Graduation Speech Literature Review - 1648 Words

Literature Review â€Å"In the end, all learners need your energy, your heart, and your mind. They have that in common because they are young humans. How they need you, however, differs. Unless we understand and respond to those differences, we fail many leaners† (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 15). In the beginning of the year, my students and I got through the highly anticipated first few days of school full of expectations, community builders, and fun, when I quickly learned I had a classroom of â€Å"math haters.† When I surveyed my class, I found out the majority of my students thought math was boring and hard, and there was a strong dislike of math. While I collected my own data on them as well, via grades and watching how they worked, I realized†¦show more content†¦Math workshop is a flexible structure for math instruction that involves a mini lesson, independent practice, stations, and reflection. I knew I wanted, needed, to implement math workshop into my classroom. Heuser’s three year study supported my passion to implement math workshop as his outcomes resulted in outperformance compared to nonworkshop classrooms (Heuser, 2000, p. 36). As I began my researching further, I realized there are many different avenues to take when implementing math workshop. Sammons’ (2010) view on math workshop is as follows: â€Å"Math Workshop is a versatile structure that accommodates a vast array of learning activities. Its flexibility is one of its greatest advantages† (p.184). Heuser (2000) has found much success meeting the needs of his learners in science and math using the workshop model. â€Å"This success can foster an understanding in those who want to move from one-size-fits-all math and science instructional models to a model in which children in all different states of development can succeed and learn† (p. 36-37). As my research continued, I realized math workshop would not be beneficial just because students are different but because students need different support and instructional methods with each skill and point in development of the skill. The workshop