DMIC: Cactus Status

Kia ora and welcome back to another blog post chewing over the topic that has been on my mind lately of status.

This is a continuation of Jodi Hunter's battle against status in the maths classroom and her theories and ideologies related to mathematics and status.

I see what Jodi means. I see status played in many areas of learning. I see status all through life and learning. But just because it is does not mean that it should be especially if it is hindering quality learning and engagement.

Jodi believes that it is the teacher's role to illustrate to the class that every student is capable - not delegating  high status to the high status students - the students who know whether the answer is right or wrong. We want to delegate that maths is the high status here. Maths determines what is right and wrong not human social interaction.

I find this a very difficult thing to do because delegating high status to children who get a correct answer is difficult not to do!

I need to consciously  frame my positive feedback around thinking, explanations, risk taking and questioning. I need to stop having conversations that explain how to get answers and rather listen to the children and choose students who already have a solution to explain and share back rather than choosing a student who has a wrong answer unintentionally thereby unintentionally lowering his or her status.

Jodi suggests a few other strategies:

• Create 'find out what's wrong' questions. Set up maths questions where the children are looking for what is wrong in a question.
• Put the 'onus' on the group. Share back what they heard other's thinking. The pressure is not just on one child's thinking.
• One of my colleagues who is our maths team leader and fabulous at getting her children involved in maths and accelerated in maths came up with the idea of getting the children to write out the problem of the day. "Assign students to write out the question the day before. Give them boundaries so that they are applying what is current in the class. The children then get to teach this and the delegating of mathematical knowledge gets passed to them."
• Give explicit feedback.
• Children's feedback or sharing is much more powerful than teacher talk.
• Get the answer out of the way - now let's talk about why that was the right answer.

Thinking About Strengths

'It is important that no one person has all the strengths.' This should be the motto for group thinking learning and collaboration.

Based on discussions from the group I was sitting with in our DMIC session and Jodi's content I gathered the following ideas to implement.





'It's not the the destination it's the journey.'
Tell the children who want to get the answer that they are wonderful - maybe they are over participators- then re-direct them to think about what strength they contributed to their partner. Get them to explicitly identify which strength that they contributed.

Value the thinking above everything.
When supporting learning give no indication about whether an answer is right or wrong. Rather question whether or not the thinking is right or wrong and revert the students back to the question.
The idea is that the children become comfortable grappling with each other's reasoning and listen carefully to what other's are saying for clues to extend on the problem solving.

Each child needs to have a voice and area of expertise.
It is important that children are aware of what they have that other will value. They need to understand their strength and what they can contribute. This gives them motivation to question the problem instead of simply agreeing with what the 'pen holder' or most vocal child says.
Look for strengths in the children and assign each child their strengths.

These could be in the form of badges:

• pattern person - spots and uses visual patterns
• wonderer - thinks outside the box and wonders about new and different ideas
• picture perfect - draws pictures
• reader - decoder
• super starter - energy booster positive
• equipper - feels comfortable using tactile equipment to create and build thinking
• notator - writes things down
• interrogator - questions thinking
• presenter - shares back to others, speaks comfortably in front of a crowd
• calculator - basic facts strengths
• listener - listens and sums up or repeats to clarify
• detector - makes sure that it is a right strategy or true problem
• speedometer - helps to manage the pace of the group, slows rushing to the answer or speeds the group up.

Motivational, developmental talks help!

Reinforce the the thinking and the team skills that create good mathematicians.
'I like how you are slowing down together. You're really thinking about it and making sure you've got it right in your head. That's what a good mathematician does.'

Pre-correct the likely-hood of attitude upsets and give them stems for extension.
Things that bring a hero down:
I can't...
Thats too easy...
I don't care...
I don't know...

Power boosters:
Lets try another solution
Lets ask for a suggestion

When in an intermediate school fed by DMIC Primary schools, Jodi noticed that the top children (the ones who got placed in gifted and talented maths groups) were mainly children who had been through DMIC. Not only where these children being giving highly challenging maths problems they had been given a huge boost in social skills - developing relationships, listening to each other and equalising status. 

