Dear Matt,

I’m using a standards-based curriculum in my elementary classroom. My average and below average students are doing fine with it, but how do I challenge my high achievers?

Response:

One of the biggest challenges in differentiating instruction is to be prepared to push the thinking of all learners, especially advanced ones. In a standards-based mathematics program there are many opportunities to push the thinking of high achieving students, though they may not always be explicit or obvious at first glance.

A place to start searching for ideas is by doing collaborative planning. Colleagues teaching the same grade can be very helpful in brainstorming and sharing ideas for questions and extensions to use at strategic points in a lesson that will push the thinking of high achieving students.Sometimes this will require questions such as “See if you can figure out why that works”, or “Do you think your conclusion is true for all cases?” Another useful question for all students is “Can you find another way to solve or think about this problem?” Other times an extension involves applying a geometric idea to more complex figures, or a numerical pattern to a larger set of numbers. All of these examples require that the teacher be well versed in the mathematics concepts at hand, and have prepared beforehand suitable questions or extensions. The first time you teach something it is often difficult to anticipate student responses and thus plan such questions, but in addition to other teachers, often the teacher support materials give suggestions. Another very important idea for newer teachers is to take a few minutes after a class or at the end of the day to jot down reflections on the lesson while it is fresh in your mind. These can include notes about where some students had difficulty, and places where more advanced students could use a challenge.

Using these ideas for collaborative planning, creating good questions, and getting in a habit of keeping a reflection journal or notebook will not only help you grow as a professional, but will help you as you work to provide lessons that help each student think and learn every day.

Matt

Matt Mentor, a wise and experienced teacher, offers advice about teaching mathematics topics to beginning teachers. Of course, experienced teachers can join in as well.

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