The Global Math Department Newsletter

6/15 at 9:00 PM EST

English Learners: Routines that Leverage Strengths & Optimize Learning

Emerging multilingual learners add perspective and knowledge to our classrooms. Let’s explore routines and ways of thinking that tap into cultural and linguistic assets in order to move students forward. Math language routines shared offer the promise of optimizing opportunities for fostering mathematical understanding while developing proficiency with the English Language.

Click here to register for this webinar!

Two Academic Years of GMD Contributions:
in which we come to an enchanted place

The Global Math Department’s newsletters have been extraordinary over the past two years. I have been contributing to these newsletters since August of 2019, and – concerned that others’ incredible work was not getting sufficient recognition – I offered to operate the GMD Twitter account beginning in April 2020.

Looking back to just before I started to tweet GMD materials, along with other math & math education happenings that seemed generally aligned with various contributor orientations, the number of impressions for the Twitter account were:
Feb 2020, 8.2k;
Mar 2020, 10.3k.
One year later, these impression counts on Twitter had ticked upwards rather dramatically:
Feb 2021, 123k;
Mar 2021, 128k.

This greater than tenfold increase in impressions was accompanied by many new followers of the account, and a number of guest writers I was able to bring on to discuss a range of topics:

upstanding and interrupting harassment (link);
reflections on belongingness as a woman early in her graduate studies in mathematics (link);
making a case for discrete mathematics as the terminating high school course (link);
#TMWYF (Talk Math With Your Friends) and their online math colloquium series intended to welcome all (link);
various intersections of math pedagogy and correctional facilities (link)
redesigning a course for preservice elementary school teachers that focuses on equity and rehumanization in math education (this issue!)

In this time period: The GMD put out a solidarity statement, met via Zoom and recently shifted to Slack, was mentioned in academic talks and articles and ongoing research, organized newsletter contributions under the hashtag #GMDWrites, and amplified (amplified! amplified!) the work of our own contributors as well as that of others outside of regular GMD writers. (I occasionally operated more unilaterally than may have been expected or intended: there was a temporary Twitter shift to focusing on counting votes correctly in the Nov 2020 US Election – a process that has been factually settled but continues to attract conspiracy theorist rightwing cowards with more power than they should have – or direct condemnation of proposed Anti-Asian, xenophobic and racist legislature – again, an area that continues to attract the aforementioned traitorous scum. And more...)

Amplifying on social media requires one to keep their finger on the pulse of the math education worlds, and writing newsletter contributions requires one to put out content at a more rapid pace than that of the glacially moving journals and handbooks that typify much of the “formally academic” side of this discipline. To amplify for one year and write newsletters for two, while working as a full time classroom teacher amidst a continued global pandemic, necessarily limits one’s capacity for non-GMD efforts. It is within this context that I foreseeably conclude my formal role in writing for the GMD and operating its social media apparatus. It is my fervent wish that changes in voice and disposition will enable math education communities to continue evolving in impactful and positive ways, and I hope that if you are looking to effect change in math education and adjacent fields, then you will contact the Global Math Department – or give thought to alternative collectives – and consider the ways in which you, too, can contribute.

My sincere gratitude to all those who work across all spheres of the GMD, and, of course, to the readers who convert words to ideas and, thereafter, ideas to actions.

— Benjamin Dickman [@benjamindickman]

FINALE
hema khodai

Bean gets outraged about the most curious things. For example, everytime we start a new show and we’re about to hit play on episode 1, she’ll exclaim, “This one is called PILOT too!”. She’s not interested in our explanations. It doesn’t make sense in her world.

I have not written for the GMD Newsletter since December 15, 2020. I ended my last article, We Who Believe, with the promise “I’ll tell you this folx, I’ll be back in 2021 to continue this story of we who believe in freedom.”

The truth, however, is this no longer makes sense in my world. As someone who has publicly and vulnerably shared my journey of unbelonging in math ed, I have said all the thing, written all the stories I was willing to share, and raged into the abyss of apathy till my throat was aflame. This is the series finale.

We who believe in freedom are leaving your math ed spaces.

I’m out.

