Allington\'s Strategies of Designing Research-Based Programs Applied

¶ … Allington's Strategies of Designing Research-Based Programs applied to a math classroom

Why can't Johnny -- or Jane, to be politically correct -- read at a grade-appropriate level? Educators have attempted to answer and remedy this question for years. In Chapter 3 of his book What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs (Longman, 2001) Richard Allington attempts to provide, concrete advice to help teachers select age and ability appropriate reading materials for their classroom and suggestions as to how to create an atmosphere conducive to reading progress for all individual students. However, an often equally vexing problem is why students struggle with mathematics -- in other words, why can't Johnny and Jane add?

Specifically, when confronted with a group of 7th and 8th grade students, a grade where students of varying abilities are often still mixed together before being 'tracked' in high school, what strategies should a teacher employ? Allington stresses that teachers must find the right books for children, they must find materials that are neither too challenging nor too easy for the children's different skills levels. Also, it is important that teachers chose materials that are relevant and always accessible within the confines of the classroom environment.

But what of math, the subject that often causes students to whine, 'when will I use this stuff?' Clearly, as Allington stresses readability, relevance, and accessibility, teachers must find ways of encouraging students to recognize the ways they use math in their daily lives. This not only encourages relevance but also positively reinforcing student's current math skills -- don't say you 'can't do math,' you do use math, every time you compare prices in a store! Relevance increases motivation in developing math skills. Stressing relevance can help students see the use of math in vital areas of their daily lives that will be important in their near rather than far futures, creating immediate feelings of accomplishment and motivation. Sports minded students could track the performance of their favorite baseball players, or their times in track and field events. Economics minded students could examine and track the pricing of the goods they buy in the store, and the percentage of a budget devoted to food, clothing, etc. Students could be encouraged to be mindful of their daily habits by estimating how much of a percentage of their leisure time they devote to activities such as homework, using the computer for fun, etc. Depending on the advancement of the class and computer access, students could even examine Internet sites that allow younger students to create a virtual stock portfolio through classroom games such as Stocks Quest. They could examine probability in terms of how it affects the market's rise and fall -- or in terms of pricing one's bids on eBay to get the best deal.

Allington suggests the importance of organizing book rooms and classrooms, so there is a variety and supply of level-appropriate reading materials always on hand. Having posters and current events articles that deal with math and science might be a way to create a mathematically permeated classroom, even giving children extra credit if they can find a newspapers' mention of a mathematics subject mentioned in class, such as probability or statistics in a cited study in the newspaper. Students could create math scrapbooks of such articles, to help reinforce their lessons, or write math journals about their daily experiences with math in the real world, which would additionally reinforce their reading skills.