For Students
Learning mathematics is a lot like learning to ride a bike. You can’t do it by watching someone else. You must hop on your bike, get ready, set, and go!
The MVP way of learning mathematics requires much of you, the student. The classroom experience has been carefully designed to help you make sense of the mathematics by presenting it within a context that invites you to use your own logic and reasoning skills. During the explore part of the lesson you will be given the opportunity to create your own strategies for thinking about the situation and finding a solution. During the discussion you may be asked to share your strategy, and you will see how other students in the class thought about the problem and organized their thinking. Your teacher will structure the discussion to help you focus on the important ideas, adopt efficient strategies, and make connections to prior learning. The lessons in the modules will give you many opportunities to become fluent and flexible with the mathematics you are learning. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t good at the math in the beginning of the unit. Just like learning to ride a bike, learning mathematics is a skill that develops over time. In the beginning, you have to try. Then each day that you work at it, the mathematics will become easier until you will be surprised by how much you know and how capable you’ve become.
The Ready, Set, Go! homework assignment has been written to correlate with the daily classroom task and should be completed each day that it is assigned, so that you are prepared for the next lesson. The homework is organized into three parts. The Ready section is to remind you of past learning that will support and connect with upcoming new learning. The Set section is for practicing the skills that are being developed in the current lessons. As you practice, your new mathematical skills become more Set or fluent. The last section of the homework, called Go!, is to help you retain the skills and procedures that you have learned previously. As you mature mathematically, there are many math problems that you should be able to do whenever you encounter them. The procedures for solving them become automatic. When you see these problems, you should be able to take off and Go! with them.
If there are areas in the Ready, Set, Go! assignments, where you feel uncertain and you need guidance, you can subscribe to a homework help page at rsgsupport.org. This site contains video examples and explanations for each of your homework assignments.
Two skills that a student doesn’t usually associate with learning mathematics is listening and note-taking. Most students know they should listen to the teacher, but often they don’t realize that they can learn the most by listening to their classmates, when they are sharing how they think about the mathematics they are doing. During the classroom experience, listening is a practice of learning and note-taking involves keeping a record of learning. When you are listening to your classmates or your teacher, you should do the following:
1. Write down key ideas and strategies that you see other students using.
2. Ask questions of your classmates or the teacher to make sure that you
understand the conversations about the mathematics.
3. Add your own ideas to the ideas of others.
4. Try to restate what you hear others saying. Ask, “Is this what you mean?”
5. Record ideas, strategies, vocabulary, mathematical notation and symbols, phrases that describe important concepts.
6. Be flexible and understand that there are many ways to think about a math problem. You and your classmates might think differently and both be right.
Finally, use the student Self-Assessment as a tool for success. The student Self-Assessments have been provided to assist you in identifying what you should know and be able to do at key positions within the module. Be accurate when you give yourself a score for each standard. Be reflective and honestly evaluate the level at which you are understanding each standard. Make a plan for learning the material you are still unsure of and follow through with your plan.
Ideas for “next steps” could include some of the following:
The MVP way of learning mathematics requires much of you, the student. The classroom experience has been carefully designed to help you make sense of the mathematics by presenting it within a context that invites you to use your own logic and reasoning skills. During the explore part of the lesson you will be given the opportunity to create your own strategies for thinking about the situation and finding a solution. During the discussion you may be asked to share your strategy, and you will see how other students in the class thought about the problem and organized their thinking. Your teacher will structure the discussion to help you focus on the important ideas, adopt efficient strategies, and make connections to prior learning. The lessons in the modules will give you many opportunities to become fluent and flexible with the mathematics you are learning. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t good at the math in the beginning of the unit. Just like learning to ride a bike, learning mathematics is a skill that develops over time. In the beginning, you have to try. Then each day that you work at it, the mathematics will become easier until you will be surprised by how much you know and how capable you’ve become.
The Ready, Set, Go! homework assignment has been written to correlate with the daily classroom task and should be completed each day that it is assigned, so that you are prepared for the next lesson. The homework is organized into three parts. The Ready section is to remind you of past learning that will support and connect with upcoming new learning. The Set section is for practicing the skills that are being developed in the current lessons. As you practice, your new mathematical skills become more Set or fluent. The last section of the homework, called Go!, is to help you retain the skills and procedures that you have learned previously. As you mature mathematically, there are many math problems that you should be able to do whenever you encounter them. The procedures for solving them become automatic. When you see these problems, you should be able to take off and Go! with them.
If there are areas in the Ready, Set, Go! assignments, where you feel uncertain and you need guidance, you can subscribe to a homework help page at rsgsupport.org. This site contains video examples and explanations for each of your homework assignments.
Two skills that a student doesn’t usually associate with learning mathematics is listening and note-taking. Most students know they should listen to the teacher, but often they don’t realize that they can learn the most by listening to their classmates, when they are sharing how they think about the mathematics they are doing. During the classroom experience, listening is a practice of learning and note-taking involves keeping a record of learning. When you are listening to your classmates or your teacher, you should do the following:
1. Write down key ideas and strategies that you see other students using.
2. Ask questions of your classmates or the teacher to make sure that you
understand the conversations about the mathematics.
3. Add your own ideas to the ideas of others.
4. Try to restate what you hear others saying. Ask, “Is this what you mean?”
5. Record ideas, strategies, vocabulary, mathematical notation and symbols, phrases that describe important concepts.
6. Be flexible and understand that there are many ways to think about a math problem. You and your classmates might think differently and both be right.
Finally, use the student Self-Assessment as a tool for success. The student Self-Assessments have been provided to assist you in identifying what you should know and be able to do at key positions within the module. Be accurate when you give yourself a score for each standard. Be reflective and honestly evaluate the level at which you are understanding each standard. Make a plan for learning the material you are still unsure of and follow through with your plan.
Ideas for “next steps” could include some of the following:
- doing any homework assignments that you may have skipped,
- reviewing the homework support videos, (rsgsupport.org)
- reading your class notes,
- reworking the Ready, Set, Go assignments with a friend
- asking your teacher for specific help with the standard you are unsure of.