Reply to Why is Math the Super Accelerated Subject?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Math is the one subject for which teachers struggle to provide differentiation in the classroom without it coming across as punishing the smart kids with extra work.   In English or History classes, brighter kids can engage with the materials on a deeper level and have more mature analysis without it turning into more work.

In math, the teachers have to move at the pace of the weakest student, and the only way I've seen teacher provide a challenge is giving extra problems to the top kids in addition to the regular homework that everyone has to do.  
 
Schools haven't come up with a good way to go deeper or provide a higher level class than the standard "honors" level, so they instead accelerate the top kids.  [/quote]

First of all, differentiation (of any subject) is a terrible approach that ends up doing a disservice to all students.  Any time, however small focused on at-level and advanced students, is time that is taken away from the struggling students.  Moreover, students who struggle may be intimidated or overshadowed by more advanced kids.  Meanwhile, too often a teacher’s idea of differentiation for advanced students is to assign them more work at the same level or to turn them into a classroom aid to tutor struggling students (something they are not only ill-equipped to do, but it does nothing to help them learn for themselves).  In the rare cases where advanced students’ needs are taken into account, they may be offered acceleration which, while appreciated, will widen the ability gap with their peers, exacerbating the problem.

Instead of trying to provide differentiated instruction in a mixed-level group, it is better to offer flexible ability grouping (not tracking), where students are taught at whatever their current level may be, with the goal to help them progress to a more challenging level.

While math instruction tends to be linear, math itself is not.  There are many math related topics that could be introduced for enrichment that might never be covered in a standard math curriculum (programming, secret codes, mental math, different numbering systems that aren’t base 10, modular arithmetic, fractals, etc.).  Logic problems, math puzzles, and mentally challenging Problems of the Week offer another way to supplement.  While I don’t have direct experience, I’ve also heard excellent things about programs like Beast Academy/AOPS.

My point is that, ideally, students should be grouped and instructed according to their ability level and that just as there are curricula options for on-level and struggling students, a curriculum offering enrichment options should be provided for advanced students as well. [/quote]
Procrustes stretched the legs of his short guests to fit his bed. He did not stretch his bed to fit his tall guests, but instead cut off the legs of his tall guests to fit them into his bed.[/quote]

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