How do you teach third-grade math?
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Some of her kids can multiply dozens; some are still adding on their fingers. Some, by Georgia standards, are failing third grade math. But today, whatever Ann Griffith鈥檚 students know about division, they鈥檙e fired up about it.
A dozen 8-to-10-year-olds sit cross-legged on the carpet of her trailer classroom, around their small, feisty teacher and the large rectangular white board on which she鈥檚 written:
Rule:
x3
in | out
__| 15
鈥淲ho can tell me?鈥� Ms. Griffith asks.
A girl with wheels in her sneakers shoots a hand into the air. A curly haired boy looks lost. To one side, a kid whose contraband calculator Griffith confiscated a moment ago is looking around for fresh mischief. And from the vicinity of Griffith鈥檚 right foot, someone is squeaking.
鈥淥oh!鈥� says Erin Harris, 鈥淥oh, ooh!鈥�
Since school began in August, Erin, a dedicated writer and artist, has been fearful of math. This winter morning, there are pushier students on the floor with their hands up, and kids likelier to get the problem right. There are hungry kids, distractable kids, kids whose families are suffering in this economy; 67 percent of students at the 聽Erin attends receive free or reduced-price lunches. Half of the 400 students at the public charter school outside Atlanta were born overseas; many came to the US as 聽and are struggling to master English. Erin鈥檚 not.
She鈥檚 just sitting on the carpet, hand in the air, unaware in her excitement that her torso and arm now form a 60-degree angle with the floor, bent by the force of an answer she鈥檚 sure she knows.
Griffith has a split second to calculate all of this and decide 鈥� in light of nearly two decades鈥� experience teaching in schools across the globe and four months getting to know these 12 students 鈥� whose name to call. It鈥檚 a problem with countless variables and no perfect solution. At this moment, Griffith reckons, Erin is the one in this third-grade math class who most needs to be right.
鈥淓rin is bursting,鈥� she says.
鈥淔ive!鈥� says Erin triumphantly.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 right,鈥� Griffith says, filling in the answer on the board. 鈥淣ow, how did you figure that out?鈥�
鈥淚 knew it.鈥� Erin can鈥檛 articulate what classmates leap to explain: She could have gotten the answer counting up by fives, or dividing three into fifteen. She鈥檚 not there yet.
But today, for the first time, Erin knows her threes. And it feels marvelous.
鈥淵ou just knew it,鈥� says Griffith solemnly, 鈥淚sn鈥檛 that cool?鈥�
鈥淵eah,鈥� says classmate Ross Wills, who mastered his times tables this fall, 鈥渟he knows them by heart.鈥�
It鈥檚 a pause, a breath in the lesson, to acknowledge Erin鈥檚 breakthrough. But Griffith can鈥檛 stop there. Because gears are turning in 10 other heads, and now Mateo Tewari, the curly haired kid who looked so lost a moment ago, has his hand in the air and wants to know: What if you had 4 plus 4 plus 4 plus 4? Would that be multiplying?
How do you teach third-grade math? Most of us, who learned it ourselves, assume we know.
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