All Things Being Equal (John Mighton)

 

I'd really like to meet John Mighton one day or hear him speak in person to see if he is as effusive about teaching math in person as I perceive him to be from his books. This is the third book of his that I have read. I find his enthusiasm to be quite contagious. It seems weird to say, but I really enjoyed reading this math book!

I've been teaching JUMP for a few years and this was a really good refresher. I've been hearing people say some things lately (JUMP means you can JUMP from one lesson to another, or the practice and review book is something you can skip, if you want, for example) that were not ringing true for me. Reading this book, I feel like I'm back to the groundedness of JUMP. His philosophy really does fit well with our school's version of direct instruction. I especially appreciated his list of principles of effective instruction:

1. Begin a lesson with a short review of previous lessons.

2. Present new material in small steps with sufficient practice after each step.

3. Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students.

4. Provide models.

5. Guide student practice.

6. Check for understanding.

7. Obtain a high success rate.

8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.

9. Require and monitor independent practice.

10. Engage students in weekly and monthly review.

Barak Rosenshine, "Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know," American Educator 36, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 12.

I really like the idea of weekly and monthly reviews. I could do well to start that practice Barak Rosenshine suggests reviewing the previous week's work every Monday and the month's work the last Monday of the month. 

The End of Ignorance (John Mighton)

 

John Mighton is the creator of the JUMP program - a math program we use in our school. I have read other books he has written and am confident that he is on to a good thing. Reading this has made me want to re-dedicate myself to digging deeper into the lessons I teach each day in math. 

When I am reading this book, I'm always thinking of other areas of life I could apply these concepts...like Come Follow Me or seminary lessons. 

Goodreads says:

A revolutionary call for a new understanding of how people learn.

The End of Ignorance conceives of a world in which no child is left behind – a world based on the assumption that each child has the potential to be successful in every subject. John Mighton argues that by recognizing the barriers that we have experienced in our own educational development, by identifying the moment that we became disenchanted with a certain subject and forever closed ourselves off to it, we will be able to eliminate these same barriers from standing in the way of our children.

A passionate examination of our present education system, The End of Ignorance shows how we all can work together to reinvent the way that we are taught.

John Mighton, the author of The Myth of Ability, is the founder of JUMP Math, a system of learning based on the fostering of emergent intelligence. The program has proved so successful an entire class of Grade 3 students, including so-called slow learners, scored over 90% on a Grade 6 math test. A group of British children who had effectively been written off as too unruly responded so enthusiastically and had such impressive results using the JUMP method that the school board has adopted the program. Inspired by the work he has done with thousands of students, Mighton shows us why we must not underestimate how much ground can be covered one small step at a time, and challenges us to re-examine the assumptions underlying current educational theory. He pays attention to how kids pay attention, chronicles what captures their imaginations, and explains why their sense of self-confidence and ability to focus are as important to their academic success at school as the content of their lessons.

Favorite quotes:

p. 98 Adults think that repetition is tedious, so they fail to give children the practice they need to consolidate their understanding of skills and concepts. Adults think that familiar facts are boring, so they seldom ever give children enough time to explore those facts. Adults think that extending an obvious pattern is pointless, so they don't allow children to test that a pattern goes on forever, nor do they allow them to demonstrate their amazing ability to handle more and more complex variations on a simple theme. Adults rarely raise the bar for children very effectively or capture their attention in mathematics, because they don't know how to see the world through the eyes of children.