Katie: Do you remember what a digit is?

Student: A digit is a [inaudible] number–

Student: I didn’t– I only did the coins.

Sarah: Because we do Math Clinics everybody can talk about what’s going on in the problem, and how do you solve it.

Teacher: So it has to be five.

Johanny: Try it again.

Sarah: All students have a chance to have a conversation with a teacher and really talk about what the math means.

Katie: Why do we have three groups?

Student: When the number’s bigger than ten.

Katie: That’s right.

Sarah: Amigos is a two-way immersion school for students. All of the instruction we do here at Amigos is both in Spanish and English. Our student community is made up of all types of learners. We have high expectations for all of our students. We want them to have a rigorous educational experience, each and every one of them, regardless of their background or what they’re coming into the classroom with.

Katie: I can apply.

Class: I can apply.

Katie: What I know.

Class: What I know.

Katie: About place value.

Class: About place value.

Sarah: The goal of a math clinic is really to support students in a way that’s a little bit more flexible than a typical math class. We are really looking to make sure that all of our kiddos push their conceptual knowledge of math.

Katie: We meet once a week for 45 minutes. We gather all the students to do something sort of different than what the curriculum normally presents. It’s really an opportunity to work with the kids in heterogenous groups.

Teacher: Today we’re going to talk about digits!

Teacher: Digit is just a fancy word for number, right?

Teacher: Not exactly.

Teacher: With digits we can just write a seven!

Sarah: We’re trying to bring in things like math read-alouds. And other literacy connections, activities and games that get kids to really think about math, and not just in the structured lesson.

Student: Why did a person in the book said, “It’s a lower number, one-hundred?”

Katie: But it’s a big number for us.

Teacher: But it’s a big number! A hundred’s a big number! How can it be the smallest? Is that what you’re asking?

Student: Yeah.

Teacher: Yeah, we’re going to talk about that in our groups.

Katie: We’ll see.

Teacher: Go!

Student: No.

Student: Yes, I am!

Student: Only thirteen.

Katie: Only thirteen. How’d you get that?

Student: Because that’s ten, and that’s three; it makes 13.

Katie: And try 24.

Johanny: We have just three or four teachers that are there to talk to each and every one of the students specifically on what they need.

Boden: We usually do it on a whiteboard. It’s kind of just like seeing it in different forms. So sometimes we’ll draw like diagrams and stuff. Just kind of look at it from different ways.

Boden: Oh, I just took out the parentheses.

Teacher: Well, [speaking Spanish].

Camila: If there’s anything I didn’t understand in math class, then I can do it here, and there’s a lot more people helping, rather than just teaching.

Johanny: We use a checklist for two purposes. We want to make sure that we check with all students. We also on the checklist, I write the concepts that we’re looking for. I will put in sometimes, “Confused about multiplication,” or, “Is still thinking about ratios.” And then when the other teachers come in, I can usually say, “Here’s what we’re doing. I want you to talk to this one, this one, and that one, make sure they’re clear. And this one is still really confused.”

Student: Percentage.

Johanny: I’m so impressed.

Sarah: So what were you thinking?

Sarah: One of the most exciting things for me is to just see the engagement increase, and to have a student in the Math Clinic group that’s not participating as much, whether that’s a confidence issue, or just needs a little bit of support.

Student: Ten plus six equals seventy.

Teacher: Ten plus six, or is it one– go ahead, I know you–

Student: Ten plus sixty equals seventy.

Teacher: Okay.

Student: And–

Sarah: And then that voice starts to contribute a little bit more each week.

Student: Oh, should we put one? No. Is this the answer?

Teacher: Oh! Let’s look again!

Sarah: They’re able to express and show not only me, but their classmates, which is really important. Their ideas, their thinking, the way they’re looking at things. And so that they can learn from one another, which is critical.

Katie: It gets tricky.

Student: I’m doomed!

Katie: Are you ready? You’re not doomed! [laughter]

Student: A play has two stars.

Katie: Mm, she knows. What’s it say?

Student: Write.

Katie: Over here, we’re on this one now. Right?

Student: Write three different digits…

Schools That Work

Amigos School