Building Math Positivity

Before children can become interested in math, they have to be comfortable with it. Th ey must perceive their environment as physically and psychologically safe before learning can occur. Students build resilience and coping strategies when they learn how to use their academic strengths to build math skills and strategies. Your intervention helps them strengthen the networks that carry information through their brains’ emotional filters to the area where higher-order thinking skills are concentrated, the prefrontal cortex (PFC). With practice, they will be able to use the highest-level analytical networks in the PFC to evaluate incoming information and discover creative solutions to math problems (in addition to problems in all subject areas). To better understand how your students learn, it is important to first learn how to propel information through those filters and begin building math positivity.

STRATEGY: Arrange Family Conferences

No one wants to add to student pressure, especially when you suspect that a student will suffer emotional or even physical abuse if he or she does  not meet certain parental expectations in math. Parents with extremely high expectations for their children are usually motivated by a desire to see their children have more than they have themselves. Unfortunately, when children internalize these expectations and don’t fulfill them, they can suffer depression, anxiety, physical illnesses (high levels of cortisol associated with chronic stress lowers the immune response), or psychosomatic illnesses, or they may even inflict physical injury on themselves and others. Family conferences can help parents learn some of the scientific evidence linking the effects of stress to academic success. These interventions will  also allow you to explain that the first step to math success is a positive attitude toward the subject matter, not just to the grades associated with it. You can also suggest ways for these parents to be involved in a positive way. Explain that the brain is most receptive to learning about a topic when there is a clear link between that topic and something the child values. Parents can act as “math allies” if they find ways to integrate real-world math into their child’s hobbies and interests. For example, they can encourage their children to calculate how long it will be until their special television show begins if it is currently 3:00 and the show starts at 5:30. They can also help their children compare the costs of things they like (e.g., bicycles, toys, computers) in newspaper ads that off er various percentage discounts off different base prices.

STRATEGY: Retest to De-stress

Reassure all students that if they want to achieve high grades, they will have opportunities that will allow them to regain some sense of control, such as retests. Because progress in math is so strongly based on foundational knowledge, students need to achieve mastery in each topic—which forms the basis from which students can extend their neural networks of patterns and concepts—before they move to the next level. Retests provide opportunities to reevaluate answers and make corrections, as necessary. To ensure mastery, I require that students take a retest when they score under 85 percent. My primary goal is to have students learn the appropriate material so they can move forward with an adequate background for success. Incorporating accountability into retesting allows students to build skills related to self-reliance, goal planning, and independent learning. Parents or colleagues may voice concerns that students might not act responsibly or seriously once they realize that they’ll have a second chance. Accountability increases when you require students to provide evidence of corrective action, such as participating in tutoring, doing skill reviews, or finding textual examples that correctly demonstrate how the type of problem is solved. If the original test and retest scores are averaged together, students understand that they remain accountable for that first test grade.

Compared with cheating (an unfortunate response to grade pressure that further decreases confidence and self-esteem), the option of taking retests is a more positive approach to low grades. Retesting takes time on your part, but it shows your students that you respect their capacity to be responsible, successful learners.

STRATEGY: Demonstrate the Value of Math

Key to developing students’ interest in math is to capture their imaginations. Instead of allowing them to think of math as an isolated subject, show the extended values of math in ways they find inspiring. If you teach elementary school, find opportunities throughout the day to show students the ways they benefit from mathematics and how it is applicable to their areas of interest. For example, students can use math to determine the number of absent students by counting the students present and then “counting back” to subtract. In upper grades, cross-curricular planning is a way to achieve this goal. Older students, for example, can solve meaningful problems related to the quantity and price of tickets they need to sell in order to cover their expenses for an upcoming field trip. When you increase your students’ positive feelings toward mathematics, you unlock their brains’ math-blocking filters, promote long-term memory, and foster greater understanding beyond rote memorization.

STRATEGY: Start the Year Showing That You Care

To demonstrate interest in your students as individuals, and to acknowledge that they may have had previous negative math experiences, ask questions they can respond to in a math autobiography, a class discussion, or

a private conversation. I use math autobiographies to give students an opportunity to tell me what previous teachers did that they found either helpful or unhelpful. Their answers sometimes point out things I do that students fi nd disturbing, such as, “My teacher let the class get pretty noisy and then she’d just speak louder than the noise.” Other responses are windows into the causes of specific problems, such as low participation. Another student wrote, “When I’d ask my teacher for help with a problem, she’d say, ‘What’s not to get?’ so I stopped asking questions.” Find ways to encourage memories of positive school experiences, and use those memories to activate students’ motivation. It is likely that all students can recall at least one positive experience related to school, if not to math specifi cally. Trigger these positive memories by asking questions

such as the following:

• Can you remember a time when you were excited about something at school? You may have been nervous, but when you started kindergarten did you feel you were now a “big kid” too? Did you look forward to experiencing some of the good things you had heard about, like making handprints, playing on cool playground equipment, getting new school supplies, learning new things, and seeing your friends every day?

• Can you recall a time when you were proud to answer a question or when you got a good grade after studying hard?

• Did you ever help a friend understand something in class or invite a classmate to join your group when he or she didn’t have a partner?

After you discuss some of these positive experiences with your students, talk about how and why their attitudes toward math changed for the worse at some point before they started your class. Th rough this process, students begin to build a supportive class community when they hear similarities between their classmates’ experiences and their own feelings. Possible questions to prompt this discussion include the following:

• When did you first wake up and not want to go to school or hope it was a weekend?

• What did teachers do that turned you off to school? To math?

• Did you ever lose interest because you weren’t learning new things or because you didn’t understand things that you thought everyone else did understand?

You may need to stimulate these discussions about negativity with your own experiences; this sharing will also increase the bonds between you and your students. Th ink about times when you felt overly challenged, out of place, or ready to give up. How did that feel? In all likelihood, these feelings were similar to many of the emotions your students deal with. Share those experiences with your students, along with coping mechanisms or solutions that helped you deal with and overcome your negativity.

STRATEGY: Have Students Assess You

Report cards and grades are often high-stress experiences that remain as strong negative memories. Clearly explain your policies concerning credit for partial work (if a serious attempt was made to solve the problem) and for homework corrections. Point out that simply copying the question will help students build their math brains, and after they review their homework, they will have more success when they return to problems they copied down instead of facing a blank page. I offer students the opportunity to decide on categories in which they will assess me and then give me report card grades. My recent 7th grade class selected the following areas: kindness, organization, fairness, friendliness, favoritism, knows material, funny, listens, and explains material well. In their first grading period, the grades were highest in these categories: kindness, friendliness, fairness, favoritism (indicating a lack thereof ), and knows material. However, many of my students felt that I needed to improve my listening and explaining skills. I was disappointed, because I thought I’d been doing well in those areas. I asked for some specific examples (they could offer them anonymously in writing or orally) and received valid feedback. I had a colleague observe my classes a few times and focus on those two areas. She helped me identify times when I could have done a better job of listening and explaining, and I implemented changes. Th e experience was valuable, and I continue to show students that I value their opinions each time I have them write my report cards. My hope is that I model appropriate responses to their feedback as I continue to be a learner.