Sylvia Martin

Due: May 20, 2015

Portfolio: MA Adolescent Math Education

Reflection - Domain C: Dispositions
As a teacher, a primary goal of each lesson is to guide students to construct their own
learning. This is accomplished by facilitating class discussion rather than direct lecturing.
Students bring with them prior knowledge that can be drawn from when learning a new concept.
As a teacher, our approach to questioning will determine how well we can facilitate and activate
this in our students.
There are different levels of questions that can be asked to get students thinking. These
levels are categorized into four depths of knowledge. Level one questions might ask, 'How
would you write...?' or 'What is the formula for...?' Level one questions are meant for recalling
information. Level two questions might ask, 'How would you estimate...?' or 'What do you
notice about...?' Level two questions address skills and concepts. Level three questions might
ask, 'How would you test...?' or 'Can you predict the outcome if...?' Level three questions engage
students in strategic thinking. Lastly, level four questions require extended thinking. A Level
four question might ask something like, 'Design and conduct an experiment. How would you
minimize experimental errors? Identify potential errors that might occur.
The higher the level of questioning, the more students are involved in constructing their
knowledge. As a teacher, the more we can facilitate the responses to these questions, the more
students will learn and develop their math talents.
As students respond to questions, we must be sure to demonstrate and promote respect. I
always remind my class, 'We are all listening to (students name).' Recently, I made it a point to
tell my class that it is important to me to hear what each of them had to say and that they should

also give each other the same courtesy. As students listen and respond to each other something
magical can occur, the students become the teachers.
On occasion, a lively discussion may lead the lesson in a different direction. As a
flexible teacher, I seize those moments to expand on the train of thought that students are
focused on. Its truly amazing how a lively discussion can be contagious causing students that
typically zone out, have their heads down or like to chit chat to suddenly pay attention and take
notice and also participate in the discussion at hand. Although these discussions tend to occur
organically teachers can still plant the seeds and add the water needed to get them to grow.
Because of our role in student discussions, it is very important to stay abreast of teaching
tools, techniques and developments. Attending Math conferences and subscribing to newsletters
are a few good ways to stay current with such things. During the CUNY 2014 Math conference,
I learned several things I could apply, one in particular was fascinating. A fellow Math teacher
described how he used Facebook to engage students in math discussions, helping each other with
homework questions and looking ahead to upcoming lessons. The genius of this idea was to
leverage students social media habits in a learning environment. Students who posted questions
about math homework received almost instant help from other students, sometimes into the late
hours. This wonderful experiment extended the classroom and curriculum to students homes
and past the traditional 8am to 3pm school day. There were rules in place for how to use the
page and students were very good about keeping it strictly about the math. This is a prime
example of how we must keep current with the technological resources available to us and
modify them in ways we can make them teaching tools.
Likewise, teachers should remain active in their school over and above their classrooms.
Math teachers should look to collaborate with each other both within their grade team and across

all grades. Teachers should also stay in touch with fellow teacher candidates as they move into
their careers as new teachers in different settings and locations. As new teachers we can be each
others biggest supporters and cheerleaders as we take on the opportunities and challenges of
teaching. By staying active in the teaching community, best practices can be shared.
Best practices can take the form of anything that will help to enhance our profession. My
cooperating teacher recently complimented me for helping him this school year. He said, I
dont know if you realize this but, you really have helped me a lot this year. I was very touched
by this. I recall offering a suggestion for how he recorded students classwork. He would go
through each one and provide a grade out of ten for each class work and a grade out of 5 for each
Do Now. This took time and he would quickly fall behind making it difficult to return students
work in a timely manner. I offered a simple suggestion of using checkmarks rather than grades
and each check mark was worth 5 points. The classwork was worth two check marks and the
Do Now was worth one check mark. Altogether they still held the same 15 point weight. This
was a quicker way to record and return work. What I thought was simple, he thought was
brilliant! He has even raved about this system to other teachers.
As a student teacher, I was able to observe teachers in other content areas and picked up
several best practices. One which is very dear to me is tying math to literacy. As a result, I look
for ways to include reading and vocabulary in my lessons. Students love to read, point out key
words and provide meanings and synonyms. I get very excited to see them engage with the
vocabulary. We even worked on a math crossword puzzle together as a class and they were all
over it, volunteering to read the descriptions and write the answers on the crossword on the
smartboard. Some students wanted to go more than once, it was awesome!