I was watching a math class today. The students were in grades 4 through 7. They were given a story
problem to solve, and after they worked on it for a while, they met with a partner to discuss their
strategies. Then the teacher asked, “Who wants to explain how you solved this?” All of their hands shot
up. All of them.
Even though I have been watching these kids grow over the years, and even though I’ve seen this
before, it kind of surprised me. All hands up—with some students so eager that they were almost
bouncing out of their seats. This is not how math class goes in a typical upper elementary or middle
school classroom on the 5 th day of school. The students eagerly explained how they thought about the
problem. They talked about using efficient strategies to find the solution. And they genuinely enjoyed
math class.
Their enjoyment didn’t come from the ease of the problem. It wasn’t easy. Their enjoyment came from
the exhilarating feeling of taking on a difficult challenge and finding success.
Their success wasn’t built in the four days of school they had prior to this day. It was built on years of
work: building a foundation, practicing different ways of solving problems, and using critical thinking
skills.
When I was a student, I found it difficult to retain information and skills over a summer break. This is
common. We educators call it the “summer slide.” It is expected at the beginning of the school year. But
something different is happening this year. The kids are remembering. Not just following steps, but truly
understanding and remembering what they are doing.
For teachers, this is exciting. We can move on to higher skills and concepts instead of taking a lot of time
to review what was taught last year. The first few weeks or months of school are often a time for
reminding students what they learned the previous year. When they retain the skills they already
learned, we can build on these skills rather than reconstructing them.
We are finding the same results in their writing. Usually, it takes a while to get into the “swing of
things,” but their writing--even this early in the year--amazes me. Last week, the students watched a
short video, and then they were asked to write a few sentences about it. This was a quick assessment so
that we know what writing skills they retained over the summer. Here are some samples of their work:
“Piper, the juvenile sandpiper, learned how to locate more food by burying herself into the wet sand.”
–Beth, grade 5
“Forced out of her comfort zone from hunger, the young bird, Piper, learned to collect food with a new
strategy.” –Ella, grade 6
“The small sandpiper, Piper, learned a new way of finding food and shielding herself from waves when
she was hungry.” –DJ, grade 6
Our students are not perfect writers, but we are excited to see how well they are already doing. Because
they have retained the skills they learned last year, we are able to take them to a new level in their
writing.