The Art of Building Math Communities: Reflections from the Classroom

Building a community of mathematicians is no simple task! When your community evolves into a thriving hub of mathematics, it becomes truly inspirational, and the excitement for math becomes infectious!

Here are some lessons I've learned and reflected on, over time, from collaborating with teachers to build a math community:

• It's never too late to start! While we may think it's only feasible at the beginning of the school year, I've found the third term to be an opportune time to try something new. By this point, we know our students well, making it easier to adapt our lessons to meet their current needs.
• It requires time! I'm consistently surprised at how often throughout the year I need to revisit essential community values and concepts like "How do mathematicians collaborate?" or "What do we do when faced with challenges?" Revisiting these ideas helps keep our community values at the forefront and allows students to deepen their understanding of these values as the year progresses.
• Language matters! Introducing phrases like "Changed my thinking" or "Would anyone like to build on ____’s idea?" empowers children to use this language and put our values of identity, mindset, communication, and collaboration into practice.
• It's highly responsive teaching. There's no one-size-fits-all formula for cultivating a thriving math community. It relies on teacher observations, reflections, and responses tailored to individual classes. Some years, I've worked with highly communicative classes, so our mini-lessons focus on building upon that strength to deepen it. In other years, classes might be quieter, with fewer children inclined to share their thoughts openly. In such cases, mini-lessons still center on communication but take a different approach to suit the needs of the group.
• Building community throughout the day, beyond just during math blocks, facilitates seamless transitions and ongoing reinforcement. For instance, starting each day with a morning meeting or aligning the structures of math and writing workshops helps children make connections across various parts of the day, strengthening their sense of community.
• Allow time and space for community development! If we prioritize creating a thriving mathematical community, we must carefully consider the tasks we assign our students. Do they align with our values? Are we fostering opportunities for deep collaboration and communication? Are we providing tasks that promote deep thinking to nurture a growth mindset?

What additional tips do you have for fostering your math community? What are your favorite mini-lessons for supporting math community development? Building these thriving communities is truly an art, a continuous process of growth, evolution, and adaptation in response to the children and new insights.