yTaking Action Book Study: Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Support Productive Struggle in Learning Mathematics

Reflect:

After reading Chapter 9, please reflect on the questions below and post your response by Monday. Feel free to respond to the questions provided or share something else that you intentionally did differently in regards to supporting productive struggle.

Please note: the prompts below are to help you reflect. There is not an expectation for you to respond to all {or even any} of the provided questions!

Respond:

Supporting Student Struggle on a Challenging Mathematical Task

Choose a task that promotes reasoning and problem solving that you plan to implement in your classroom. {See chapter 3 for a discussion of these types of tasks.}

What will you see students doing or hear students saying that would serve as evidence of productive struggle with the task?
What would you see or hear as evidence of unproductive struggle with the task?
Describe ways you might use any of the four strategies discussed in ATL 9.3 - questioning, providing encouragement, giving adequate time, and acknowledging student contributions - to support student engagement in productive struggle so that they can make progress toward the mathematics learning goals of the lesson.

Interact:

On Tuesday, read your colleagues' reflections and respond to at least one other post by sharing a comment, insight, or interesting possibility by Friday.

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shawnseeleydotcom 44p · 257 weeks ago

Something that stood out to me in this chapter was on pages 236-237. When I read, "Learning mathematics with understanding requires productive struggle..." and "Teachers and students must both learn to accept struggle as a natural and important aspect of learning mathematics," I noted the strong language. "Requires" and "must" are both extreme and absolute (I guess "Nonfiction Signposts" by Beers and Probst really stuck with me). Reading this passage, I began asking myself how we as an educational system can do more and better to make productive struggle a normative experience in our classrooms throughout the K-12 spectrum.

I feel that many students arrive at intermediate grade levels with an expectation to be saved by an adult anytime they experience discomfort or struggle. How can we, as a district, grow in this? The statistics listed on page 237 weren't shocking, but they were a stark reminder that the way we've always done things isn't what's best for students in the long run. We can't accept the status quo in mathematics; changes must be made.

How can we empower parents to join us in this? I would love to see parent math nights become a regular thing where students get dropped off and parents get to meet with educators learn the importance of what we're doing in our classrooms. We could teach parents math concepts we cover in class and share research on best practices, etc. I'm just thinking through my keyboard. What does everyone else think?

2 replies · active 254 weeks ago

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Caty Carino · 256 weeks ago

I love the idea of involving parents with math! I think there is a big stigma around common core and that if parents had more understanding then they would not be so against it. Although, math is that subject I feel people either really love or hate so sometimes it is hard to get everyone on board.

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Stephanie Clement · 254 weeks ago

I agree! Parents think common core and become negative so quickly. Helping them understand that we are really just trying to get their kiddos to actually understand math is so important. Also helping them understand that it is okay for their child to struggle. Especially the higher students. Parents get really frustrated by this when it is really such a good thing!

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Caty Carino · 256 weeks ago

As I was reading this I know I have grown as a math teacher by letting my students struggle and not coming in to save the day for them or overly scaffolding. I can relate to this when I had done my observation with wipebooks. My students had to create a division word problem of their own, half the class did where the remainder was a part of the answer and the other half did where the remainder was not in their answer at all. I love the wipebooks because I am able to see what is going on at one time. In this lesson, I really focused on only giving questions that helped focus the group or made them think about what they had on their board. It was quite hard to do because as a teacher of course I want to help them in every way possible and get them to their answer. But after focusing on this book I did not realize what a disservice I was doing to my students by not letting them struggle productively. My goal now is to create the environment of where I am not the answer key. I want students to focus more on the process rather than the answer. Even with remote learning, I am trying to be aware of the comments I am making on math, so that it gives them time to think and they are the ones finding their mistake.

2 replies · active 255 weeks ago

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shawnseeleydotcom 44p · 255 weeks ago

Caty,
I'm right there with you in wanting to create a classroom environment where productive struggle is the expected norm. I'm hoping that next year I can help parents and students really see the benefit in productive struggle. While I've made progress in this area, I think I have a ways to go.

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Susan Heater (TSD) · 255 weeks ago

I agree that it is so hard to not be the answer key. I feel that I overscaffold, as well. I do not give them enough time to grapple with the problems and that leads to less overall struggle, but robs them of the opportunity to really dive in and learn! Wait time and lessening my scaffolding are my goals for the cming year!

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Susan Heater (TSD) · 255 weeks ago

. I resonated with the statement, "It is not easy for a teacher to resist "telling" students how to approach a task when a student seems to not know what to do or is very hesitant in getting started" on page 220. As the book states, telling diminishes the cognitive demand of the task. I do not feel that I tell as often as I use directed guidance. I want to help and support, but I know that letting them have the productive struggle is so much more valuable to them. I am working toward affordance, but feel that my next step is probing guidance. I want to ask for explanations and justifications with evidence while allowing for self-reflection. The intentional teacher action I want to focus on this year is to give adequate time to support productive struggle.

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Stephanie Clement · 254 weeks ago

Productive struggle has been a hot topic for me this school year. I have stepped out of my comfort zone a ton and it has been fabulous. Something that really stood out to me in this chapter is the importance of choosing the right task for productive struggle. Sometimes productive struggle just randomly happens throughout a lesson, but it can be so beneficial to choose a task and plan for the struggle. I have a really hard time letting my students struggle. It's a big shift in teaching. I've seen with my own eyes the benefits and the transfer and it is inspiring. They really remember the skill/concept a whole lot better when "they" feel like they struggled and then succeeded.

I also liked reading about the four typical ways that teachers respond to student struggles. I think it would be great to have some practice around this on a math PD day. This is not an easy shift to make for a lot of teachers, yet it is so beneficial.

1 reply · active 254 weeks ago

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Julie Rodriquez · 254 weeks ago

Stephanie,

I second that thought in your second paragraph - having a math PD day around productive struggle for all of our elementary teachers would be very beneficial. We need to build that skill in students early on, so that when they enter the secondary world of mathematics, they are willing to power through challenges in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. (and even other academic subjects). Helping teachers understand that studies show that American teachers are too quick to jump in and rescue their students and that this is not what is best for students is so important.

I love that you have enjoyed and seen the benefits of changing your classroom culture to allow for productive struggle. I, too, had to step out of my comfort zone, and I am equally thankful that I did. It's still something I have to be mindful of, but I believe the more I make productive struggle a normal part of our math routine, the more natural it will become.

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Julie Rodriquez · 254 weeks ago

So many of the teaching practices are reflected in providing quality productive struggle in a classroom - rich tasks, purposeful questioning, math discourse, using representations. In addition, when teachers include productive struggle as a part of their math culture, they are building other powerful skills in their kids - persistence, sense-making, justification of claims, effective communication, and collaboration, to name a few. I remember when Renae introduced the concept of productive struggle last year, and the next day, I introduced a task to my students and tried allowing for productive struggle. It was hard for me to not want to jump in within a minute or two to "bail out" some students who were struggling. Over the past year, I have gotten better at wait time and asking questions or giving appropriate guidance to further students' willingness to persist through the tough times. Building that math culture in my classroom is so powerful. I do feel that my students this year are more curious and more effective in representing their understanding of mathematics, BUT there is still lots of room for growth on my end.

One idea I had as I read this chapter to change the culture of my classroom and increase growth mindset and a willingness to embrace trial and error is to start each math class with a low-threshold, high ceiling (LT/HC) task. The students would begin to expect that routine and would grow in their comfort with solving math tasks, along with increasing their stamina to productively struggle. Using the Anytime Problems or other rich tasks would be a good place to start.

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