PCSD tests new ways to teach math
December 19, 2024 at 2:29 a.m.
The Port Chester School District has been in the process of redeveloping its elementary-level curriculum for the last several years.
“It’s something that predates my time here,” Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Tina Wilson said. “In the 2021-22 school year, Dr. (Colleen) Carroll began to explore both math and literacy curriculum.”
To ensure proper attention was paid to the shift, the district elected to tackle one subject at a time—starting with literacy.
After a testing period, the American Reading Company (ARC) Literacy program was fully implemented across the district the last school year.
When Wilson took over the role once held by Carroll, the current deputy superintendent who previously served as the assistant superintendent of curriculum, at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, she resumed the search for a new math curriculum at the elementary level.
The district had been using Eureka Math for the last 10 years, she said, and while there wasn’t anything wrong with the program, it was time for a change.
“It’s very common for districts to go through curriculum changes in cycles,” she said. “Sometimes it’s because of state standards or to address what students need.”
When reviewing the math curriculum, Wilson elected to gather information from as many groups in the district as possible.
Surveys were sent out to members of the community, focus groups were held and the staff visited other districts to determine what program would be the best fit for Port Chester students.
The data led to the creation of a list of priorities, which helped narrow down the programs that were considered.
“It kind of painted this picture of a unicorn,” Wilson laughed. “We needed programs to support our English Language Learners and Dual Language Program, had robust parent resources and made sure that professional development and support was built in.”
Additionally, the district needed lessons to fit within a 60-minute timeframe, maintain rigor, support computer-based testing and, of course, make math something students look forward to.
“We wanted kids to have fun with and love math. And we had to ask ourselves what that would look like,” Wilson said. “And that’s how we wound up with Illustrative Mathematics (IM).”
At the start of the school year, 46 teachers across all four elementary buildings began using the programs in their classrooms.
Collecting a sample that encompassed all demographics and learning levels was a priority for the district. Students from every grade and type of classroom are participating in the pilot program.
A new way to teach math
Wilson said part of what makes IM innovative is the order in which concepts are taught.
“Normally, what you see in classrooms is ‘I do, we do, you do,’ which puts teachers at the focus of lessons,” she said. “But the IM model flips that upside down. It gives them a concept, time to explore it and make sense of it on their own or in groups and then the teacher brings everyone back together to make sure everyone has the correct understanding of it and discuss it as a class.”
It’s a method that’s designed to ensure students find math useful.
Instead of presenting students with abstract concepts, they’re given real-world representations to apply lessons to. The idea is that those scenarios provide a better understanding of math and encourage children to approach problems differently.
A typical math session under IM is broken down into four sections: warmup, instructional activities, lesson synthesis and cooldown. The system grants educators the flexibility to break lessons into segments, if needed.
“There may be a need to block off time a little, but teachers are free to do that by reinforcing concepts through group work or whatever their building requires,” the assistant superintendent said. “We don’t micromanage that, we just tell our teachers to hit 60 minutes of math a day.”
Some of that group work is through what IM calls “centers,” which typically involve hands-on activities that help students grasp concepts like compound numbers.
“Centers are very useful for helping students develop mathematical language,” Wilson said. “But it also demonstrates how hands off IM is for teachers.”
She explained that centers often involve physically interactive or gamified experiences, which help students feel excited about math.
The activities are designed to simulate play, but actually reinforce mathematical language and other concepts.
During that segment of class, educators decentralize the classroom by moving from group to group, offering assistance and encouragement to individuals when needed.
One of the advantages she’s seen in the model is how teachers can address mistakes or misconceptions. Instead of calling out one student in front of the class, they can speak to them directly. And if it’s an issue the educator spots in multiple areas, they can speak to the class as a whole.
Teachers are able to input student progress into IM’s proprietary software.
“That kind of resource is so important for our staff because it doesn’t just break down what kind of topics a student is struggling with, it gives their future teachers a chance to see what their baseline is when they move into a different grade,” Wilson said. “And we’re collecting all that data to compare how the kids in the pilot are doing with those who aren’t.”
Originally, the district was aiming to complete the trial run and decide whether to adopt the program by the spring. But logistical issues extended the pilot length.
“Because the curriculum is in such a different order, it would be very difficult to compare the two,” Wilson explained. “So, we’re going to continue with this until the end of the year. We really want to make sure we’re making the right choice for our students here.”
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