When trying to explain our thinking on a problem,
We are noticing that when trying to make sense of something,
The words are not always there.
What comes out is choppy.
Sloppy.
Sloppy and choppy even happens to teachers that get stumped.
Which I think it a very valuable learning tool,
When students can see their teacher struggle to make sense of something.
On Monday, I had asked the students to justify if all three functions were indeed linear.
They could not simply say they were or they weren't.
They had to show evidence of how they knew on the vertical white boards.
On one board, it was brought to my attention, that a student was dabbling in both y- and x- intercepts!
Whoa.
Didn't see that one coming.
So I jumped on board, brought everyone's attention to his board, and started in.
Halfway through, as we worked through justifying the new thinking he brought to the discussion,
I started to notice something wasn't working as it should.
His "new" math idea wasn't jiving with all our work prior to this.
I started to stumble in my thinking,
My words coming out sloppy and choppy
As my brain was in overdrive to figure out where the mistake was.
Why wasn't this working.
The surprising thing was,
I. Did. Not. Panic.
The first thing I noticed,
Was that the students were practically in my lap.
They had all pressed in to be closer to the board in my struggle.
They were asking clarifying questions.
Our roles had switched.
They weren't understanding the problem either,
But were trying to help ME understand it!!!
The active learning that was taking place was amazing!
Rough. Draft. Thinking.
Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in the learning process.
A place where we just talk to learn.
I also noticed the benefits of rough draft thinking with one particular student last week.
This student, prior to last week, had been disengaged in the learning process.
Rarely turning to look at the board that was being discussed.
But for some reason, after I talked about this new book I was reading,
And that I was encouraged, because we were already doing what it was suggesting,
He seemed to find courage in talking through his learning.
In fact, every time I came around to his group,
He would engage me in what he was thinking,
How he was thinking.
After about two days of this new behavior,
I watched him walk out of math class with much more confidence than I had seen from him in the past.
My takeaway...
It's important to teach students the content.
But it's also important to teach students how they learn.
By instructing them on these strategies,
They can see for themselves, when implemented, how much these new found tools do help!
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