From Flow to “Oh!”

Classroom Adventures with Hillbrook Literacy Support Specialist and Challenge Coach Kelly Scholten

At 9:30 am on a Thursday morning, Hillbrook School Challenge Coach Kelly Scholten is in a small room with a group of third-graders and a whiteboard covered in drawings of ice cream combinations; the table is filled with pieces of paper and strings of numbers as the students try to figure out how many flavor combinations are possible at the world’s strangest ice cream shop (the flavors they’ve chosen range from banana, apple, and cherry to elephant, hippo, and jelly). At 10:15, Kelly is across campus in a first-grade classroom, teaching six- and seven-year-olds a simple form of algebra through storytelling and colorful illustrations: what number is hiding in the box? How do you know? How far can you stretch your thinking? By 2 pm, she’s back at the whiteboard with fourth-grade students, explaining “The Four Fours,” a deceptively simple number puzzle that has challenged generations of mathematicians: how can you create a collection of number sentences that will produce an answer of 0-20 using only 4 fours and the 4 operations? After watching a short video and seeing a few examples, Kelly says, “All right – let’s try it out. I think we know enough to be dangerous.”

Life as a Challenge Coach – and Literary Support Specialist – means that no two days are alike, especially when you’re helping teachers create a just-right challenge across ages, stages, and skill levels. “The word ‘challenge’ is interesting – it means something different to different people,” Kelly says. “Children often equate challenge to time – if something is challenging, it takes longer.” Time is something that always seems in short supply in a busy school year – luckily, Kelly had a few moments to talk about what it means to be a Challenge Coach at a school like Hillbrook.

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Time-tested skills in a brand-new role:

“As a Challenge Coach, I work with teachers to better understand students’ individual needs, and then plan for those needs with a lens towards “challenge.” The assessment, co-planning, and co-teaching phases of the work I do helps our teachers help each student reach their highest individual potential, while also supporting them in our new Illustrative Math curriculum.

“This role has never existed before – or at least not in this particular way. My day can go from co-planning with a team of teachers to co-teaching a small group; I could then switch over to working with the third grade team extending a math unit; then I’ll check in with a sixth-grader with an individualized task list who’s ready to test out a few of the theories he’s been working on. And that’s just…Monday! I might be doing something totally different the next day.

“There are no average days, but that’s one of the most wonderful things about this role. Each un-average day allows me to see how our math program is progressing and how skills are built from year to year. “

Finding the rising tide:

“Before we even start a unit, the teachers and I are looking for two pieces of information: where students are, and if they’re ready for the next leap forward. Pre-assessments along with observations help a lot, so we can tell who’s going to need support and who’s going to need extensions – when to hit the gas or the brakes. Some students might need to revisit a lesson, and some might be ready to extend beyond it – and therein lies kind of the work that I do.

“In any classroom, student skill levels exist on a range. As the year progresses they get new chances to build their skills, with new opportunities to stretch what they already know. We’re building cultures of thinking, where students at every level can talk about their thinking, show their thinking, look at their classmates’ thinking, and ask questions about all of it.

“I see teaching as designing experiences for kids. When I plan a lesson, I think about what I want the experience to feel like for kids who have a range of skills and experiences – while still finding cohesion within the group so it feels like a community experience. Using students’ interests as a launching point can help students see that the world is full of puzzles to be curious about.”

On Illustrative Math, Hillbrook’s new math program:

“What’s great about Illustrative math is its structure: it’s designed in a spiral, so students encounter the same concepts in new and expanding ways. Maybe a student didn’t master every single bit of a particular section – it will show up again in a new context later. That’s another beautiful thing about my role – I get to see what math looks from kindergarten all the way to early middle school. It’s not about a checklist of skills to master, rather it’s about developing a deep understanding of concepts so that they can be applied flexibly to a wide range of tasks or problems. Illustrative Math revisits ideas in evolving ways, both within and between grade levels. The curriculum design overlaid with our teaching practices keeps things relevant and helps children’s understanding build naturally upon itself.

“We also ask students what qualities they’ve noticed in the just-right challenge experience, to notice what it feels like to be in a flow state – and from there, we work with teachers to find that flow and work with it to create entry points that can pull everyone into the lesson.”

Fascination, not frustration:

“A great way to get students into that flow state is with an activity that pulls in several strands of math around an interesting problem – the type of problem that someone can’t help but do, or try, or at least think about. The ice cream activity is one of our favorites: how many two-scoop combinations can you make with 10 flavors? 20? Or, let’s say you’re making hot cocoa, and you accidentally add too much water – how many extra scoops of cocoa mix do you need to correct the ratio? Or maybe you’re visiting a farm next weekend and you see 34 eyes and 46 feet. How many pigs and chickens would that be?

“The most important part is that students are talking about their thinking – and that helps propel the thinking of the group. Once you give them a task they can iterate on, kids are really great at following the problem down the rabbit hole. Putting things like ratio tables in a real-world context – like scoops of ice cream, or sandwich combinations at Subway – helps them see patterns and understand that math is not just something in a workbook, but is a way to help answer any interesting questions they can think of.”

Creating a culture and un-norming the norms:

“The teachers and I have been exploring the work of Peter Liljedahl – he’s a researcher who has created a body of work called “Building Thinking Classrooms.” His research showed that if you give kids the chance to have a creative, challenging experience together in math, it breaks down those normative behaviors, where kids automatically assume active or passive roles.

“Students need the time and encouragement to try a problem, mess up, think about it, and then try it again. They’re connecting to the work by constructing meaning within it. That might mean drawing a picture, or using an equation, or talking it out, or even writing it out. There are so many ways to plug in.”