The Care Gap: How Math Creates it and How We Can Use Math to Close It PDF Free Download
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Geoff Krall
●Math Teacher in Fort Worth & Austin,
TX
●Author of Necessary Conditions: How
to Teach Secondary Math with
Academic Safety, Quality Tasks, and
Effective Facilitation
●Master’s degree in Atmospheric Science
for some reason (Colorado State
University)
●Withdrew from two separate PhD
program (both in Colorado)
●Giving it a go in a third PhD Program
(University of Wyoming)
5-4-3-2-1 Mindfulness Activity
Take 3 deep breaths
Notice 5 things you see
Notice 4 things you can feel
Notice 3 things you can hear
Notice 2 things you can smell
Notice 1 thing you can taste
● “You (are) stupid!!”
● “Stop raising your hand, you’re
wrong almost every time”
● “You won’t ever be anything”
● “Math is not your strong suit”
● “Man, I wish I was good at math.”
● “Not my favorite subject.”
● “If you don’t get this, you’re slow.’
Silhouette Activity
Gholson, M. L., & Robinson, D. D. (2019). Restoring Mathematics Identities of Black Learners: A
Curricular Approach. Theory Into Practice, 58(4), 347–358.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1626620
Academic
Identity
Strategy #1:
Awareness
Ask questions at your school and in your district
○Who is falling through the care gap?
○What are the demographics of our honors/AP
courses?
○What is the discipline rate for Black boys and
Black girls at our school?
Math and the
Message
Strategy 2: Modifying
the Message: “You are
welcome in the field of
mathematics”
Math Mindset and Attitude Survey
Agree, Disagree, or Neutral/Not Sure
“Math is about using the right formula.”
Agree, Disagree, or Neutral/Not Sure
“I think I am good at math.”
Math Mindset Survey
Assigning Academic Status: You are smart in math
From Cohen et al. (1999) Complex Instruction: Equity in Cooperative Learning
Classrooms
A public statement that is:
→ a positive evaluation
→ specific to the task at hand
→ relevant to the work of the group
What message is your classroom sending?
Explain your answer.
Show your work.
Care
Strategy #3: From
Passive Caring to Active
Caring
Planning for Active Caring
Figure 6.2 from Hammond (2016):
Culturally Responsive Teaching and
the Brain
Warm Demander Chart
Warm Demander
Explicit focus on building rapport and trust
Shows personal regard for students by inquiring about
important people and events in their lives
Earns the right to demand engagement and effort
Holds high standards and offers emotional support and
instructional scaffolding to dependent learners for
reaching the standards
The Technocrat
Has no explicit focus on building rapport
Holds high standards and expects students to meet
them
Able to support independent learners better than
dependent learners
Viewed by students as likable even if distant because of
teacher competence and enthusiasm for the subject
The Sentimentalist
Shows personal regard for students
Makes excuses for students’ lack of academic
performance
Consciously holds lower expectations out of pity
because of poverty or oppression
Over scaffolds instruction
The Elitist
Keeps professional distance from students unlike himself
Organizes instruction around independent learners and
provides little scaffolding
Mistakes cultural and linguistic differences for intellectual
deficits
Allows dependent students to disengage from learning and
engage in off-task behavior as long as it’s not disruptive
Passive leniency
Active demandingness
Personal Warmth Professional Distance
Closing the Care Gap
●Increase your awareness
○Surveys and interviews
○Ask questions to the point of being an agitant
●Modify the Message
○Promote mathematicians with diverse identities
○Assign academic status
●Practice Active Caring
○Consider each rather than all
○Plan for active caring
Geoff Krall | gmkrall@gmail.com | twitter: @geoffkrall |www.facebook.com/geoffkrall
www.emergentmath.com
→ blog
→ inquiry based curriculum maps
→ Necessary Conditions card sets
→ this presentation
