In class, we examined some curriculum materials and curriculum guides for each of the primary-elementary grade levels in Newfoundland and Labrador. Here are some things that I noticed:
> I was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of resources available to teachers - this is very comforting as I am going to be a new, inexperienced teacher in just a few short months
> in kindergarten, grade one and grade two, there are children's books that encourage the learning of mathematics in a fun and colorful way
> within these books, the reading level seems to drastically increase between these 3 levels...kindergarten books have 3 to 4 words on each page, grade one books have 2 or 3 sentences, and grade two books have long, story-like explanations
- this may or may not distract from the math learning
> after grade two, the amount of colored pictures and visually appealing material dwindles drastically - textbooks become large and heavy, making math fit its stereotype of "boring"
> all grade level curriculum offered plenty of opportunity for problem solving which exercises many different types of mathematical strategies and skills
> in grades 4, 5 and 6, a lot of the material included in the curriculum guides has a lot to do with strategic math
- instead of teaching students how to arrive at an answer, they are being taught how to use strategies that could help them to estimate the answer - I think this can be beneficial but is also a little bit misleading as students will always (starting in junior high) have to actually arrive at an answer and show step-by-step how they did it
> I noticed that the curriculum materials after grade two are best used as guides for teacher-created math lessons - the drilling strategy has been proven to turn students off of math and so instead of students having to do page after page of problems (as I remember doing in my grade-school days) teachers should apply these concepts to relevant, every-day things for students to experience - in chapter 4 of our textbook, there are 10 steps that teachers should implement into the development of their math lesson plans which are worth the read for any teacher
> I think that the creators of these early curriculum materials obviously did their research and know that the colorful pictures and real-life application concepts that motivated and interested children in the primary grades to enjoy math, and therefore I question why they would eliminate the things that interested them just because they got older and needed to begin more mature math - every mathematical concept has a real-life application, and colored pictures should not lose their position to more black and white math problems
> although I was disappointed with how un-picture-book-esque the older grades curriculum materials are, I do know for a fact that there are countless books out there that can encourage mathematics learning in children - we had to look up some of these for another course we are taking and found that there is a lot of material out there to help students get more enjoyment out of math
I learned more by simply flipping through some curriculum materials than I expected to learn, but I am no longer nervous that I will not have enough guidance or resources when I begin to teach my own class. Math has never been my greatest comfort area, but when it can be applied to real-life, it becomes a lot more relevant and I get a greater sense of satisfaction from being knowledgeable about certain math strategies.