“Equity is IT”: Redesigning a math education course for preservice elementary school teachers

In summer 2020, as COVID continued to spread across the US, it became apparent that my Learning Mathematics in the Elementary Classroom course would be fully virtual in Fall 2020 and I would need to redesign my class. Dr. Brandie Waid, a mathematics education coach and scholar who served as a “critical friend” (e.g., Costa & Kallick, 1993) throughout my course overhaul, asked me an essential question early in the redesign process: What was my goal for the course? I replied, “Equity is IT.” In my mind, equity is the whole point of mathematics education. Helping children realize their mathematical potential and giving children access to high quality mathematics opportunities were my motivations for entering the field of mathematics initially, and these continue to be my motivations as a teacher educator.

Throughout summer 2020, I collected images of tweets, slides from workshops, and elsewhere that were both depicting and informing the ideas and “vibes” that were percolating in my head for the course. This image and screenshot collection came to be what I call a “course mood board.” A mood board is a tool commonly used in fashion and interior design to convey a concept, vision, style, or other visual idea (Pierrus, 2021).

Top and bottom right and bottom left images: Gutièrrez, R. (2020, August 11). Subversive teaching to rehumanize mathematics. TODOS Live!

Top right image: Ancestral mathematics. (2019, August 12). Lyrical zen.

In my newly designed course, I made changes to essential elements of the class: course goals, content, pedagogy, and assessment. Equity, access, and anti-racism were at the forefront of my mind during the course redesign process and guided each of these changes.

Changes to Course Goals
To reflect the new course’s focus on equity, the course goals were shifted as follows:

Previous course goals: During each class session students will spend time reviewing and discussing elementary mathematics concepts. In addition, we will explore various methods for teaching the concept across grade levels, focusing on the development of the concepts as students move from one grade level to the next.
New course goals: 1) understand some of the ways that mathematics teaching and school contexts have been dehumanizing and have underestimated the mathematical potential of many students, particularly those from marginalized groups, and 2) explore how we as teachers can implement mathematical practices in our classrooms that lead to access, equity, and empowerment and that reveal/recognize the mathematical brilliance of our students

With this shift, we would still be exploring mathematics concepts and teaching methods across the elementary grades, but we would do so through a lens of equity and rehumanizing mathematics.

Changes to Course Content
The course content was shifted in the following ways:

Cycling between mathematics content and equity/rehumanizing mathematics throughout the semester
Readings to connect mathematics content to equity/rehumanizing mathematics
Building the work of scholars of color into the foundation of the course. This allowed us to ensure a variety of voices guided our work in the class and to recognize the significant contributions to mathematics education made by scholars of color.
Significant paring down of course topics to allow for deeper exploration of each topic

Changes to Pedagogy
The pedagogy of the course was changed in the following ways:

Building Community and Connection—In such a disconnected time, this was a top priority for me as I designed the class.
- Co-constructing class norms using this protocol
- Norms check in a few weeks in
- Community building activities using these prompts
- Course goals check in at semester mid-point
Moving from independence to collaboration—In addition to the ideas described above, I wanted to give students the opportunity to experience mathematics in a collaborative context in order to better understand the importance of building collaborative activities and discourse opportunities into an intentionally developed mathematics classroom community.
- Small group asynchronous tasks each week
- Students take over of teaching about mathematics routines
- Teaching rehearsals with peers
- Peer feedback on teaching videos
- Collaborative problem solving
- Lots of breakout rooms—These had mixed results. Sometimes students really engaged with one another as they completed activities or responded to discussion prompts, and sometimes they just didn’t.
- I also had some flopped attempts at building collaboration into the course. Neither my shared class notes google doc nor my shared mathematics resources folder were utilized by students.

Shifts to Assessment
In exploring alternative weekly assignments throughout summer 2020, I learned about the “one-pager” assignment. A one-pager combines text and sketches/images to present thinking about the ideas in a text in a visually interesting way. The combination of text and images allows for the processing of ideas from the text through both verbal and visual representations of concepts, which can aid in learning (Paivio, 1971). Changing the assessment format created an opportunity for students to make sense of the readings and express their ideas without getting held back by academic writing. I have been amazed by the outcome of this assignment, which has tapped into students’ skill sets I had not been aware of when assignments focused on writing. Resources for one-pager ideas and inspiration can be found here, here, and here.

