Today in class, we learned about the grade 7/8 math curriculum for two reasons. One, was because we are going to be qualified to teach them as I/S teachers, and two, because it shows us what theoretically, our grade 9's should know when they get to us. I think reason two is good enough reason to begin with as the curriculum shocked me! First, I had no idea that grade 7 and 8 students were suppose to be taught so much. Their curriculum for math really does have so many different needed learning blocks to get them off to a good start in grade 9, yet that is not always the case. As you can see in the picture below, we cut out all the expectations that would lend themselves to good starting blocks for one aspect in grade 9, and the list in grade 7 and 8 is massive!
I was also shocked, as I learned this class that not all grade 7 and 8 classes have rotary, Ie. specialized teachers teaching different subjects. Rather, the students have the same teacher for all courses. I seem to have been one of the lucky few that did go through rotary as a middle school student, and looking back, I believe it was definitely for the better. As a teacher, if I had to teach all subjects, I could definitely see myself, unknowingly, favour certain subjects over others just on the basis that I have more knowledge in them. Personally, I wouldn't really be that useful in teaching history or English, in comparison to math and science. In others cases, I find a lot of middle school teachers grew up terrified and uneasy with math, so I wouldn't be surprised if unknowingly, they pass on those same feelings or even just put less emphasize on learning those skills. To me, this is a shame. Math is so important and a good basis is key in later success. A prime example of a poor start was my brother. He used to be very strong in math, until he had a teacher who couldn't see things from a different perspective. He did not like how my brother approached questions as it wasn't the same way as him. One day, this teacher told him he wasn't good at math, and never would be. This small act when he was a child changed his whole path. He kept telling himself he couldn't do math throughout school, and never had any confidence in it. To this day, he still believes he cannot do math, and refuses to do any job that involves money or even simple math. Although this occurred in grade 9, not grade 7 or 8, I believe the same thing can happen when teachers unknowingly have a bad attitude to teaching math in younger grades.
What were your experiences with math in middle school ? Did you have rotary or just one teacher and how do you believe it affected your life of mathematics ?
That's all for today,
Miss Sydor
I also had different teachers for different courses in middle school - I didn't realize that not all middle schools had that. I already admire elementary teachers, as they are required to teach a variety of subjects (math, science, social science, languages, etc.). However, it is even more impressive that there are teachers who teach all (or almost all) of the subjects in middle school...as the concepts are more difficult than those taught in grade 4, for example.
ReplyDeleteI actually cannot remember anything from math in middle school - I can't seem to bring to mind what I learned, or who I was taught by. I only remember learning multiplication in grade 3 (because I had such difficulty grasping the concept initially), and learning math in high school. It's been awhile though.
I definitely think that having only one teacher teach all courses in middle school most likely leads to an increase in negative math experiences for students. As well as in increase in negative experiences in other subjects, depending on the teacher's weakest areas.
I'm also beginning to realize that while the role of the teacher is important, the poor math skills of some students can't always be contributed to poor teaching. It may be contributed to how the whole system is set up - how the curriculum is ordered, how the middle school system is organized (i.e. rotary or not), etc.