicable to young learners. While these sixteen practices can be applied to any part of students’ academics, I find them particularly useful in providing kids with a mindset and actions for approaching math.
Activity:
I begin by introducing the Habits of Mind to the class as tools and action steps we can take to do our best learning in math for the year. I show them the entire infographic, but then select only a few HOM’s that are especially useful to cover in detail at the start of the year: Persisting, Managing Impulsivity, Striving for Accuracy, and Working Interdependently.
I go over what each of those steps means and looks like with examples from my own life - a crowd favorite being my persistence as a 6 year-old attempting to beat Super Mario Bros. 3, at a time when memory cards and autosave of video games did not exist. I then invite students to think of times they have used a specific Habit of Mind, and how it can be used to help them achieve their math goals for the year. Students then make a poster with a symbol to represent the HOM they have chosen.
The posters can be hung up around the room, or students can keep them in their workspace to be taken out for affirmation and a reminder of their goals. To modify for remote learning, I have had students make their poster online using applications like Google Slides or Kami. For younger students, they can make the posters on paper, and have an adult take a photo to be uploaded and shared.
To help bridge the learning we have done about routines and growth mindset to math content, I have students apply the tools they have acquired to their class work. Before going off to work independently, I have students create a Math Toolbox, and one of the things they fill it with is the Habit of Mind they think will help them be most successful in their work for that day. This helps to remind students of their goals, and to also keep the discussion around developing those skills ongoing and meaningful.
Strategies for Problem Solving
Written by Kobi Yamada
Illustrated by Mae Besom
What do you do when you have a problem? Solve it, of course! At least, that is what we want students to try to do in math.
Another staple in my beginning of the year read aloud selection is What Do You do with a Problem by Kobi Yamada. In this wonderfully illustrated book, a young child runs away from a problem he does not want to deal with, until it becomes too big to ignore. In the end, he discovers that by making a plan to deal with the issue, it can be resolved. Most importantly, it provides the opportunity to learn something new.
That sentiment of finding opportunity in a challenge is key in how I model for students how to approach their work in math. I highlight mistakes as chances to learn something new, and as valuable pieces to finding a solution. This is extremely helpful in building a math community that is supportive of one another, and open to taking reasonable risks in learning (e.g. trying new strategies, participating in discussions, etc.).
Activity:
We read Yamada’s story as a class, and then I introduce students to the strategies for Problem Solving. These steps, based on George Polya’s 1945 How to Solve It, give students specific strategies they can try when they are stuck on a problem. Tying in with what they have learned about brain elasticity and the Habits of Mind, the Problem Solving strategies can be used to empower students to take on challenges, and feel in control of their approach. Before going to work independently, I ask students to identify the Problem Solving strategy they think can be most helpful to their work, and to also add that to their math tool box.
By the end of the first month of school, you can prepare your students with understanding how their brain works, the behaviors and actions they need to do their best learning, and specific strategies they can use to help them with their work. The combination of these three resources can be used to help students step into what it means to think and act like a mathematician.
