Last spring the New Salem-Almont school district purchased
and this fall implemented a new math curriculum. The K-8 program is called “Go Math!” and is vertically
aligned with the high school curriculum.
A vertically aligned curriculum is written so the information students
learn in a lower grade or during previous course prepares them for more
advanced grades and more challenging work. Vertical alignment is meant to ensure students are ready and
able to move forward with no gaps in their learning.
Any time a new curriculum is introduced, whether it is math,
science, or reading, there is a period of adjustment. The new curriculum, as with all new available math
curriculums, is written in a way that is different to what many parents are
used to. Many parents may remember
their high school math classes as “drill and kill,” where the teacher stood in
front of the classroom and worked math problems on the board for an hour and
then assigned 20-30 more problems for homework day in and day out. Those days are behind us. Today, math is commonly taught through
the lens of critical thinking. This means that students are not expected to
just “do the work,” but rather find and extract the information necessary to solve
the problem before them.
Please keep in mind that the basic math that students are
asked to do has not changed. What
has changed is the way is the way students are expected to gather and organize information
needed to perform the mathematical functions necessary to find their answers. Yes, these are new skills that parents
and students are not used to practicing.
However, these are skills that are beneficial and necessary to succeed
in the world today. To help
parents and students, the new curriculum comes with a wealth of resources that
are accessible online. These
resources can be accessed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and
include videos, games, practice problems, and quizzes.
The instructional model has also changed. Students are now expected to work
collaboratively with other students and work through the learning process
together. Yes, there is still
teacher-centered delivery of material; however, students are expected to take
responsibility for their learning.
Learning is hard work and can be frustrating, that is normal anytime we
learning something new.
Change can be uncomfortable, but change in everything is
inevitable. Whether our students
are staying on the farm or heading to the far corners of the world, we need to
prepare them for the future and that can not be done by using methods of the
past.
It is my hope that over time our students will become great
thinkers and doers. That starts by
having high expectations and encouraging them to take chances and fail from
time to time. It is through those
failures that we learn and realize our capabilities.