Eight Mentors, a mix of pre-service and in-service teachers, will begin the mentoring phase of the Making Math Meaningful (M3) project that began in October 2021. These Mentors will tutor 6-7th grade students who are struggling with understanding mathematical concepts after school throughout Spring 2022.
The Mentors received 16 hours of direct instruction from PIMSER director Dr. Kim Zeidler-Watters and Regional Teacher Partner Renee’ Yates throughout the fall 2021 semester. This professional learning concluded with a full-day training on an intervention module, developed by PIMSER leadership, that will be used with the middle school students in their tutoring sessions. The Mentors will receive ongoing one-on-one support each week from the project leadership team; Mentors will share successes from their sessions and receive guidance for planning future sessions throughout the spring.
This project is the work of a two-year grant that PIMSER received from The Steele-Reese Foundation to increase student understanding of number computation/skills in middle school students who are at least one grade level below in that area. The project involves collaboration between Mentors and PIMSER Master Teachers to learn appropriate math-specific instructional strategies and common naïve understanding students hold in number computation/skills and learn how to facilitate and plan for growth mindset dispositions in students.