Classroom Management, Engagement and Literacy in Math Class

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When a classmate and I walked into Ms. Paige’s math class she was very welcoming, greeted us with a smile and asked her students to make room for us. Though her students looked like a cooperative unit, as I scanned the room I saw that there was a modular separation between her and her students, with the students seated in rows and her predominantly at the board. Ms. Paige had a great command of her class and all her students were surprisingly engaged though they were middle school children seated in class during the Summer. Part of the reason for this engagement was due to her confident tone and a volume that was able to project clearly to even the students in the back of the room.
Another reason for their engagement and trust in their teacher appeared to be because Ms. Paige seemed eager to build relationships with her students by remembering all of their names when she called on them, and encouraged them in a patient and gentle manner if they made a mistake. Her assessment strategies were also great as she made sure all students copied the information on the board before she erased, scanned the room before she moved on to make sure her students were ready as well and asked questions such as “raise your hand if…” to further student engagement throughout her lesson.
Though Ms. Paige called on students to do problems on the board, most of her lesson felt like she was talking to the board. There was a point were one of her students had his hand raised twice, and because Ms. Paige was looking at the board, she missed the opportunity to clarify or engage with whatever question this young man may have had. Ms. Paige also included literacy in her classroom by having students write down notes which included key terms and formulas as well as word problems. There were also a few instances where she asked questions about prior lessons and told students to scan and skim through their notes for the answer. Another way Ms. Paige could have increased literacy in her class would be to have her students turn to a partner and explain their thinking and reasoning regarding a math problem or two.

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