Elementary Problem of the Week:
Mentors

A biography of the current Visiting Math Mentor(s) will appear with the Elementary Problem of the Week Web page each week. Photographs and links to school Web pages may be included when available.

II.  Contact Person

Lisa Lavelle (LLL)
lllavelle@hotmail.com
Maret School
3000 Cathedral Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
202/939-8803 X4034

Classes or individuals who are mentors will need to have access to the Internet during the week(s) they are mentoring. A new Web interface has been designed to aid in managing the submissions and responses. (A word of caution: when there are many responses, the week can involve a good deal of work.)

Mentors have included classes of elementary, middle, and high school students with their teachers; pre-service teachers; college students and professors; retirees who like problem solving and interacting with young children; and others with a love of mathematics and a willingness to share their experience with elementary school students.

III.  What will my students gain from mentoring?

We have found that after a class assesses the work of other students, its own members' subsequent explanations improve. Mentoring can help all levels of students to learn self-assessment.

IV.  Responsibilities of Visiting Math Mentors

Need more ideas for implementing this in your classroom? Read some comments from former Mentors.

V.  Other help needed

  Lisa Lavelle lllavelle@hotmail.com:

    Last year, after showing my students the web site, I asked them to bring in some clever problems they either created themselves or had fun with in the past. I asked that they be problems they thought would intrigue students in elementary school. About half the students in each of the classes (I led mentoring for two different weeks) brought in problems. We then got into groups of three or four and critiqued the problems. The entire class voted after the critique, and we submitted our top three choices to Ruth, giving her options in case she thought our favorite would be too difficult (see December 9-13, 1996 for our top choice).

    Next, each student took home the chosen problem to work out on their own. The next day in class, we discussed the solution and how we had each arrived at it. This included a discussion of what was needed for a correct answer and what we might look for to consider highlighting a solution.

    As solutions came in the next week, I doled them out to my students to begin composing responses. I scheduled a day in the computer lab later in the week when most of the solutions had come in to give them time to respond, and I also lightened up on the homework assignments that week anticipating that they would need a little extra time to wrap up their responses.

    My job was to cut and paste responses, create a list of correct participants, and prepare the highlighted solutions section (a job that is no longer necessary because of the new software we are using). During this process, I also did a little editing of a few of my students' responses and gave them grades based on their responses and participation outlined above. Most of them did very well with only a few not giving complete responses or turning in their responses in an untimely fashion. The grade was approximately equivalent to a third of a test.

    We had a lot of fun, and it was a great way for me to see some talents I hadn't seen before. I learned a lot about the assessment process, as did my students, and I'm looking forward to mentoring again this year.

  Gail Lauinger glauinge@mcn.org:

    Last year my fifth graders solved the problem the week before it appeared. Then I gave each group copies of the responses submitted (less than 10) and each group did a three pile sort. They then wrote criteria for the best solution, needs work, not there piles. The best became our rubric which we posted along with the best solutions. The class then wrote to each respondant. They were disappointed in that they didn't get any acknowledgement back from any group.

    This was a wonderful opportunity for them to discuss work that was not done by anyone in our class. We do anonymous reads but they always recognize styles within the class so the discussions are constrained.