Grandville — Leland Smith says he really likes math, but it’s not just about the numbers.
“It’s fun to do because I think of it like, five ice cream cones times five ice cream cones,” the South Elementary third-grader explained excitedly. “If I do that, what do I get? Twenty-five ice cream cones! Nom nom nom! If I try hard enough I could totally eat that much.”
That kind of real-world application is exactly why Grandville’s elementary school leaders are excited about their new program for teaching math, called Illustrative Mathematics. This problem-based instructional tool encourages more interaction and student-led problem-solving as kids grow their math skills.
South and Grand View elementaries held a “Math in Action” open house last week to share more information about the program and to give parents and kids the chance to do some hands-on problem-solving together. Families, like Leland and his dad, got to rotate through stations where they worked on actual assignments found in unit one of Illustrative Math lessons.
Principals Darla England and Joe Scotto said they wanted to bring families in to help parents understand the work and also clarify some possible curriculum misconceptions.
“IM is a tool, not the curriculum; our core curriculum standards have not changed,” said Scotto, principal of Grand View. “IM is just a new way to teach those standards. It helps students to think critically about math and work collaboratively; it builds their flexible thinking and problem-solving skills. It gets kids away from just working on a worksheet.”
England, principal of South, added that the tool also incorporates social skills into the math lessons, as the activities include time for kids to discuss not only the answer, but explain how they got there and defend their answers.
“With problem-based, student-led solutions, I mean, it’s only been a few weeks of the school year, but the students are already more engaged in the curriculum, because they own it,” England said. “It’s up to them to help not only solve the problem but teach others. So I think there’s big internal motivation and buy-in that comes from that.”
Learning to Love Math
South parent Lorena Gil, who brought her daughter Elena and Elena’s best friend Aleda to the Math in Action night, said she appreciated the extra chance to show the third-graders that math can be fun, not dull or intimidating.
“I would love for Elena and Aleda to just be successful when they get to their next school, and anywhere they go, and basically learn to love math,” Gil said. “That’s something I didn’t have when I was their age. I struggled big-time. I did have good teachers, but it was boring and I couldn’t focus. So I want them to have a better experience. I think this (open house) gets them excited and not thinking that math is going to be so hard, so that’s a good thing.”
Ethan Shingledecker, a second-grader at South, said he “definitely” wanted to come to the event; his favorite station was an activity where he learned about estimating, or “guessing to be around the range of what the number is.”
He also said he’s seen a difference in math class this year and already likes the change.
“I like talking and I like doing math and we’re doing that together,” Ethan said. “We’re doing more of, like, bar graphs and stuff. … I really like adding numbers together.”
Scotto said the district switched its K-4 math instruction to Illustrative Math this year after the license on its previous tool expired and they took a critical look at what program would best fit the needs of its youngest students. Grandville already uses IM at the intermediate level and Scotto said the district sees the social and critical-thinking components as a value-add to the math curriculum.
“(Switching to a new tool) is a big lift for teachers, that’s for sure, but they’re embracing it really well,” Scotto said. “And every time I go in the classroom, I see the kids are engaged. There’s no sitting around, heads down, just staring at a paper. There’s more collaboration, there’s less teacher talk, more student talk, which I think is really important.”
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