Fiona Connaghan October 26, 2012 Fieldwork Report For the fieldwork project, I wanted to take a closer look

at math views and math education at Morton School of Excellence. I wanted to develop a better understanding of how middle school students at Morton School of Excellence view math in regards to its relevance to their lives and the importance of math knowledge to their future. On top of that I wanted to gain insight into why they view math in the way they do and how I can be more effective in the way that I teach math. I am particularly interested in this topic not only because my area of concentration as a teacher is mathematics, but also because of overall student performance in the subject area of math. The level of math achievement has increased significantly at Morton since the school was turned around five years ago, however, the expectations continue to be heightened every year. Students need to be more developed in their problem solving, critical thinking and inferencing skills in order to meet these higher expectations. Furthermore, when looking at the 2009 PISA international test, the United States ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. Math is an important subject area with content and skills that are used on a regular basis in everyday life activities. Our students need to have a firm grasp and mastery of these concepts. From completing this fieldwork project, I feel that I have developed a better understanding of how my middle school students view math, why they view math in the way that they do and how I can be a more effective and efficient educator of math to these students. When planning out my research, I decided that in order to get a complete and full understanding of math education at the middle school level, I needed a very well-rounded understanding of the lives my students are leading and the contexts

they are living in. This means knowing about my students, their community and the school where majority of their math education is taking place. I knew that if I was well-exposed to these various aspects of their lives, I would have a much better understanding of how those aspects pertain to, affect and influence their math learning. To research my topic and access information pertinent to reaching my goals, I used a variety of tools and strategies. One of the most informative resources used was a student survey I designed for my middle school students. All of the middle school students at Morton participated in the survey. The survey had a direct focus on math and asked students to share how they viewed math in terms of its relevancy to their life, their strengths in the subject area, their enjoyment of the content and the pacing of the class. The surveys were completed anonymously to allow students to answer as honestly as possible. I found this resource very informative because it acted as a gateway into the minds of my students and their perceptions of the subject. Equally as insightful in my research were the various interviews I conducted. A total of three interviews were completed: Ms. Rosalind Ali, a middle school math educator for the past ten years, Mr. Ryan Eggert, Math Curriculum Director of AUSL schools and Mr. Antwon Mallory, East Garfield Park YMCA director. All of these urban education professionals provided me with different perceptivity into my topic at hand. Ms. Ali really helped me develop a better understanding of math education and the approaches and strategies she utilizes to make her a more efficient and effective educator. Mr. Eggert shared with me the important methods and checklists used when deciding on math curriculum for our schools, as well as the important skills we need to be teaching our middle school students in order to make them more independent in their math education.

Mr. Mallory helped me gain insight into the importance of community support systems in East Garfield Park the utilization of them to enhance and support our students education outside of the school. All interviewees provided me with very useful and vital information that helped me gain a better understanding of middle school math education. I also was able to volunteer at the YMCA after school during the homework help sessions. During this time I tutored students and assisted them with their homework. This experience helped me to develop a better understanding of our students needs in their education. After having completed my research, I feel that I have really gained an array of new information. I have learned so much about my students and how the contexts of their lives affect their math education and understanding. One of the most surprising things I discovered was how aware students are of the importance of math to their lives. Over 90% of students believe that math is used on a daily basis and is relevant to their lives. Over 80% of students said that learning new things in math was fun, and more than half of all middle school students chose math as their favorite subject. This information tells me that students have the right attitude when they think about math. This should really help them stay motivated to try and do well in math. I also learned about what kinds of supports students have outside of the school in their math education. About 67% of middle school students at Morton feel they can rely on a family member for help in their math studies. About 40% say they can call up a friend for help too if they are stuck on a problem at home. Very few students take advantage of other academic support and help outside of the school, however. Few students have ever been tutored in math outside the school and even fewer participate in any after-school academic support programs such as the YMCA that Mr. Mallory helps to run. According to Mr. Mallory

and Mr. Eggert, our urban neighborhoods are often very rich in free after-school programs for our children, but making parents more aware of these programs and getting them to take advantage of them has been more challenging. A lot of these societal issues are what holds our students back from achieving their full potential in math. Ms. Ali shared with me how we can offset these obstacles our students face. One of the greatest things we can do for our students to help them be successful in their math studies is forcing the students to think and problem solve more independently. Ms. Ali believes that these students are very bright and capable young beings, but they have a learned helplessness. As educators, we need to force our students to think critically and more independently as they work through problems. If we can teach our students these skills, they will no doubt be very successful in their math education. Overall, I think my fieldwork project ended up being extremely beneficial and informative to my understanding of how my students view math, how the contexts of their lives influence their math development and how I can use this information to better inform my instructional strategies. Something I might do differently if I were to do this research again would be to spend more time researching additional community supports in East Garfield Park and volunteering more time there to gain a better understanding of the nature of the programs. I would have like to have learned more on what kinds of efforts these programs are making to become more well known in the East Garfield Park area. Additionally, I would have liked to interview more middle school math teachers to expose myself to more of a variety of teaching strategies and beliefs. I feel that these new steps would have given me an even more well-rounded understanding of the different influences that affect our students math education.