Wheeler School – Mathematics Department
Standard 4 (Program)
1. What are the department’s beliefs about how students learn?

Students learn developmentally – different approaches to the same topic are appropriate
for different developmental stages.
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Students learn best through a multimodal approach to the material.
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Students should strive for understanding rather than memorization.
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Where appropriate, students learn best through discovery of ideas.
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Students should develop reasoning skills and collaborative problem solving skills.
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Students learn mathematics better by doing it themselves.
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Students learn concepts and how to transfer their understanding to new concepts by solving
novel problems.
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Communication (oral and written) is an essential component of learning mathematics.
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Mastery of mathematics topics happens over a long time period (months and years, not
days and weeks).
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Students learn mathematics best when they are able to revisit topics repeatedly over their
lifetime as a student. Each time a student revisits a topic s/he sees it from a new and
valuable perspective.

Technology is a powerful tool for enabling exploration, visualization, and simulation of
mathematical concepts.
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Students learn mathematics best in a positive, supportive, collaborative environment.
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All students should be able to succeed at mathematics.
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Students benefit from a highly flexible and individualized approach to teaching and course
placement.
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Students benefit from opportunities to engage with mathematical ideas outside the
classroom. These opportunities should provide lateral enrichment rather than acceleration
through the curriculum.
2. How do these beliefs impact how teachers teach and develop the academic program?
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Teachers provide opportunities for individual work, team work, project-based work, and
work involving manipulatives in order to vary the modality student experience in the
classroom.

Teachers provide students with opportunities to discuss mathematical reasoning and
communicate their thinking with each other and with the teacher. Even outside the
classroom, the upper school “Math Fellows” peer tutoring program allows students to learn
from each other and fosters communication about mathematical ideas between students.

Teachers push students to move beyond “I don’t get it” and to frame their questions
specifically and in mathematical terms.

Teachers use developmentally appropriate approaches to the material. For example, lower
school teachers believe in constructive learning through experience, finding patterns, and
building connections.

Teachers make themselves accessible for help outside of class in order to devote individual
attention to each student beyond the level possible in the classroom.

Teachers do a thorough and careful job of analyzing where each individual student should
be placed in the curriculum. Students follow different “paths” through the curriculum based
on their strengths and weaknesses, but each student’s placement is reevaluated continually.
The department offers significant flexibility and individualization in its placement of
students in classes across all divisions, and even coordinates schedules between divisions
(e.g., Hamilton and Lower School or Middle and Upper School) to accommodate appropriate
placement.

Teachers set high expectations but also work to make sure all students are able to succeed
in their classes.
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The department is willing to reevaluate and adapt its curriculum to reflect its beliefs about
appropriate scope and sequence of topics.

Individual teachers teach an array of classes and switch the classes they teach regularly. This
practice brings new ideas to the curriculum, energizes the faculty and students, smoothes
the transition between courses and makes the sequence of the curriculum more cohesive,
and enhances collaboration between teachers.

The department is a cohesive and collaborative group of individuals who respect and value
each other’s expertise and contributions to the teaching of mathematics and to the larger
school community.
3. How is the department curriculum adapted to meet the needs of the students?
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The department’s curriculum provides for students of all abilities and interests, from those
students who need significant support in math to those who are advanced math students.
We meet our students where they are and work hard to create appropriate challenges for
all. Our recent adjustment of the Upper School curriculum to create a new class, “Integrated
Math,” for five ninth graders with weak math backgrounds is one example.
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Across all divisions, students are grouped by proven ability, but there is sufficient flexibility
for students to change groups from year to year (or even within a year) based on their
performance and development as math students.
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The department is constantly reevaluating and reflecting on the content, pacing, and scope
of the courses it offers and curricula it chooses. We incorporate feedback from students,
other faculty, administrators, and parents with the goal of creating a program that serves
the students.
4. How is the department curriculum analyzed to insure continuity?

The department believes in continually reflecting on and refining the curriculum. As part of
this process, we periodically review our curriculum and make changes to the scope and
sequence of topics we teach.
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Upper School teachers rotate classes regularly so that multiple teachers have taught the
same course. This allows for a shared understanding of the curriculum across department
members and enhances informal opportunities to analyze and refine the curriculum. We
deliberately cover our courses that are large enough to have multiple sections with more
than one teacher so that opportunities for collaboration and curriculum review take place.

