Dr. Nicki Newton’s book, Guided Math in Action: Building Each Student's Mathematical Proficiency with Small-Group Instructionserves as a recipe for creating a wonderful math learning environment. I particularly enjoyed reading Newton’s many descriptors for assessment, learning, and lesson objectives--words I’ll employ as I roll out my math workshop efforts this year.
To start, Newton affirmed the basic essence of teaching when she writes, “Guided math allows you to meet students where they are so you can take them where they need to go.” She further defines that action by describing the teacher as the one who gets “everyone talking to each other,” coaches learning, facilitates thinking, orchestrates masterful conversations, and invites everyone to “engage as thinking mathematicians.”
Newton supports using the math workshop approach, and provides the reader with many options for math workshop prep, introduction, and ongoing efforts. She begins by demonstrating many ways that a teacher can create a “numeracy-rich” classroom where students have a sense of community as well as the opportunity to practice skill and prove their thinking. Specifically Dr. Newton outlines the steps to creating math workshop including establishing routines, creating math anchor charts, setting schedule, developing a guided math work area, and determining a data/communication system. The last chapter of the book, “Chapter 9: The First 20 Days of Math Workshop: Setting the Stage for Effective Guided Math Groups,” provides an excellent framework for a child-friendly, math-rich start to the school year. I plan to use these lessons to guide the establishment of math workshop in my class this year.
In chapter four, Newton specifically discusses forming groups. I was particularly interested in this with regard to our RTI (response to intervention) efforts this year as I believe we can enrich our RTI efforts using the following process, a process supported by Newton’s book:
- Know our students well using balanced pre-assessments at the start of the year.
- Determine overall needs by analyzing the data.
- Choose one goal to focus on at a time.
- Establish a timeline for the focused instruction.
- Using assessment data, divide students into the groups Newton suggests:
- Novice: those who do not have a basic understanding of the concept.
- Apprentice: those who have a basic understanding but need concentrated work to reach a deeper level.
- Practitioners: those who are working on grade level.
- Expert Learners: those who are working above the grade-level standard and need to have the topic extended. (I may prefer the term “Master Learner”)
- Match each group with an instructor.
- Teach the small guided groups with a variety of instructional strategies.
- Use balanced assessments throughout the teaching to inform instruction including student interviews, observation, quizzes, discussions, performance tasks, and students’ self assessments.
- Check in with each other at PLC’s to share student data, teaching strategies, student responses, problems, and next steps.
- At the end of the goal timeline, assess overall effort, and choose the next focus topic and process.
In addition to Newton’s math workshop and grouping guidelines, I particularly appreciated her discussion about mathematical proficiency. She states, “. . .that being mathematically proficient is way more than just knowing how to do something. It is an attitude, a way of thinking, a style of engagement mixed in with understanding and knowing how to do stuff.” She further defines mathematically proficient with the following research based categories:
- Conceptual Understanding: Students know what they are doing on a conceptual level.
- Procedural Fluency: Knowledge of when and how to use procedures appropriately, and “skill in performing them flexibly, accurately and efficiently.”
- Strategic Competence: Finding a “pathway” to solve problems and representing thinking “numerically, symbolically, verbally or graphically.”
- Adaptive Reasoning: Thinking logically about math, and explaining and justifying what you are doing.
- Mathematical Disposition: Positive, research-based attitudes and beliefs about math learning.
Fourth graders are old enough to understand the concepts above, and to realize that understanding and fluency related each of those concepts is the goal of math education. Hence, I will focus on these categories at the start of the year.
In summary, Newton’s book serves as a wonderful guide for math teachers as they create, implement, assess, and refine their efforts to teach math well using guided groups and the math workshop model. I look forward to using this book with greater depth at the start of the teaching year to set the stage for a wonderful year of math learning and teaching.