One-pager examples from two of my students, Fall 2020

Shifts to Account for Current Context: Reality Pedagogy
Chris Emdin’s (2020) Reality Pedagogy was influential in my planning for Fall 2020. In this article, he reflects on his experience teaching through 9/11 and his misguided attempts to ignore what was going on outside of his classroom. I had a tremendously difficult time navigating work and life throughout the COVID/murders of people of color/election stress context, and I knew that many of my students were also having a difficult time. I made the following adjustments to my course to acknowledge our current context and to let students know that we were navigating this difficult time together.

Accounting for students’ social-emotional health
- Mindfulness moments
- Asynchronous only on election day and day after
- Adjusting course expectations along the way
- Padlet mood board check ins
- Course check-ins
- Empathizing with students
- Maximizing deadline flexibility
Bringing reality into the zoom room
- Acknowledging and accounting for the pandemic
- Connecting the Breonna Taylor grand jury decision to classroom learning
  - Teachable moment about what grand juries do, how they work, my experience serving on a grand jury
  - Photographs of art installations dedicated to Breonna Taylor and thousands of others who were lynched in America. The perspective of photographs was used to demonstrate that these continued killings are not on the radar for some, are on the periphery for others, and are the lens through which everything is seen for others, which served as a concrete way to demonstrate how culture, identity, and context shape development and learning.
Acknowledging the national election
- Acknowledging election stress
- Frequent reminders to make a plan to vote
- Optional, student-led discussion about the debates and the election
- Condemning white supremacy
- Asynchronous instruction on election day and the day after

I facilitated a workshop on this course redesign process to colleagues at Fairfield University. The presentation slides can be found here. The slides contain hyperlinks to many resources that can help guide course redesign with an equity and anti-racism focus. I hope that all educators can take some time to rest and restore this summer. We have all had a tough, draining year. After some rest, I hope that all mathematics educators will begin to redesign their courses, professional development workshops, and teacher preparation programs to reflect the importance and urgency of equity, access, and anti-racism in mathematics teaching and learning. The time is now.

(If you have additional ideas about equity, access, and anti-racism in elementary mathematics education, please contact me via twitter!)

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (1993). Through the lens of a critical friend. Educational Leadership, 51(2), 49-51.

– Nicole Fletcher [@NicoleSFletcher]

An Israeli and an American Walk into a Bar: Trying to Make Sense of Israeli Politics

Nadav (@EhrenfeldNadav) said he would write something about math ed for this week’s GMD newsletter. However, his mind was busy with the political reality of his home country of Israel (though he’s currently living in Nashville TN). So he asked Brette (@brettegarner) for help, and she thought GMD readers might be interested in hearing more about it.

Here’s what they talked about. (Notes: This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. And Nadav and Brette only speak for themselves and from their own perspective, as they try to learn from each other.)

Nadav: When I asked if you think the GMD teachers would be interested in reading about Israeli politics, you said that you think they probably would. Can you say more about that?

Brette: I get the sense that progressive Americans – myself included – are concerned about Israel and Palestine, but feel like we don’t know enough to make sense of it. There’s a lot of history in the region, and it’s history that we don’t really learn in school. It’s hard to figure out who’s “right” or “wrong” and it always seems more complicated than other disputes. Specifically, these last few weeks have been really troubling and it’s not been easy to understand what happened and how it evolved.

Nadav: That's something I can speak directly to. There is, of course, a lot of historical context, but on a smaller scope, my understanding is that the current political situation within Israel played a main role in how events evolved. Probably more central than in previous rounds of violence. There’s a lot going on, and by the time the GMD newsletter will be published, there might be a new government without Bibi (Prime Minister Netanyahu) or a fifth round of elections in two years.

Brette: Okay, so how did this most recent round of violence start?

Nadav: After the elections of March 2021, Bibi failed to form a government. Then Lapid, the head of opposition, managed to build a coalition of left wing parties, right wing parties, Jews, and Palestinians/Arabs – all committed to replacing Bibi. At the same time, police in Jerusalem were becoming more aggressive towards Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis protestors in Sheikh Jarrah (a neighborhood in Jerusalem where Palestinian families are being evicted from their homes). In the old city of Jerusalem, the police blocked one of the city gates and stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And all of this was happening during Ramadan. So Hamas responded with rockets, which were followed by Israeli air-force attacks on Gaza (where Hamas is headquartered). In addition, there was a terrible wave of civil violence within Israel, between Jewish and Palestinian/Arab citizens of Israel, especially in big mixed cities.

