Latest / Rounding Up / Affirming Students' Mathematics Identities with Dr. Karisma Morton

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Affirming Students' Mathematics Identities with Dr. Karisma Morton · Rounding Up

• 0:03
  If someone asked you if you were good at math,
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  what would you say and what justification would you provide for your answer?
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  Regardless of whether you said yes or no,
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  there are some big assumptions baked into this question. In this episode,
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  we're talking with Dr. Charisma Morton about the ways the mathematics identities
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  we formed in childhood impact our instructional practices as adults and how we
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  can support students' mathematical identity formation in the here and now.
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  Welcome to the podcast charisma.
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  I am really excited to be talking with you about affirming our students'
• 0:38
  mathematics identities.
• 0:39
  Oh, I am really, really excited to be here. Mike,
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  thank you so much for the invitation to come speak to your audience about this.
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  As we were preparing for this podcast,
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  one of the things that you mentioned was the need to move away from this idea
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  that there are math people and non-math people.
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  While it may seem obvious to some folks,
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  I'm wondering if you can talk about why is this such an important thing and
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  what type of stance educators might adopt in its place?
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  So the thing is, there is no such thing as a math person, right?
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  We are all math people,
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  and so if we want to move away from this idea,
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  it means moving away from the belief that people are inherently good or bad at
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  math. The truth is, we all engage in mathematical activity every single day,
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  whether we realize it or not, we are all mathematicians. And so the key is,
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  as math teachers,
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  we want to remove that barrier in our classrooms that says that only some
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  students are math capable in the math classroom. We can begin by doing that,
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  by leveraging what students know mathematically how they experience
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  mathematics in their daily life.
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  And then we as educators can then incorporate some of those
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  types of activities into the everyday learning of math in our
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  classrooms.
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  So the idea is to get students to realize they are
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  capable math doers, that they are math people,
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  and you're showing them the evidence that they are by bringing in what they're
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  already doing, and not just that they are math doers,
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  but that those peers that are also engaged in the classroom with them
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  are capable math doers. And so breaking down those barriers that say that some
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  students are and some students aren't is really key. So we are all math people.
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  I love that sentiment.
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  I've seen you facilitate an activity with educators that I'm hoping that we
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  could replicate on the podcast.
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  You asked educators to sort themselves into one of four groups that best
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  describe their experience when they were a learner of mathematics,
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  and I'm wondering if you could read the categories aloud
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  and then I'm going to ask our listeners to think about the description that best
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  describes their own experiences.
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  Okay, great. So there are four groups,
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  and so if you believe that your experience is one where you dreaded
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  math and you had an overall bad experience with it,
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  then you would choose group one. If you believe that math was difficult,
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  but you could solve problems with tutoring or help,
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  then you would select group two.
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  If you found that math was easy because you were able to memorize and
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  follow procedures, but you had to practice a lot,
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  then you'd be in group three. And finally,
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  if you had very few difficulties with math or you were considered a math
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  whiz, then you would select group four.
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  I had such a strong reaction when I participated in this activity for the
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  first time. I've had my own reckoning with this experience,
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  but I wonder what impact you've seen this have on
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  educators. Why do it?
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  What's the impact that you hope it has for someone who's participating?
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  Yeah. So I would say that a key part of promoting that
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  message that we started off talking about is for teachers to go back to
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  reflect.
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  We have to have that experience of thinking about what it was like for us as
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  math learners, because oftentimes we go into the classroom and we're like,
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  all right, I got to do this thing,
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  but we don't take a minute to reflect what was it like for me as a math learner?
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  And I wanted to first also say that I did not develop this activity.
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  This is not a charisma original.
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  I did see this presented at a math teacher educator conference about five years
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  ago by Jennifer Ward. I think she's at Kennesaw State right now.
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  But the premise is the same.
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  We want to give teachers an opportunity to reflect over their own experiences as
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  math learners,
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  as a good starting place for helping them to identify with each other and also
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  with the students that they're teaching. And so whenever I have this
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  activity done, I have each of the participants reflect and then they have
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  conversations around why they chose what they chose,
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  and this is the opportunity for them to have what we
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  call windows mirrors and sliding glass doors.
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  So you either can see yourself in another person's experience and feel like, oh,
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  I'm not alone here, especially if it were a negative experience.
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  Or you may get to see or take a glimpse into what someone else has experienced
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  that was very different from your own and really get a chance to understand what
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  it was like for them. They may have been the math whiz,
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  and you're looking at them like they're an alien that fell from the sky because
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  you're like, how did that happen?
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  But you can begin to have those kinds of conversations.
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  Why was it like this for you? And it wasn't like that for me,
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  or it was the same for me, but what did it look like?
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  Your instance versus my instance?
