By Jamie Duncan, posted November 21, 2016 —

Have you wondered what you might learn from a primary teacher, or just a teacher who teaches a younger grade than you in general? I thought I would begin asking my colleagues on Twitter about their experiences. Much to my surprise, Marilyn Burns responded. 

Dumbfounded, I asked Ms. Burns if she could elaborate. She shared, “I was teaching eighth grade and visited a third-grade class my friend was teaching. I’m not sure I changed my practice immediately, but it was a beginning. I had been teaching about five years when I had this experience.” Marilyn was so kind that she even called me so we could talk more about this!

(Yep, that’s right. Marilyn Burns called me to elaborate on her experience.) This conversation had my mind spinning. I’ve attended numerous sessions by Marilyn Burns at conferences, and I’ve watched many, many videos of her interviewing students. Just about every time, she focuses on the thinking of the student. So, I mused, this attention that she gives to student thinking was influenced by an elementary school teacher, and it may have been the beginning of her shift in pedagogy that now leads math teachers across the nation. Hmm. That’s worth a pause.

Dan Allen shared with me that “as a former high school math teacher, working in younger grades has really influenced the way I look at secondary mathematics. Working on a continuum of concrete to diagrammatic to abstract—I think high school teachers jump too quickly to ‘efficient’ abstract representations without laying the foundation in concrete understanding. I now value concrete representations much more and have students who jump to the abstract try to go to the concrete for their solutions. In many cases, the geometric solution to a problem is far more elegant than the algebraic. A lot of high school teachers forget these pieces because their world is mostly algebra and formulae.”

At NCTM’s Annual Conference in San Francisco, Andrew Stadel also shared the same sentiment: Previously he had not given enough value to the concrete. Providing opportunities for students to use concrete models is a strength of many primary-grade teachers.

Also, Tracy Zager gave a wonderful keynote at Twitter Math Camp last summer from an elementary perspective. She does such a wonderful job sharing about what happens when we all set aside our insecurities and “play math” together.

I have been so lucky to learn from teachers of older grades. With so many of them learning from us, it’s nice to know that, in some way, we are repaying the favor.

Editor’s note

This is the final in a series of blog posts by Jamie Duncan. Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2.

Jamie Duncan has served as a classroom teacher for fifteen years. She is a master learning facilitator in her classroom engaging all students in the Standards for Mathematical Practice through 3-Act Tasks, facilitating meaningful discourse, Number Talks, and building procedural fluency from a foundation of conceptual understanding. Jamie is a contributor to math educators around the nation through the Math Twitter Blogosphere (MTBoS). She writes at www.elementarymathaddict.com, where she shares her learning journey and works together with teachers from across the globe. Her passion for meaningful learning has led her to present for her school district, the California Math Council–South, and NCTM’s Annual Conference. She is interested in learning more about student thinking and how that grows to mathematical fluency.