Brette: So you think that was intentional? To bring chaos?

Nadav: I mean, I believe that both Bibi and Hamas gain power from chaos and violence. Probably Bibi didn’t plan for things to go so terribly wrong, but my interpretation is that he was raising tensions in the region to make the point that the new government is impossible.

Brette: Because they represent a variety of perspectives?

Nadav: Yes, because the new government includes right and left, Jews and Palestinians/Arabs. If there’s chaos, public fear is rising, trust for partnerships breaks, and he can stay in power at least through another round of elections. At the same time, Hamas – with their rockets – took credit for defending Jerusalem and kind of took ownership over the growing protest movement in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestine is also supposed to have elections soon, and Hamas can use this to help them keep power in the Palestinian government.

Brette: And did it work for Bibi? Or Hamas?

Nadav: Temporarily it did. At first, the right wing and Palestinian/Arab parties announced that the new partnership was impossible, and that meant Bibi could stay in control at least through another round of elections. But on May 30, they announced that they are reuniting for this effort, so we will see what happens in the next couple of days. It’s going to be an interesting week in Israeli politics. The downside of this government, being so eclectic, is that it would explicitly preserve the status quo with regards to the occupation and a two state solution. On the other hand, they would be positioned much better than current government, I hope, to address problems of discrimination and structural racism against Palestinian/Arab citizens of Israel within the country.

Brette: Which is good but not working towards an overall solution.

Nadav: Right. Yes. Another possible source of hope are civil movements. I mean, we’ve seen their power in the US, and it seems like the May events opened some new opportunities for growth of grassroots movements. For example, I hear more and more about organizations like @omdimbeyachad and @Sikkuy, who are working to advance justice and partnership between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They explicitly move away from talking about general “coexistence” and instead they talk about partnering for action, so that they can confront specific issues like Sheikh Jarrah, police violence, and other forms of discrimination. My sense and my hope is that these kinds of partnerships and mutual movements can become a serious civil power. So I guess the whole concept of “two sides” doesn’t really tell the full story as I’m experiencing it these days. Both in terms of electoral politics, with Palestinian/Arab parties potentially in the coalition, and in terms of grassroots movements. But I’m curious to hear how this speaks back to American perspectives on the conflict.

Brette: My read is that, in the past, Israel was the one thing that Americans could agree on, especially after 9/11 and the rise in Islamophobia. It was unquestioned, unequivocal support from politicians in both parties – like yes, we are with Israel, and they are our allies in the Middle East. Then in the last year or so, a few things came together: 1) More mainstream acceptance of and support for the Black Lives Matter movement, especially among liberal whites. And 2) left-wing Democrats, like Rashida Talib and the rest of the squad, speaking out about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and racist laws against Palestinians — that seemed to push the left side of the Democratic Party away from just unequivocally supporting Israel.

Nadav: Yeah, and probably Bibi and Trump’s partnership was also a trigger?

Brette: Yeah that’s the third thing: Because Bibi and Trump were so close, that raised some skepticism for Democrats. And it also helped differentiate between disagreeing with Israel (and, like, its existence) and disagreeing with Israeli policies and politicians. It’s like we realized that Israel isn’t synonymous with Bibi any more than the US is synonymous with Trump. So now it seems like progressive Americans are starting to see Palestine as the good guys and Israel as the bad guys – which is a reversal of how it’s been for the last 20 years or so. But that's still rooted in the two sides being Israel vs. Palestine – one must be good and one must be bad. But what I’m hearing from you is that there are people on both sides who are in favor of chaos, violence, and fear. And there are people on both sides in favor of partnership, reconciliation, and peace.

Nadav: Interesting. I’m still trying to make sense of American activist conversations about Israel, but yes, it is definitely important to recognize the variety of perspectives and subgroups within each side. And how that’s the basis for partnerships across “sides.” I wonder if that’s a nuance that is missing.

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