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  I honestly feel like sometimes people don't realize that their experience is
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  not necessarily unique,
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  especially if it's coming from a math trauma perspective.
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  Some people don't want to talk about their experience because they feel like it
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  was just theirs, but they sometimes can begin to realize that, Hey,
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  you had that experience too, and let's kind of break down what that means.
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  Do you want to be that type of teacher?
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  Do you want to create the type of environment where you felt like you weren't a
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  capable math doer? So powerful, powerful exercise.
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  I encourage your listeners to try it with a group of friends or colleagues at
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  work and really have that conversation.
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  Gosh, I'm just processing this.
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  One of the things that I keep going back to is you challenging
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  us to discard the idea that some people are inherently good at math and
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  other people are not.
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  And I'm making a connection that if I'm a person who identified with
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  group one where I dreaded math and it was really a rough experience,
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  what does it mean for me to discard the idea that some people are inherently
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  good or inherently not good at math,
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  versus if I identified as a person who was treated as the math
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  whiz and it came easy for me, again, what's required for me,
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  it feels like there's things that we can agree with on the surface.
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  We can agree that people are not good inherently at mathematics,
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  but I find myself really thinking about how my own experience actually
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  colors my beliefs and my actions,
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  how agreeing to that on the surface and then really digging into how your
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  own experience plays out in your practice or the ways that you
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  interact with kids. There's some work to be done there, it seems like.
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  Absolutely. You hit the nail on the head there. It's important to do that work.
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  It's really important for us to take that moment to reflect and think about how
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  our own experience may impacting how we're teaching mathematics
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  to children.
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  I think that's a great place to make a shift and talk about areas
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  where teachers could take action to cultivate a positive mathematics identity
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  for kids.
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  I wonder if we can begin by talking about expectations and norms when it comes
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  to problem solving.
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  Yes. So Julia Gire, Karen Mayfield Ingram,
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  and Danny Martin wrote this amazing book called The Impact of Identity in K
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  through eight, mathematics, rethinking Equity-Based Practices.
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  And one of those equity-based practices is affirming math learners identities.
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  And so one of the ways we can do this in the math classroom is when having
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  students engaged in problem solving.
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  And so one of the things that we want to be thinking about when we are having
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  students engaged in math problem is we want to be
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  promoting students' persistence and reasoning during problem
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  solving. And you might wonder, well, what does that actually look like? Well,
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  it might be helpful to see what it doesn't look like, right?
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  So in the typical math classroom,
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  we often see an emphasis on speed, who got it done quickly,
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  who got it done first, who even got it done within the time allotted,
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  and then also this idea of competition. So that is
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  really hard for kids because we all need time to process and think through
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  our problem solving strategies.
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  And if we're putting value on speed and we're putting value on
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  competition,
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  are we in fact putting value on a problem solving strategy or the
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  process of problem solving?
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  So one way to affirm math learners' identities is to move away from this idea of
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  speed and competition and foster the type of environment where we're
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  valuing students' persistence with the problem.
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  We're valuing students' processes in solving a problem,
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  how they're reasoning,
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  how they're justifying their steps or their solutions strategies as
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  opposed to who's getting done quickly.
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  Another thing to be thinking about is reframing making mistakes.
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  There's so many great resources about this.
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  What comes to mind immediately is Rough Draft Math by Amanda Janssen,
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  which is really helping us to reframe the idea
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  that we can make some mistakes and we can revise our thinking,
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  we can revise our reasoning,
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  and that's perfectly okay. Olga Torres's Rights of the Learner Framework talks a
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  lot about the right to make a mistake is one of the four rights of the learner
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  in the mathematics classroom.
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  And so when having kids engaged in problem solving and mathematics,
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  mistakes should be seen more like what Olga tours calls celebrations,
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  because there are opportunities for learning to occur.
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  We can focus on this mistake and think about and problem solve through the
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  mistake, well, how did we get here?
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  Use it as a moment that all students can benefit from.
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  And so kids then become less afraid to make mistakes because they're
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  not ridiculed or made to feel less than because they've done so.
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  Instead, it empowers them to know that, Hey, I made this mistake,
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  but in actuality,
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  this is going to help me learn and it's also going to help my classmates.
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  I suspect a lot of those moments,
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  people really appreciate when there's the aha or the, oh,
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  what was happening before that might've been some struggle or
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  some misconceptions or a mistake.
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  You're making me think that we kind of have to leave space for those mistakes or
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  those misconceptions to emerge if we really want to have those ahas or
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  those ohs in our classroom.
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  That's exactly right. And imagine if you are the one who's like,
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  oh,
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  what that does for your self confidence and even having your
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  peers recognize that you've come to this answer or this
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  understanding,
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  it almost becomes like a collective win if you have fostered a type of
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  environment where it's less about me against you and more about all of us
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  learning together.
