One Teacher's Professional Reading Garbage...

Recently I have rebooted my professional learning.  Following tweets and blogs has inspired me to fill my kindle wish list. I purchased two off the list and read the shorter of the two first.  How disappointing.  The book described an intervention method for students struggling with multiplication.  The author prescribes listing the facts by place value and pointing out the pattern she had found in the ones place.  For instance in the nines times table one as the facts are listed the numeral in the ones place decreases by one.  She continues through the eight times table and seven.  For the seven times table she explains the strategy to list the ones place by following the pattern subtract three unless one cannot subtract three with out regrouping. in that case add seven.

Horrid!!!

I was so disappointed by my $3.99 purchase on Kindle.  This offered me nothing to help my students. These lessons did reinforce that multiplication was repeated addition or represents equal groups.  She dictated a pattern to the students.  Her patterns were legitimate but her teacher led lessons left nothing for the students to discover.

After I dismissed the method, I began top think about how I would do it better.  Some time later I designed a template for a number line for students to highlight the multiples as they skip count, a place value chart to list the multiples of a number and write the patterns that they discover for the ones place and tens place and a hundreds chart to color in the multiples of a given number. I then participated in making discoveries using the templates that I created.  As I found patterns I asked my self why the patterns worked.  I found myself noticing patterns and strategies that I have never thought of before even as though I thought of myself as a proficient fourth grade mathematician.

I now have a intervention tool for my struggling mathematicians, a center activity, possibly some whole class lessons.  More importantly I have a stronger number sense and validation that I am a constructivist and facilitator of students discoveries. 

So as my budding essayists end their writing with a call to action.  I urge you to go read a horrible professional book.  May your best teaching grow from the mulch.