Boy Maths - any ideas?

Since July this year, we've split our classes (from Grade 5 up) into separate boy and girl classes. In our tiny school, that translates to one class for each gender per grade, about 30 kids per class.

So, the girls have been taking off like a bunch of rockets, or maybe racing cars that have been revving their engines and are finally given green for go. They help each other, compete with each other, pay attention in class (most days), do their best and are seeing improved results.

For the boys, things have not been going that well. There have been a few lessons where early finishers on a task have moved around helping others, everyone liked that. But they have hardly any tolerance for me standing  up in front explaining a concept, even interactively - and I'm not yet sure how to teach maths without a bit of explanation at the start of the lesson, before they dive in to the set activities.

Their restlessness tends to draw out the amount of time it takes me to do the introduction/explanation - a vicious circle. Yesterday I felt some real despair at the way their marks are going down. There is little of the group-wide sense of competition and pride that exists among the girls (although a handful of boys are keeping their inner motivation alive).

Unfortunately this is also a group with a long history of poor behaviour, so class disturbance and poor performance are in a way behaviours that feel 'familiar', even 'safe' to them.

So, here is a major mind-body-maths challenge. Teaching boys in a way that works for them, that engages them. I know nothing will come right until I crack this.

One of the hardest parts is trying to get this right at the same time as being under huge pressure to finish most of the curriculum over the next few weeks AND prepare them for the kind of questions that come up in our Annual National Assessment. The results of which, I've only recently found out, determines the reputation of our school.... (this is my first year in the government school system).

What I HAVE been doing...
- starting each concept on a back-to-basics, very simple level, working on the basic concepts before getting into solving more complex problems
- using manipulatives where possible
- occasional games/challenges - these work if VERY simple, otherwise tend to break down into chaos with the boys
- using worksheets rather than having them copy work from the board - though this brings another horror as they have to glue the sheets into their classwork books - gluing in one sheet can take 5 minutes of disorder
- Currently my learners are sitting two to a desk, facing the front. Group seating earlier in the year led to too much inappropriate interactions, and I like to work with individual and pair activities most of the time.

Anybody else teaching maths to boy classes? What has worked for you?

First look

OK, it's three weeks into the school term but the first half week was in-school orientation, then there was a week of camp, so really I'm about six days into teaching at my new home.

It's government bureaucracy crunch time with a deluge of files, schedules and plans to be filled out and submitted. Year plans, lesson plans, assessment plans, week plans, day plans...Sorry about grumbling but had to get it out. One kid's dad already phoned and asked why I've done so little marking of their exercise books.


Now, moaning aside, here's what I've noticed about my learners and myself so far:

1. There is a huge range in their abilities, in fact, two thirds of the learners are performing average to well, and very well. This is a big deal in South Africa, where our national performance in mathematics is abysmal. Nevertheless 10 out of 60 children are in serious danger of failing, and so, as in many classrooms around the world, there is a long bridge to cross, or maybe construct, in every lesson.

2. More than half the children are well-behaved and make an effort, but a significant group can be rowdy and resist doing homework. A few are disruptive and one child seems completely unable to control his own behaviour. I really feel the need to connect with the children who are on board, and avoid giving the bulk of my attention to the 'misbehavers'. I find this difficult. The school's existing disciplinary system is very 'gentle'

3. I do like children and I'm finding it easy enough to focus on their needs rather than on the 'needs' of the subject. Actually, having written that, I'm not so sure. I don't have any cleaer idea of what it feels like to be an 11 year old on the receiving end of my lessons, and I need to find out more about this, as well as ways to measure responses and progress.

Keep your eye on the... child

This post is a touchstone to remind me that children learn with their whole selves (hence the name of the blog).

More specifically, that my focus needs to be on the learners. Not on myself, and not, in the first place, on the wonderful world of mathematics, but:
on what children are busy learning about themselves, and maths, and about how they are able to engage with it. Any clever ideas are only good, if they make learning more accessible and healthy for the particular group of children in my class.

I worked with a teacher at the school I've just left, who repeatedly taught me this by example. She would challenge her learners, but only after ensuring they had a solid foundation in place. I'd always run my tests by her for editing - she has a special skill in phrasing questions and assignments in such a way that they are crystal clear and non-threatening, without lowering the standard of work.

Thank you, Birgit!