Greene schools try new math approach

Math classes in Greene County’s primary and elementary schools are about to get more hands-on.

At the start of the next school year, students in grades K-5 will begin learning through Math Investigations, a curriculum that focuses on critical thinking rather than rote memorization. Their teachers spent four days in training this month so they could revamp their lessons.

Math Investiga-tions is part of Greene’s timeline to meet state standards — that all eighth-graders will be enrolled in algebra/geometry and all freshmen will be eligible to take Algebra II in the 2012-13 school year.

“We learned a long time ago from the state that when they initially say all, they mean all,” said David Jeck, Greene’s superintendent. “We are foolish if we don’t take very seriously the concept of ‘all.’”

Greene started implementing Math Investigations lessons last year as a pilot. Scott Wills, a third-grade teacher at Nathanael Greene Elemen-tary School, collaborated with a fellow teacher during the debut of Math Investigations.

“When we first started out with it, we were a little skeptical about the time management that it would take to implement in the classroom,” Wills said. “As we worked with it, we found it to be very useful to kids. This was a more hands-on and more in-depth approach to mathematics instead of just giving the kids the equations and the answers.”

The program paves the way for both individual and group work to help students understand mathematical concepts, said Robert Q. Berry III, assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Virginia. Berry said the program was one of three math programs that debuted around 2000 to teach the subject in a way that more students could understand.

While Berry supports the program, he said there are a few issues that may come up when it is implemented.

“Teachers need to have a strong understanding of the mathematic,” Berry said. “Students may come up with a novel idea that the teachers may not have seen before. If teachers don’t have strong classroom management skills, group work can be challenging.”

Parents also have to adjust their expectations about their children’s math homework. Rather than bringing home a page of 30 math problems, Berry said, children are more likely to be assigned one or two more complicated problems.

Adults also may not be able to teach children the relevant concepts, as Jeck found out two years ago when his son was in a school using Math Investiga-tions. The program teaches children different ways to find a solution to a problem rather than memorizing how to solve the problem in one way.

However, Family Math Night may help overcome that gap. Last year, parents of Greene’s second-graders came to the school to play math games taught in Math Investigations, said Andrea Whitmarsh, the division’s director of student achievement and accountability and a former primary school principal. She said the teachers sent home the pieces for the games so the families could play at home, too.

Parents might see lower SOL scores for the first year, Jeck said, because it takes time for the students and teachers to get used to the curriculum.

Next year, Greene students will use Math Investigations workbooks and pieces to supplement their existing textbooks, which Berry said should make the transition easier for everyone. Jeck said it cost the district $112,000 to buy the materials for the program.

The division will join the ranks of Charlottesville and Fluvanna, which have been offering the program for a couple of years. Louisa will offer the program full-time in all of its kindergarten and first-grade classrooms and some of its second-grade classrooms next year.