New Pre-K approach to math adds up
2 UB researchers report successes
Pre-K teacher Lara Lozo asked her young pupils what the four-sided polygon pictured on the classroom carpet was.
Five-year-old Jaylin Mixon wasn’t quite sure of the answer.
“It’s a diamond,” she responded. Lozo wanted to know the “big girl” name for the shape. “A rhombus,” Jaylin proudly answered.
A recent study found that Buffalo Pre-K students like Jaylin at the Stanley G. Makowski School performed 50 percent better last year on standardized math assessments because of a new curriculum design by UB researchers.
Those youngsters taught with the new approach, called Building Blocks, fared better than pupils at city schools who were taught with traditional methods.
The difference between the old and new approach is in the method of instruction, said Professor Douglas Clements, who created the program with Associate Professor Julie Sarama at the University at Buffalo.
Instead of memorization, Building Blocks teachers encourage pupils to find the reasons behind shapes and numbers, and teach math throughout the day instead of during one class period, Clements said. The teachers also emphasize counting throughout life, such as observing the number of stop signs on the way home from school.
Parents are kept up to date on the weekly progress of their child and are encouraged to help at home as well. Proficient math instruction must start as early as possible, or else pupils will fall behind, Clements said.
“Our culture does not support math all that well,” he said. “This program helps provide a more equal emphasis on both math and literacy in the early childhood years.”
In the study, two different groups of randomly selected Pre-K children in the district were mathematically assessed through personal interviews in the fall of 2006 and again in the spring of 2007. Those pupils who received the traditional math program scored on average 100 points better at the end of the year than at the start, while those who were taught the Building Blocks program scored about 150 points better.
Because of the success of the trial, Building Blocks approach will be implemented district-wide this fall at the prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade levels, district spokesperson Stefan Mychajliw said.
The results of the program, funded by a $7.2 million grant from the U. S. Department of Education, were apparent in Lozo’s classroom of 4 and 5 year olds. One pupil strung together a necklace in a pattern of two red beads followed by one blue bead; others played with blocks that taught them the number sequence.
Lozo said math skills in her class increased dramatically once the curriculum was implemented in 2005. She said that the kindergarten and first grade instructors who received her former pupils have noticed the difference as well.
“The expectations for them are way up,” Lozo said. “It really teaches their brains to think mathematically.”
Clements and Sarama, learning and instruction professors, based the program on an educational model called TRIAD, which includes increased development for teachers and schools.
Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams said the new approach is important in helping Buffalo students to excel.
“How are we going to look 20 years from now? What do you want those youngsters to be like?” Williams said. “The parents must also be an integral part of the learning process.”
