1. 1 1 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the Mathematics Classroom RIISA Middle Grades Network Mathematics Content Sessions September 24, 2015 Angelo DeMattia & Marilyn Maye

2. How do teachers embed Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the mathematics classroom? Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) provides theoretical framework

3. Ladson Billings’ three central tenets of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (or equity pedagogy): 1.Academic success for all students – HIGH EXPECTATIONS 2.Help students form a positive cultural identify – CULTURAL COMPETENCE 3.Help students develop a CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, so they can critique or interrupt current and historical social inequities.

4. RIISA mathematics sessions will be organized around these three tenets September and October – High Expectations December – Cultural Competence March – Critical Consciousness

5. High Expectations Rigorous curricula must be supported by intensive use of best teaching practices, if students are to achieve – especially students who are already “behind” A study of 45 studies of classrooms using these practices by Morrison, Robbins and Rose (2008) found the following patterns that demonstrate High Expectations Modeling, scaffolding, and clarifying the challenging curriculum Using students’ strengths as instructional starting points Investing and taking personal responsibility for students’ success Creating and nurturing cooperative environments High behavioral expectations

6. Not just celebrations and heroes Too often, when people think about culturally responsive teaching, they think about cultural competence, and the ability to identify cultural heroes and to employ cultural art forms in celebrations. We do want to include non-mainstream representatives in mathematical problems and in recognizing great mathematicians, and we will do that throughout and more specifically in December But, we want to start with the more pointed social justice and equity agenda, and that begins with ensuring that all students succeed – academically and holistically.

7. “But that’s JUST GOOD TEACHING” – Gloria Ladson-Billings Modeling, scaffolding, and clarifying the challenging curriculum Making explicit what is unseen in the way we think about mathematics P-A-W using pictures and models to clarify what we mean and are doing Article: Promoting equity through reasoning. Authors Mueller and Maher (2010) show how using Cuisenaire rods and other visuals in mathematical tasks promote mathematical reasoning among students of color. Article: The equation, the whole equation and nothing but the equation! Authors Pirie and Martin (1997) describe an approach to teaching linear equations that begins with the unknown on both sides of the equation, the “harder” part of the topic but the part that gets students thinking about what an equation means.

8. High expectations for all students (cont’d) Modeling, scaffolding, and clarifying the challenging curriculum also includes: Encouraging students to collaborate with and model their thinking aloud and for each other Closely monitoring student learning

9. What equity pedagogy is NOT Christy Jackson’s research into practices in urban schools notes that (2013): direct instruction can deter African American students from high-level thinking and becoming effective problem solvers because the processes are explicitly explained to them. Society will continue to encourage African American students to be followers, rather than leaders, consequently, disempowering African American students.

10. What equity pedagogy is NOT Haberman (1991) denotes this as “pedagogy of poverty.” This pedagogy includes: “giving information, asking questions, giving directions, making assignments, monitoring seatwork, reviewing assignments, giving tests, reviewing tests, assigning homework, reviewing homework, settling disputes, punishing noncompliance, marking papers, and giving grades” (p. 291). This pedagogy of poverty is typical in schools with large populations of African American students.

11. What equity pedagogy is NOT Although Evertson, Anderson, Anderson, and Brophy (1980) have shown that gains in urban students’ achievement and attitudes toward mathematics were positively correlated with the time their junior high mathematics teachers spent lecturing/demonstrating, having class discussion, assigning a limited amount of seatwork, and asking both fact related questions (mostly fact) and higher cognitive questions that created opportunities for students to respond, Ladson- Billings (1994) argues effective teachers of African American students involves more than just these instructional practices.

12. Developing a scholarly identity mindset Part of having high expectations for all students is the expectation that at least some of your students, regardless of ethnicity and gender, will develop a scholarly identity. (Lewis and Jackson, 2014) Promoting that mindset in the classroom will foster those emerging identities and potential identities among your students, even in middle and high school grades. Awareness of African-American mathematicians is one component that we will address in our mathematics sessions.

13. Today’s session Overview of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the mathematics classroom African-American mathematical scholars and the scholar identity mindset High Expectations through modeling and clarifying challenging curriculum 1.P-A-W 2.Challenging Problems – Proportional reasoning Activities 3.Challenging Problems - Linear Equations Activity

14. Clarence Stephens, Ph. D. (1917 – ) Born in Macon Georgia during Jim Crow era. Orphaned as a child, sent to boarding school in South Carolina and went to HBCU, Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC. He and all brothers were mathematics majors. Went to University of Michigan in 1938, did mastser and doctorate, and in 1943 became 9 th African-American to earn a PhD in mathematics in the US. Mentored more black PhDs in mathematics than had existed in the schools’ histories. Chair, mathematics department, SUNY at Potsdam (1969 – 1987)

15. Challenging Problems

16. Challenging problems Making Sense of Percent Concentrations

17. Challenging Problems Earth Wrap Problem

18. Challenging Problems

19. Wrap-Up Reflection: How may these types of problems reflect Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the mathematics classroom?

20. Resources Jackson, C. (2013). Elementary mathematics teachers’ knowledge of equity pedagogy. Current Issues in Education 16 (3). Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3) Lewis, C. and Jackson, J. (2014). Developing a scholarly identity mindset. Black History Bulletin 77(1). Mueller, M. F. and Maher, C.A. (2010). Promoting equity through reasoning. Teaching children mathematics, 540-547. Morrison, K.A., Robbins, H.H., & Rose, D.G. (2008). Operationalizing culturally relevant pedagogy: A synthesis of classroom-based research. Equity & Excellence In Education 41(4), 433– 452. Pirie, S. & Martin, L. (1997). The equation, the whole equation and nothing but the eqution! One approach to the teaching of linear equations. Educational Studies in Mathematics 34 (159-181) Walker, E. (2015). Beyond Banneker: Black mathematicians and the paths to excellence. Albany, NY: SUNY Press