Three Strategies for Opening Curriculum Spaces

Teachers need to open curriculum spaces in order to develop students multiple mathematical knowledge base, or MMKB. Children’s MMKB includes mathematical thinking and children’s home and community-based mathematical funds of knowledge (Carpenter et al. 1999; Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti 2005; Turner et al. 2012). Students make sense of problems and develop multiple solution strategies by connecting problems to their own experiences both in and out of school and by using and building upon their MMKB. It doesn't matter where you teach or what grade level, all teachers need to make changes to the curriculum to open spaces for MMKB. There are 3 strategies to guide teachers on how open curriculum spaces. The first strategy is rearranging lesson components. Most curriculum lessons have several components, including: opening routines or messages, many student tasks, differentiation suggestions, and then finally homework. Teachers can open spaces for children’s MMKB by moving these components around or omitting some of them and focusing on others. The goal of this strategy is to find those components that focus on (1) having students make connections between the task and their prior knowledge and experiences, (2) providing support for students to develop their own strategies, and (3) encouraging students to share and explain their strategies. There are two different ways that teachers can incorporate this strategy into the classroom. The first is foretold problem solving. This is when teachers engage students in complex problem solving in the beginning of the lesson before introducing the preferred solution strategy. The second way is cutting components. Teachers should omit sections that either tell, direct, or show students how to make sense and solve problems. The second strategy to open curriculum spaces is adapting tasks. Teachers can adjust numbers or offer choices. This can be done by providing multiple number choices for a single problem and allowing students to work on the numbers that are “just right” for them. This will open access for struggling learners and fast finishers while maintaining the cognitive demand and mathematical goals of the lesson. Teachers should also encourage students to use multiple representations and strategies. This will help increase their capacity to solve problems, make them practice justifying their solution, and then comparing and contrasting their solutions. The third and final strategy is making authentic connections. Students will be more engaged and willing to work when a problem is realistic. It is extremely important that teachers remember to incorporate all three of these strategies into their classroom because students need to be exposed to their MMKB!

Drake, C., Land, T., Gau Bartell, T., Aguirre, J., Foote, M., Roth McDuffie, A., & Turner, E. (2015). Three Strategies for Opening Curriculum Spaces. Teaching Children Mathematics, 21(6), 346-353. Retrieved June 15, 2015.