Mr. Vern Williams to PWCS
Board 5-21-08
"Well,
thanks
for allowing me to speak, and it should definitely be less than ten
minutes. Before I read the
comments, I’d like to mention that I should update my resume. I’ve been,
I believe this is the 36th
year that I’ve been teaching in Fairfax County. I decided to become a teacher when I was in junior high,
back then, now they’re called middle schools I guess. And the teachers were so fantastic at that time, that I
decided I wanted to be like them and have been doing it for 36 years and I’ve
loved every second of it.
In fact
the first 23 years, I didn’t miss a day of school. The first day of school I missed was the week that my mom
passed and (I) have missed very few since then. Now this National Math Panel thing sort of put a dent it
that. They had me all over the
country for a couple years but just wanted to let you know that I absolutely
love teaching and am pretty impressed with what I’ve heard from you today.
So
here is my presentation.
During my tenure on a National
Mathematics Panel, I heard testimony from many sources, including parents,
teachers, textbook publishers, college presidents, mathematicians, technology
specialists, and a host of researchers.
I also listened to and learned from the other panel
members, even though
at times, we had varying opinions on many topics. One item that we all seem to agree on from the start was the
need for focused, coherent K-8 mathematics curriculum leading up to
algebra. We were tasked with
determining the critical foundations for success in an authentic algebra
course. Skip Fennel, NCTM
President, at the time headed up the Conceptual Knowledge & Skills Task
Group. He along with
Mathematicians and researchers on the panel suggested a list of algebra topics
and the critical foundations necessary for learning those topics. As a practicing middle-school
Mathematics teacher of 35 years, my input was valued heavily by Skip Fennel’s
Task Group. After two years of
peering over many reams of research, the panel reached conclusions that I had
always assumed were no brainers.
For instance, students need to use and understand
the standard
algorithms in order to succeed in grasping the critical foundations leading up
to and including the topics of algebra.
This is my own opinion here.
If one cannot make use of the division algorithm,
it is highly unlikely
that they will be able to understand and perform division of polynomials, nor
will they be able to solve higher-level equations. Your Mathematics program should require fluency with the
standard algorithms for addition and subtraction, multiplication and
division. Fluent use of the
algorithms not only depends on the automatic recall of number facts but also
reinforces it. Your math program
should also require that students have proficiency with whole numbers,
fractions, and particular aspects of geometry and measurement, which will be
found in of course the NMP report.
Our students’ proficiency with fractions seems
to be presently lacking
in many classrooms. Your task is
to select Mathematics curricula that will allow your teachers to teach the
critical foundations of algebra so that students will be prepared for an
authentic algebra course, not just an algebra course in name only. You need to adopt
focused coherent
textbooks that students, parents and teachers all understand and at the very
minimum, I suggest that you allow your individual school faculties and their
students a choice in textbook and teaching methods.
I
served on the
Instructional Practices Task Group and one of our main findings was that all
encompassing recommendations that instruction should be entirely student
centered or teacher directed are not supported by research. If such recommendations
exist, they
should be rescinded; if they are being considered, they should be avoided. High quality research
does not support
the exclusive use of either approach.
I suggest that you offer Mathematics programs and
textbooks that will
not force teachers to exclusively use one type of instruction.
During
my
35-year teaching career, I have always had the following minimum expectation
for even an average textbook.
I
would assign myself, if I were looking at a textbook and evaluating it; I would
assign myself a topic to learn.
I
would find that topic in the textbook and pretend that I was a student or
teacher who had a weak background on that particular topic and I would ask
myself these questions:
Was the
presentation of the topic in the textbook focused and coherent enough for me to
adequately learn the material?
Were there clearly written non-infested examples? In other words, where the math comes
out loud and clear. Were there
enough practice problems of varying levels and were they actually related to
the topic? At a minimum, a
Mathematics textbook should possess the above traits and should also cover the
critical foundations found in the National Math Panel Report. And that’s
it."
Chairman Johns-
Thank
you
very much Mr. Williams.
Board
members, we are going to allow about five minutes or so for questions since the
presentation was less than ten.
Mr. Latin.
Grant Lattin-
"Mr.
Williams, I
just want to tell you how much respect I have for a man who has spent 36 years
teaching middle school, I just have so much respect for what you have done."
Vern Williams-
Before
you
continue, I need to tell you that whenever a neighbor or anyone else find out
that I teach middle school period, they want to buy me something, just cry for
me, anything they can do.
Grant Lattin-
"I
have a couple
of questions and I really appreciate your insight. Have you, especially with Gifted and Talented students, and
you’ve been teaching them for so many years... It has been my own experience that they’re with that group
that a textbook is certainly useful but there are many other supplemental
materials that a good teacher uses when they’re teaching math. Is that an accurate
statement?"
Vern Williams-
"Absolutely,
absolutely. Many people may peg me
as a traditional stand up at the blackboard and feed math to students type of
teacher but when you walk into my classroom, you’ll find that I teach varying,
that I have varying teaching styles depending on the material and of course,
the students so there are some gifted students who have impeccable math
backgrounds, that I can say go home and play with this problem for a couple
of hours and
hopefully invent a way of doing it but on the other hand, if I’m teaching
someone how to add fractions, I don’t want anyone inventing anything. I want to actually
teach the concept
and then they can take that concept and apply it to some of these high level
problems that I do with the gifted kids.
But you’re right it’s a whole different
world."
