Teaching from the Book

Reinhart (2000) in “Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!” challenges us to teach math using process questions. He encourages us to stay away from lectures which rarely transfer into students’ notes and almost never into students’ thinking. Professor A models many of the ideas from this article including the questioning. She also challenges us to keep students engaged through individual and group accountability. Students are called at random to answer questions, report for their group, explain or rephrase what the last person said and so on. These ideas together are a strategy I plan to use in my placement. My question is how to incorporate these ideas into the regimented parts of my school curriculum. There are certain parts of the curriculum which follow a specific text. The class climate now centers on lecture and workbooks. Thankfully I will not be teaching this part of the curriculum yet. But I am a little nervous how this teaching style would work in the current class climate.