Subtracting a 'gifted' gap in math education

Project M3 steers often-overlooked students from low income and minority backgrounds into advanced math classes.

from the April 5, 2007 edition

Page 2 of 3

Page 1 | 2 | Page 3

Nearly one-third from non-English-speaking households

For two weeks in the summer, she and fellow teachers went through the curriculum with the developers, pointing out any trouble spots. During the school year, they have four professional development days and weekly visits from a Project M3 specialist.

About 30 percent of the students at Charter Oak are from families that speak a language other than English at home. They particularly benefit from the emphasis on vocabulary, discourse, and writing in M3. "I've seen the growth – in discussions about math, working on a team, solving problems, thinking on a higher level," Principal Mary Thompson says.

Even students who don't have as much background knowledge coming into the program excel, Lizon says. "They see things that I don't see. They amaze me." She recalls a girl looking at patterns placed on the windows that represented various numbers multiplied together. Some were examples such as 6 x 6. "She figured out the concept of square numbers just by looking at those arrays on the windows ... and she figured out the why. That's the thing about M3 ... it's not just rote computation."

Teachers are trained to pose open-ended questions to children and invite them to challenge ideas. The respect and focus is palpable in Kirsten Sanderson's classroom, where the Charter Oak fifth-graders in M3 gather once a day for an hour.

At the whiteboard, Ms. Sanderson writes 3/4 + 4/4 = 7/8 and then asks, "Can you add fractions like this?" The students let out a collective groan and say "No." But she pushes them to explain why. One boy says that you can't add the denominators (the numbers on the bottom) that way, because "it's like a pie in slices, and that's final."

After reviewing the concept of equivalent fractions, she sets them to work on an exercise related to ratios. They have to draw the windows for a fun house at a carnival, based on certain rules, and write explanations.

Today, Ann Marie Spinelli, leader of the M3 professional development team, is here for her weekly visit. She leans down to see the work of Ashley, a petite girl decked out in pink, who excitedly shares with her an observation: No matter what length she chooses for the window, it turns out to be a square because the directions tell her to draw it on a one-to-one ratio.

Sanderson asks three students to show their work on the overhead projector and explain it to the class. But this isn't about rewarding students for getting it "right." When one of them says, "I'm not sure if my answer is right or wrong," Sanderson replies: "Maybe some of your mathematician friends can help you." There's not a hint of embarrassment, and after several suggestions from students, he corrects his formula.

1 | Page 2 | 3 | Next Page