Grand Lattin-
"So
if you had a
textbook that kind of focused more in one direction, on conceptual things, then
you’d probably be supplementing it with some of the more traditional methods
and or vice versa, if you had a textbook that leaned to heavily in one
direction, then you’d probably be bringing in conceptual, in other words?"
Vern Williams-
"If
I had a
textbook that leaned more towards conceptual, I would want my students to be
already prepared in the basic material so that they will have something that
will allow them to handle these concepts.
In other words, you can’t just do higher level
concepts without some
kind of arithmetic background because the arithmetic background allows you and
helps you to make these mental leaps so I really would not feel safe with a
textbook the strictly went towards the conceptual."
Grant Lattin-
"And
if you had
one, what would you do?"
Vern Williams-
"If
I had one, I
would sneak under the table and find a textbook that wasn’t of that ilk and
make sure that my students had the basics and use both of them."
Grant Lattin-
"Would
you focus
on a textbook or there’s lots of other materials besides textbooks?"
Vern Williams-
"Well,
in spite
of what people say about textbooks not controlling the curriculum or really
setting the tone for the curriculum, they do. There is no doubt about it, especially for the newer
teachers. You look at that
textbook as your guide and if the textbook is focusing a certain way, you tend
to focus that way. Now, I’ve been
teaching long enough that in fact with some of my classes, I don’t even use a
textbook but if I had to use a textbook."
Grant Lattin-
"And
by the way,
I think that’s really typical of really good teachers, isn’t it?"
Vern Williams-
"I
can teach
without a textbook whenever, it doesn’t matter what the course. But if I had to have
a textbook, I want
one that I could look at and find some kind of focus. For instance, math teachers in general, there is so much
math out there that if I don’t teach calculus, and I don’t, I’m not going to
remember all the calculus that I was taught. So if I want to do some cool concept with a really bright
eighth grader and its really more of a calculus concept
and I need to go back and revisit that
concept, I want a calculus textbook where I can find the concept and it’s
focused, it’s well explained, it’s well presented. I don’t want a story about giraffes if I’m looking to go
back and review a calculus concept and if I were learning it for the first
time, I would especially need that focus."
Grant Lattin-
"I
have one other
question, and I really appreciate your insight as a middle school teacher on
this question because it is something that has troubled me quite a bit and that
is, in 2005-2006, that was the first year that middle schools were given an SOL
in math at grade 7 and I’m looking at the Virginia SOL results and your county
which was the best county in the state was a 60% pass rate at 7th grade math
and the state pass rate was 44% so I’m wondering, what were we doing wrong that
would not allow us to pass at a rate that is a failing rate by any measure. I’m wondering
why you think we did so
poorly on those SOLs in 7th grade math."
Vern Williams-
"Well
it was the
first year, and I remember the first couple of years when we administered the
SOLs period, how dismal the scores were.
And I believe one reason why they were so dismal
is that many people
thought they were going to go away and that we really didn’t need to prepare
the students for them if we just wait it out it was going to go away. And I think now,
the 6th & 7th grade
teachers are going to concentrate a lot more on preparing students for the SOLs
at that level. Prior to then, we
only had to worry about the SOLs for the 8th graders and I hate to use the word
worrying because I think it’s a good indication of how the students are
doing. I know there are, well let
me put it this way, the SOLs I think are probably too low level, but at least
there is a floor. All right, at
least there IS a floor.
I know
that a kid can at least do the bare minimum. So all the people who are against the SOLs, at least it
reports something. Prior to SOLs,
we of course had the POS but the POS didn’t at one time, well I’m thinking
Fairfax County. Sorry about that;
they had a Program of Studies, and prior to the SOLs the Program of Studies was
just something that you tested the kids on but the test meant nothing, only the
classroom teacher saw it.
So, I
think because there is a product to achieve now, there is an end result to
achieve. I don’t care how low
level it is, I think teachers are more prone to do some real teaching."
Chairman Johns-
"Thank
you
Mr. Williams, we appreciate your presentation. We appreciate your comments tonight. We definitely would invite you to come
back for our Math Investigations work session. Board members we’re out of time."
(Dr. Otaigbe expressed
interest in asking a question as well, Chairman Johns asked for board consent
and it was given.)
Dr. Otaigbe-
"Thank
you. I’d just like to seize this opportunity
to thank you for coming to speak to us tonight. I really appreciate it. I think when we talk about success in math, we talk about
books, we talk about whether the books are the correct books, but the two
elephants in the
room,
do we have a motivated student and family involvement. I just wanted you
to comment on that
from your honest feelings. "
Vern Williams-
"I think
that in this day
and age, we’re giving students too much of an excuse not to be motivated. When
I was in Elementary and Junior
High, I was told by my parents and my teachers, that I had to work five times
harder to get the same job as some other people were going to get and that part
of your job was to go to school and learn. Whether it’s fun, that is a bonus, but that’s your job. The Asian students
seem to do that and
they go to our schools, they have the same teachers, they use the same
textbooks, but somehow, that intrinsic motivation is there. And I always tell
the Asian parents; it
was like that for everyone here when I was growing up. And I think we need
to get that
back. I don’t know exactly how to
get it back but I can tell you with my students, I set an example myself; I’m
excited about math. I’m
motivated. I make sure I take care
of them and I expect them to do their job. If you’re going to have an exciting math course, part of it
has to come from you.
If I give you
homework that is going to take an hour, you can’t tell me about your soccer
game. You have to actually buy
into it. And I think if we do more
of that instead of giving excuses about our horrible school system is causing
you problems that the student has to be a part of buying into the system
also."
Chairman Johns-
"Thank you
very much Mr.
Williams."
