‘Am I supportive of my child’s education’

Presenter: Exploring new math concepts requires parental leadership

ROCK POINT

A group of parents at Rock Point Community School narrowly missed having to take a math test on Monday night.

Janet Slowman-Chee, a school psychologist, presented the topic “Understanding Math Instructional Strategies and Assessment” as part of the “Parent and Staff Academy” at Rock Point Community School, which began in September 2015.

In her talk she expressed the importance of understanding math as part of day-to-day life for adults and children and also to think about that in a Navajo context.

“My plan for tonight is to review the various math concepts, the various expectations of our children in a math class, and to help our parents look at themselves and ask, ‘Am I supportive of my child’s education?’” she said.

She noted that parents who try to do that may encounter a new way of doing math that their children use in Common Core.

The process of doing math looks much more complicated on paper under the new way of teaching, because she said the focus has shifted to encourage students to think in terms of math by breaking down each problem.

A student had been doing a math problem on the board before the session began, and Slowman-Chee explained why the process looked more complex than just carrying a digit from right to left and adding up the columns.

She said stringing out the digits into hash marks or other symbols lets the student see the math developing, gives them a means to check their answers, and encourages what she called “mental math” where students think in terms of math.

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