Well, That Complicates Things

My students want teachers to talk more. 

They also desperately want us to talk less. 

Even stranger, sometimes the same student wants both. 

I wasn’t even looking for this. 

~~~~~~~

It began in a book store, when, after nearly an hour of discussing my recent book, the moderator turned to the audience and asked what I had been waiting all night for: 

Does anyone have any questions? 

I wondered what parts they wanted to hear more about. What concepts needed more clarification. What directions I might need to explore in the future. I was ready. Or so I thought. 

I expected to hear from teachers and parents, maybe even an administrator. But instead, it was the children. Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Children have a way of taking up space naturally. They are curious and don’t inhibit themselves the way adults do (for better or worse). 

My teacher does this thing. She reads the question to me. But if I tell her I don’t understand it, she just reads it again. Why does she do that? I heard her the first time. I said I didn’t understand it, not that I didn’t hear her? 

I could hear the frustration in her voice. Another, 

I really like graphs, and shapes, and drawing. It really helps me. I get the answer that way. So why does my teacher insist that I write it in number sentences? That’s not how I got the answer. 

Her tone was different, more baffled and amused. As if she was saying, When is my teacher going to catch on?

Two students had given me a glimpse into what math instruction felt like from their side of the desk. I wanted more. More voices. More experiences. More opportunities to listen without defending or fixing. 

I realized I had been trying to map a forest’s trails that I walked as a teacher, forgetting that students walk that same forest. They had been there all along. And I wanted to know what they could see that I couldn’t. 

So I created a survey and started asking. 

What are some things your teacher does that help you learn  math? 

Think about times in math class when you were confused. 

What are some ways your teacher tried to help you that made you even more confused? 

What do you wish your teacher would stop doing, or do less of, in math class? 

What do you wish your teacher would do differently, or more of, in math class that would make learning easier for you? 

342 students, from grades 3-12, in the US and Canada answered. That’s enough for a start.

Students are identified by response number to protect their privacy. 

Sometimes my teacher  restates 

the question over and over 

when I am confused  and it just makes 

me more frustrated and confused.

-Response 82

It’s helpful when she explains 

The math problem, the math ideas, 

background information, and formulas. 

-Response 104

Come next to me and repeat exactly what she said before, 

which was the reason why i was confused. 

And then says, "you understand now?" and then leave.

-Response 204

It’s helpful when the teacher 

shows us different strategies

-Response 22

Re-reading the question AGAIN AND AGAIN 

just like hoping that i understand it the 30th time, 

tries to give me more math to help but it's NOT HELPFUL.

-Response 79 

It’s helpful when she/he explains the question in detail.

-Response 79

Their responses seem contradictory. They want us to explain the question, but to stop rereading the question. 

The obvious conclusion would be that every kid needs something different. If you spend any time in a classroom you know that to be true. So it’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.  But not if you look at the data. 

Personal preference would result in scattered answers. One kid wants one thing, someone else wants another, and so on. And it’s true that there is variation in their answers. 

But what I can’t ignore is that hundreds of students, grades 3-12, across two countries, who didn’t talk to each other before taking it, responded to a survey the same way. 

Stop rereading it. Stop saying the same thing over and over again. Explain it. Explain what I did wrong. Show me another way. 

And what about the students, like Response 79, who said both? 

Response 108 

Point out the important details. 

Making an extra long explanation doesn’t help. 

Response 335

My teacher tells us important strategies to answer a problem. 

I wish my teacher wouldn’t say: Look at the problem one more time. 

To them, “reread” and “explain” are not the same thing. Perhaps they’re saying: When I am confused, don’t just repeat yourself. Show me a different way. 

But then there are responses that seem to paint a different picture.

Response 10

It’s helpful when she does a question over. 

It’s not helpful when she moves on to new strategies. 

Response 32

It’s helpful when he does every step with me until I understand. 

It’s not helpful when he does a totally different problem. 

So: Don’t show me a different way?

That complicates things. 

I started with a contradiction. Talk less but talk more. 

I thought I had an explanation. Explain more. Repeat less. 

But as I combed through responses to questions 1 and 2 to prove it, a pattern emerged asking us not to do that either. 

So am I back to: Every kid needs something different? I’m not so sure that the answer is that simple. What I do know is that these students are making distinctions that I haven't fully understood yet.

So I'm going back into the responses.

Maybe questions 3 and 4 can help me make sense of it.