6th graders + percents = frustration

Friday, I took on the challenge of teaching sixth graders how to solve percent problems (For example, what percent of 60 is 40?) via two methods, proportions and equations. I collaborated with my CT and we came up with a well thought out lesson that we both thought would only take one class period. It so happens that this day I was also being observed from my content seminar professor. For each observation, we fill out an action plan where we ask our professor to focus on one aspect of our lesson. This time I asked him to focus on my time management throughout the lesson. That morning as I arrived at school I was running everything through my mind one more time to make sure I had not forgotten anything. Unfortunately, the one thing that occurred was one of the only things I could not have foreseen with my lack of experience. The students just did not understand the material. I thought I was doing great! I was modeling good notes, color-coding each example, I was thinking aloud like a mathematician for my students, but by about half way through the lesson, they just shut down. Therefore, it is safe to assume that I did not complete my original lesson. I actually only got through a quarter of it. That was first hour.

Third hour I rearranged my entire lesson by first making it into a two-day lesson. I began with the same warm-up, which were a few carefully selected questions from their homework assigned the day before. Then I began in a similar way to first hour but at a much slower pace. Throughout the entire lesson I modeled good notes and thinking like a mathematician. I began with just how to set up a proportion. After a few examples of that, I moved on to how to solve a proportion, and that was the whole lesson. They seemed a little more receptive to the material than first hour was, but they were still frustrated.

After speaking with several people about my disappointment and asking for advice, I was given the suggestion to have them work in groups today. So today I broke them up into groups of four, gave each group a transparency, a marker, and a question. They were then given fifteen minutes to as a group solve the problem using both proportions, and equations. In addition, for the first five minutes they were not allowed to ask myself or my CT for help. I told them that this was to encourage them to use their resources (notes, textbook, and group members). It worked wonderfully for both classes! Each class had enough students to have six groups and out of both classes, only two groups asked for help. Then each group went to the front of the room to share their work with the class. The only mistake that was made (in both classes) was improper division for the question, what percent of 6 is 18? They set the problem up correctly for both methods, however they still switched their division when they solved the problem. That was a great teachable moment for the rest of the class! They did not seem too excited about having over 100% but after some explanation and questioning, they seemed to grasp the concept.

To conclude the lesson today each class received the homework that I originally intended to assign on Friday minus about half of the problems because we did not get to that type of problem. No one seemed terribly excited about homework, even it if was only ten questions. However, after many began working on it and they realized they could use the method they preferred it was not such a bad assignment after all.

Looking back on these two days, I learned one very important thing. I cannot let myself become frustrated when my students become frustrated with the material. After much reflection, I realized that I was more frustrated with the lesson because I knew I could have done a better job at conveying the concept. In addition, something my CT said on Friday just before I left was, “sometimes they learn better from each other than from us.” This really struck me because as I look back on my math education I realize that the material I know the best I learned by working with other students and minimal guidance from teachers/professors. After reflecting on today's’ classes, I see that is what needed to be done. I think refusing to help for the first five minutes pushed them to become resourceful and give the problems some serious thought. I even heard some debates between students about how to set up the problems with some AMAZING reasoning! After seeing these amazing results, this is something that I hope to incorporate into my classroom on a more regular basis.