WHEN: December 3 (3 hours) – Mastery Algebra CP & 10th grade

WHAT: My teacher currently teachers five periods.  Two periods are Math Tech, two are Mastery Algebra CP (9th graders), and one period is Mastery Algebra for 10th graders.  After observing numerous classes this semester, I couldn’t help but notice the difference between how my teacher teaches the Mastery Algebra CP classes and how she teaches the Mastery Algebra 10th grade class.  The actual difference between the two classes is that CP means the students are in the 9th grade and they have been recommended to take Mastery Algebra (Algebra 1).  The 10th grade class took Math Tech 1 last year and instead of moving on to Math Tech 2, as they were recommended, their parents asked to place them into the more advanced math class, Mastery Algebra.  This was the choice of the parents, not the students, and it shows greatly in the classroom.  Not only does it show in the students’ behaviors, attitudes, and efforts, but also in how my teacher treats these students.  She expects so much more from the freshman than she expects from the sophomores.  When the sophomores walk in the room it is almost as though she is giving up. In class today, she gave the same worksheet to the freshmen as the sophomores.  The freshmen had to finish it in about fifteen minutes at the end of a forty-five minute class.  She gave the sophomores the worksheet and they were allowed one hour to complete the worksheet, out of their one and a half hour class period. (The sophomore class period is longer because sophomores have the class every other day, while freshmen have it every day.)

SO WHAT: I decided to blog on this observation because it really bothered me.  First of all, I know that the sophomore students are capable of learning the same material as the freshmen, especially because they have had an introductory course to Algebra (Math Tech 1).  The freshmen never took this course.  In addition, the school allowed them to be in Mastery Algebra after they met with the parents and previous teachers.  They all agreed that the student could be placed in that higher math class.  Then why are these students treated differently than the others?  They have the same intelligence, if not more.  Why were they given so much more time to complete the worksheet?  I noticed that while the sophomores were working on the worksheet, most of them were off task.  While the freshmen worked on the worksheet, most of them were on task.  I strongly believe this goes back to what we have heard Dr. Gillis talk about numerous times in class.  If you give students much more time than they need to complete the worksheet, they will take all of that time to do it and they will not be on task the entire time.  If you give them less time than needed, they will be on task the entire time trying to finish it in time.

In addition, this observation also coincides with what we have been learning in both Dr. Manizade and Dr. Gillis’s classes.  We have learned that we should not hold students to low standards.  We should not lower our expectations for them.  If we treat the students as if they are going to fail, they will likely fail.  The need us to have high, but reasonable expectations.  Students will work to meet the teacher’s expectations if they are reasonable.

NOW WHAT:  I have decided that I will never do this in my classroom.  I like what Dr. Gillis does in class, timing us with our activities.  She tells us a time that is not rounded off to 5 or 10, but instead she will give us 7 minutes to do something.  This allows adequate time to complete an activity, but not enough time for students to be off task and complete the activity.  I plan to do this in my classroom.  In addition, I will not lower my expectations for one class because I feel they aren’t as smart or hard-working as my other class.  If I believe this, the students will believe it too.