The department uses careful attention to student experience and performance, particularly
at transition points between divisions, to analyze continuity across divisions.
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Curricular material is always chosen with careful consideration for the continuity and
consistency of its approach with curricula for prior and subsequent grade levels.
5. How do you insure a smooth transition from grade to grade in your subject area?

The department believes in offering significantly individualized and differentiated
instruction to all students. In grades 1-5, two-homeroom classes divide into three math
sections in order to facilitate greater attention to individual student needs. This structure
helps students who have difficulty with the transition from grade to grade.
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Most Upper School courses begin with a unit reviewing material from the previous year.
Advanced courses require students to do “summer work” to insure their understanding of
prerequisite material.
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Classes and curricula are designed to allow students to revisit topics and ideas from year to
year. Spiraling back to familiar topics provides students with new perspectives, helps build
connections from year to year and between topics, and develops students’ understanding of
the larger themes of mathematics and mathematical thinking.
Standard 6 (Resources to Support the Program)
1. How are teachers involved in planning the use of technology in their own classrooms?
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Technology planning is part of the responsibility and practice of teachers on a day-to-day
basis. Teachers plan the use of technology as appropriate for each topic they teach.

Teachers are able to pursue new ways of using technology and there is a clearly defined
process for introducing new technology through the business office and technology
department.
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Teachers and the department as a whole would benefit from more scouting and looking for
opportunities for new technology applications, but faculty often find this difficult to do given
the extent of their other responsibilities.
2. How are library and related resources adequate and appropriate to support the program?
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The library department is highly responsive and helpful in acquiring new resources for use in
mathematics classes.
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The technology department is extremely helpful in facilitating teachers’ adoption of and
development around new technology.
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The Aerie program is integral to our ability to offer enrichment opportunities for our
students outside the classroom, as well as expanding offerings for students who have gone
beyond the scope of our regular curriculum.
Strengths and Weaknesses
1. What are your department’s strengths?

The department has an experienced and extremely enthusiastic and dedicated group of
faculty who are committed to a flexible and thoughtful approach to teaching mathematics.
All faculty have a desire to improve and believe in the value of reflection and refining their
practice continually. Math faculty members are extremely collaborative and supportive of
each other.
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Faculty members devote significant time outside of classes to working one-on-one with
students.
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The department provides multiple opportunities for students to deepen and enrich their
understanding of math outside the classroom. Examples: MathCounts, Math Team, work
with Aerie to facilitate student interest beyond or outside curriculum.
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The department’s curriculum offers students significant flexibility and attention to individual
needs.
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Strong and passionate math students throughout the Providence region are attracted to
Wheeler for the strength of its math program.
2. What areas are in need of improvement?

The department could improve its level and frequency of collaboration between classes
across grades and divisions. Subject specialists in Upper and Middle Schools and generalists
in Lower School could collaborate more and enhance each others’ understanding of content
and developmental context. Faculty could also work to improve inter-departmental
collaboration and to take advantage of opportunities to link curricula (e.g., working with
Chemistry teachers to refine the sequencing of sophomore year math topics).
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The flip side of the great differentiation and opportunity the department offers students is
that department members often feel overwhelmed and overburdened with all of the extras
and add-ons, sometimes at the expense of the core teaching responsibilities.
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The Upper School Math Fellows program is seriously underutilized and needs to be
redesigned.
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The Upper School curriculum could offer students more choice in their junior and senior
years. We would like to work to expand our offering of electives.
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The Upper School currently covers 24 sections of math with 5 full time teachers, which
means that every year we must draw on part time help, overages, and teachers from other
departments and divisions to cover our basic course offerings, which makes it difficult to
expand electives or flexibly assign courses in ways that enhance collaboration.

The department needs to work to offer more non-competitive enrichment opportunities.
We believe that such opportunities would help cultivate and sustain the interest of our
strongest female students in mathematics.

The department’s placement process for incoming students who are new to Wheeler needs
to take a more holistic approach and rely less on testing. The process should include a
deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of math programs at the schools
from which students typically come to Wheeler.