Uppers Update - More than the Math

In 6th grade math we are not just learning new math concepts, but also learning about our learning styles. With a small group of 5, every learner gets a chance to say their thinking out loud, and at length. The work we get into these days focuses on ratio, and that alone is enough to elicit long stories of comparison to things in our own lives. Once, when discussing a new lens called algebraic thinking as we examined a ratio as an equation, and how when we do something to one side, we have to do the exact same to the other, a student made a comment "Oh that's just like my little sister. Any time I get something she wants that same something. Even if it's something she doesn't like." Immediately others chimed in with their stories of younger siblings exhibiting the exact same behavior. Suddenly math was personal. It was felt and connected in a visceral way that (hopefully) means a more cemented bit of learning in the brain. 

Another sweet spot of the small group is the attention we can pay to the same learning moment. As each student comes up with ideas of permutations of the ratios we are examining, the ideas can just be drawn out and examined on the table in front of us. Here in this picture, everyone created ratios for amounts of sodium in an energy drink. Then, as we explored and spelled out what each ratio really meant in terms that we could mathematically approximate, answers became clear to everyone. Perhaps most important, the students who typically see themselves as proficient and eager math learners, and those who don't feel so confident, were all equally participating and listening. Their distinctions dissolved away just like the sodium in the drinks!