Reply to Anyone observe math or reading in elementary this year?

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[quote=Anonymous]Maybe it depends on the teacher.

I've observed my 3rd grader last year in math, and while they did work in groups, the teacher walked around and interacted with all the groups, and sometimes would pause to address the whole class about something.

It is a bit disappointing sometimes because my DC is very good at math, and DC told me that often times, the teacher would pair DC with a child who was weaker in math on purpose, and DC would end up explaining a lot to this other kid.  Now, this can also benefit DC as well - having to explain something to someone makes DC really think about that subject.  But at times, DC was bored.  DC in now in compacted math, and they still work in groups.

I agree that if you want your kids to have a lot of differentiation, that is not going to happen in a large public school.

I once read an article on BBC News about how UK educators wanted to observe how the Chinese math teachers taught their kids.  What they noticed was that in the UK, and here, the kids work in groups, while in China, it's the teacher dealing with the whole class, the way they used to teach math here, the way I grew up.  In the Chinese class, the teacher would ask a math question, and the children had to raise a card up with the right answer.  The teacher could see immediately which kid was having difficulty and could work with that kid earlier on; vs. in small groups, it takes the teacher longer to figure out who is having difficulty.  I could see this as a valid argument.

I don't know when and why educators here decided to have small groups.[/quote]

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