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  The other thing that came to me is that I'm thinking back to the four groups
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  I would've identified as a person who would fit into group two,
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  meaning that there were definitely points where math was difficult for me,
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  but I could figure it out with tutoring or with help from a teacher.
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  I start to wonder now how much of my perception was about the fact that it
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  just took me a little bit longer to process and think about it.
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  So it wasn't that math was difficult,
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  it was that I was measuring my sense of myself in mathematics
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  around whether I was the first person or I was fast, or I got it right away,
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  or I got it right the first time, as opposed to really thinking about,
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  do I understand this? And to me,
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  that really feels connected to what you're saying,
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  which is the way that we as teachers,
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  value students' actions, their rough draft attempts, their mistakes,
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  and position those as part of the process.
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  That can have a really concrete impact on how I think about myself and
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  also how I think about what it is to do math. Well,
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  let's shift again and talk about another area where educators could support
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  positive identity and thinking about the ways that they can engage with
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  students' background knowledge and their life experiences.
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  Yeah, this is a huge one, and this really again,
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  comes back to recognizing that our
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  students are whole human beings.
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  They have experiences that we should want to leverage in the math
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  classroom,
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  that they don't need to keep certain parts of themselves at the door when they
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  come in.
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  And so how do we take advantage of what our students are
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  bringing to the table? And so we want to be thinking a lot about, well,
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  who is the student? What do they know?
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  What other identities do they hold? What's important to them?
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  What kinds of experiences do they have in their everyday life that I can bring
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  into the math classroom? What are their strengths?
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  What do they enjoy doing?
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  The truth of the matter is really great teachers do this all the time.
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  You know who your students are for the most part, right?
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  Students come to us with a whole host of experiences that we want to
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  leverage and come with all sorts of experiences that we could
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  use in the math classroom. I think oftentimes we don't think about making
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  connections between those things and how to connect them to the
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  mathematics that's happening in the classroom.
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  So oftentimes we don't necessarily see a reason to connect
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  what we know about our students to mathematics.
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  And so it's really just a simple extra step because
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  really amazing teachers,
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  which I know they're amazing teachers that are listening right now,
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  you know who your students are.
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  So how do we take what we know about them and bring that into the
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  mathematics learning? Again, as with problem solving,
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  what is it that we want to stay away from?
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  We want to be staying away from connecting math identity only with
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  correct answers and how fast a kid is at solving a problem.
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  Their math identity shouldn't be dependent on how many items they got.
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  Correct on an assessment. It should be more about, well,
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  what is it that they know and how are we able to use this in the math classroom?
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  You're making me think about how oftentimes there's this distinction that
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  happens in people's minds between school math and math that happens everywhere
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  in the real world.
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  Part of what I hear you suggesting is that when you help kids connect to their
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  real world,
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  you're actually doing them another service and that you're helping them see
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  like, oh, these lived experiences that I might not have called mathematics,
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  they are right. I do mathematics. I'm a doer.
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  And part of our work in bringing that in is helping them see what's already
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  there.
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  I love that. Helping them see what's already there. That's exactly right.
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  Well, before we go,
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  I'm wondering if you could talk about some of the resources that have informed
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  your thinking about this and that you think might also help a person who's
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  listening who wants to keep learning.
• 16:49
  Yeah. There's a lot of great resources out there.
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  The one that I rely on heavily is the impact of identity and K through eight
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  Mathematics, rethinking Equity-based practices.
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  I really like this book because it's very accessible.
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  It does a really great job of setting the stage for why we need to
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  be thinking about equity-based practices,
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  and I really enjoy how practical things are.
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  So the book goes through describing what a representative lesson would look
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  like,
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  and so it's a really nice blueprint for teachers as they're thinking about
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  students' identities and how to promote positive math identity
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  amongst their students.
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  And then I think we also mentioned Rough Draft Math by Amanda Janssen,
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  which is a good read.
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  And then there's also a new book that came out recently cultivating
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  Mathematical Hearts, culturally Responsive Math teaching Elementary classrooms.
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  And this book goes even deeper by having vignettes and having specific
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  classroom examples of what teaching in this kind of way can look
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  like.
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  So those are three resources off the top of my head that you could dig into and
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  have book clubs at your schools and engage with your fellow educators and grow
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  together.
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  I think that's a great place to stop. Thank you so much for joining us today.
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  This has really been a pleasure.
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  Oh, it's been a pleasure talking to you too.
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  Thank you so much for this opportunity.
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  This podcast is brought to you by the Math Learning Center and the Meyer Math
• 18:24
  Foundation dedicated to inspiring and enabling all individuals to
• 18:29
  discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability.