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A303

Community Math Individual Reflection

Dr. Turner

3.28.11

I really enjoyed this project, because it was a way to connect to my students and their lives in a deeper way than just speaking to them. Quincie Douglas Library and the entire community center, to me, seems to be an integral part of many of my students’ lives. Walking into the library and seeing community art and flyers for Pueblo Gardens students, made this immediately evident. Upon further conversations with my students and the librarians, my understanding of the relationship between the school and the library as a resource not only for materials, but for homework help seemed to continuously grow.

The community members, and my students did not seem to make many connections to the library and mathematics, but my group and I felt very confident in coming up with many connections that could be made. The math just is not as apparent, because it does not come from a textbook.

Having driven around the neighborhood of the school, it was clear that most families probably struggle with money. For this reason, among many others, Quincie Douglas is in a perfect location for our school. The library offers free computer access in addition to the books, magazines, CD and movie rentals available to patrons who have a library card, which is also free. The only time money is required is to print pages from the computer, or if late fees are incurred when materials are not returned. Even then, children are offered to participate in Book Bucks, an honor systems that will take a dollar off of fines for every half hour a child reads. The library seems very aware, that people struggle with money and accommodates that frustration very thoughtfully. To quote the librarian we spoke to, “it is about getting books into the hands of readers, not money”. For our neighborhood in particular, this is a major benefit.

As a future teacher, throughout the project I did not only discover how important and useful the library is for students, but for adults and teachers as well. Everyone we dealt with was generous with their time and helpful which only added to the fantastic references and materials available for checkout. It was so helpful and interesting to see how the library can benefit me as a teacher in addition to the students we originally were investigating for.

If any preconceptions changed, it was for the better. I had no idea the late fee system was so lenient. I think this is incredible for those that do struggle financially. The library is fantastic about allowing access to book even though families may be limited in other areas due to money. I was so pleased with the effort the library makes not only to continually encourage reading, but to literally provide options and opportunities to read . I am a bigger supporter of public libraries than ever before.

In designing the lesson specifically, our group aimed at finding problems that were cognitively challenging as well as meaningful and relevant to students. We tried not only to make connections to real life events, such as checking out books and being late on returns, but making connections as simple as choosing The Diary of a Wimpy Kid as the context of the problem because it is something most students are familiar with and excited about. We also were careful in choosing numbers and activities that would really stretch our students thinking. For example, we forced remainders so students would have to reason what to do with the “left over” and we required students to graph their solutions so they would have opportunities to analyze the data they discovered. Last but not least, we gave students the opportunity to share their “voice” by writing to the library to give their opinion of the late fee system and back it up with mathematical evidence.

The benefits of this type of teaching and learning are numerous. If students are given the opportunity to visit these community locations, even if they are not, the assignment is more memorable because it deals with places they see and visit. The problems posed offer students the opportunity to look deeper mathematically at the environment that already surrounds them. In addition to being memorable, this type of teaching answers directly the question “what are we ever going to need this for?”. This type of teaching poses real life problems and scenarios. Much of our information was real, but was also clean and easy to form a lesson around. In other groups, the situation was even more authentic and showed how math is not always completely clear and independent of other factors.

The challenges of this type of learning are also similar to the benefits. Authentic math can be abstract, messy and hard for students to grasp. Teachers are then faced with how to clean it up and make it accessible for students. Also, the community may not always provide the best opportunities for learning. For example, if a liquor store or adult shop is near the school, these locations would not be acceptable for students to study. If the community is violent, the same problems are posed. However, I would like to believe that there are always some locations available to students and teachers to explore and learn from. In order to respond to challenges like this, the teacher must truly believe in the importance of the community and the benefits of authentic, real world mathematical learning.

I am one of those teachers who believes in the importance of the community and sees the irreplaceable benefits that authentic learning poses. There are plenty of ways that the knowledge we gained from the library could be used. Within a visit to the library, students could work on ordering fractions by helping place books back to their correct locations. Students could also work on rearranging the library to provide more reading space, or more space for books by calculating the area and measuring objects within. Presentations could be made investigating how many books are in each genre, or which books are most popular. An entire other direction could be taken and students could investigate what happens with books when they become less popular or are too worn for shelves. What happens to books when the library no longer needs them? Really, when authentic learning is presented and expected, the entire world opens up to provide students with a multitude of opportunities to learn and use mathematical thinking.

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