What a verb? Verbs actions and states of being, and arguably the most important part of a sentence. Without verbs, a sentence just a bunch of words!
See? Important.
This week, we discovered that the grade 9 mathematics curriculum has no shortage of verbs. During the first portion of our activity, we highlighted all of the verbs within the specific expectations of a mathematics unit. This took quite a while, even with breaking the unit into sections for each of us in the group. In order to visualize the occurrence rates of each verb, our group graphed the results (see the figure below). This activity "highlighted" just how many, and how often each verb was used.
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Why? Well, it should be rather obvious that the writers of the curriculum place a significant importance on verbs. They are there to provide educators with guidance.
What does this mean? During the debriefing portion of the lesson, we discussed how verbs describe the route of engagement to the curriculum for students. Again, they are there to guide teachers through the curriculum and how it should be accessed by the students.
What implications does this have on me? This notion really resonated with me. When reading the curriculum documents in the past, the verbs tend to be almost subliminal as the content jumps to the forefront. For example:
"Determine, through investigation, the relationship for calculating the surface area of a pyramid"
For the me in the past, this may have simply read "teach the students how to calculate the surface area of a pyramid", which is completely wrong. Think of all of the different ways that message could be interpreted. What if I had just given a traditional lecture on how to calculate the surface area of a pyramid, then passed out a work sheet with several questions asking them to solve the surface area of various pyramids. What would the students determine? Where is the investigation? What relationships would they be able to determine? Most, if not all of the actual intentions of the expectation are lost by skimming the document for "content".
Final Reflection. The verbs describe how the students should be taught, not just what they should be taught. This lesson really opened my eyes to the importance of analyzing the curriculum documents, not just to understand what I am supposed to teach, but how my students should be engaging the content.
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the importance of acknowledging the verbs used in curriculum documents to describe how our students will be engaging in mathematics. Specifically, I appreciated your comment on how the intentions of the expectation can actually get lost when too much focus is put on strictly delivering content. After our analysis of the curriculum, I was amazed at how many ways students are interacting with mathematics! The verb count most definitely provides plenty of room for engagement.
Great post!
Interesting and insightful evaluation surrounding the importance of the verbs that were brought up throughout the analysis of the Mathematics curriculum!
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that it is important to better understand the methods behind the teaching/delivery of a specific mathematics concept, rather than focusing solely on the content itself. The more we steer away from a content specific mentality, the more possibilities for classroom engagement in mathematics will arise.
Enjoyable post to read!
Hey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your thoughts on the verbs within the curriculum documents and the implications they have for us as educators when designing lessons. I like how you used the word "subliminal" to describe them, as they sort of stick out in the walls of text for some of the specific expectations that can be rather broad. I have definitely felt more confident with reading and understanding the curriculum documents this year as well.
Thanks for the post!