When one child was asked regarding her DMIC training, 'What have you learnt in maths?' she responded, ' I have learnt how to be a good person.' The child explained by saying that she thought once that she was better than other people and would only play with others who were as good as 'me' ( herself). In maths I learnt that everybody had something to share and I started to play with others too, so I learnt to be a good person.

Is maths really the focus?
We want to create learners - in essence, a society -  that values multiple solutions, values others, makes time for different personalities, strengths and ways of thinking. We should be developing learners that can see things in their own individual way and yet make an effort to see things from other's perspectives. I want to create in my students a willingness to slow down and seek the richness of persevering through challenges ( the learning pit) rather than jumping to answers and conclusions - children who encourage and find new and unique solutions together with a team.

Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) Facebook page

There is no Abilities only Status....

DMIC: Thinking about Status

Ability Grouping

What does this do for children's achievement and mathematical dispositions?
I does not work either if we mix them all up and pop them into their own groups. We need to understand how children work together and what status is. This means status is coming from outside the classroom and affecting what happens in the classroom. This has a lot to do with competence. Other children need to see all children in the class as capable and worth listening to.

"You are valued. You have things to say that are unique to you. You are worth listening to." This should be the mantra of every classroom.

The following ideas are direct notes from Jodi Hunter's second to last DMIC course presentation to teachers.

Create learning intentions that have to do with explaining thinking and not just mathematical strategy.
Today we are learning to share by agreeing and disagreeing using the magic word 'because'. To initiate this you could create a problem to check to see whether or not children could agree and disagree and can say why. This could be a completed problem with a wrong answer.

Always check that everyone has the same information, is listening and ready with their thinking.

Junior children may not always be able to read the numbers so it is important to discuss this verbally and check with partners to make sure things have been heard.

Uses of grouping - positioning and repositioning children -
Grouping means assigning children higher or lower status with your ( the teacher's) words and contexts. The numeracy project advocated for students to be grouped with similar students. We need to stop thinking about students as a stage 4 or a stage 6 child. It is simply indicative of a strategy used to solve something at a particular point in time. As adults we are not stage 1 adults because we use stage 1 strategies.

When National Standards was used in classes children were hearing a lot of 'belows', 'ats' and 'aboves'.  This clarified a status view. Internationally NZ has one of the most stratified systems in the world. Stratification is negatively related to overall achievement.

In uniform groups there is less opportunity for students to use and practice multiple strengths. They are less likely to provide diverse strategies and thinking processes.

But why challenge the status quo? Research has come out to say that children who are in mixed ability groups have more of a growth mindset than those in ability groups. How children are taught in these grouping systems also has an effect on their dispositions and mindsets.

Fixed mindset: Intelligence is status.


Teaching children a 'unit' about fixed and growth mindset makes no difference to their mindset but the words, beliefs and pedagogy we use in the classroom does.

Complex Instruction
Complex instruction has three key principles which are group worthy tasks, meaning that no one child can solve the problem by themselves. They need each other through applying instructional strategies, multiple strategies and status and accountability.



Maybe there is no such thing as ability ... maybe what we are talking about is status.
Usually high ability children are high status children. They have simply had many opportunities to share their ideas, be listened to and questioned on their thinking.
This concept shows up low achievers results as a group problem and a relational problem rather than an individual problem.

Assigning competence - what you will find is that the child who disengages with the group has tried to say something and no one has listened and therefore he or she disengages. Everyone misses out when children are not participating and sharing their ideas.

Think about children as having low status instead of being low ability or low achievers. How do we give children status? How do we raise their understanding of themselves?

You can actually get rid of status.
Status is local and changes within settings and contexts. Value multiple strengths. Status in the classroom reflects that of society. To assign competence, feedback needs to be quality and specific.

Put your phone or laptop near a group and record what is happening in a group. What are they actually talking about in a group? Who has the status?

Ask the status questions: What makes someone good at mathematics?

Tips to re-engage non-participators:

• Ask low risk questions in private conversations in groups. ( "You might think this is difficult but I want you to be the best mathematician you can be.") 
• Use ice-block sticks - at the end of this session you need to have repeated three things (three ice-block sticks) 
• Get the child to respond in a group not in front of the class.