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As I move forward with my teacher education, one of the key issues I keep reading about is student disengagement. Over the past few weeks working in a grade 5 class in Toronto, I’ve seen that disengagement first hand and much of it has been my fault. Part of my job is not only to teach the curriculum to students but to also make it relevant to their lives. I’ve got to answer the question: “Why are we learning all this stuff?”

I try to work that into each of my lessons, but math is one subject where I often forget to do this and it’s resulted in a few not-so stellar lessons. This week I remembered to answer that question and it turned a potential math disaster into one of my most enjoyable lessons yet.

Early this week, I gave the class a 2 digit multiplication “morning challenge” activity to get their brains warmed up for the day. Myself and my mentor teacher were surprised at the number of students struggling with the concept of multiplying 2 digits (ie 34 x 45.) This was stuff that they should know from grade four, but many were either confused by the process or just not interested in giving it a try (for a variety of reasons.) To help improve this situation, I gave more 2 digit challenges each day and worked with the students who were struggling. The quick challenges soon grew into full blown lessons on multiplication. This wasn’t a problem. I was happy to spend the time helping them get these foundations in place. However, the students weren’t so happy. By this point, many were frustrated to the point where they simply disconnected from the learning and tuned me out. It was as frustrating for me as I’m sure it was for them.

I went home determined to give a 2 digit multiplication lesson one more try. As I planned my lesson, I realized that for many of the students the “why are we learning this?” question had not been answered. I looked at some of the story problems in the math textbook, but they weren’t much help. They gave scenarios featuring kids buying ink cartridges for their printers, cutting lawns as a summer job to show how 2 digit math is used in calculating the cost of items or how much money can be earned, etc. These were definitely not going to connect with my students, many of whom don’t do the ink cartridge buying in their homes or have balconies and not lawns.

That’s when it hit me. I use 2 digit multiplication almost every day when I’m doing something I know my students love to do as well: play video games.

Every time I play any one of my many rpg online games, I am calculating how many monsters I’ll need to defeat to gain enough experience points (xp) to progress to my next level. I do this unconsciously and I figured if I do it, I knew my students could do it too. Bye bye ink cartridges and front lawns, hello ice trolls and lava dragons.

This is where another part of my teaching training came into play: knowing your students as people. From casual discussions with some of them, I knew that a few of the students played Runescape, a game I have explored a bit too. With that connection and the wrappings of monsters and xp, I was ready to teach the same boring 2 digit multiplication, in a new, unboring way. Or so I hoped.

The lesson started off with the usual slow reluctance of getting math books out of desks and complaints of lost pencils that I expected. I laid out to them my thinking about how I realized that I used 2 digit multiplication practically everyday, not when I was working but when I was playing. Playing video games. A single shocked gasp ran through the students at that last statement. “Mr. O’Donnell plays video games?” After they were over their initial shock that a teacher actually likes and plays (!) video games, the questions and challenges of authentication flew at me: “what games?” “how do you know about that game? ” “what level are you?” and on and on. Once I had sufficiently proven my credentials to them by telling them the story of how I burned my first batch of fish when cooking in Runescape, they were convinced. They were also engaged and ready to learn.

Together, we talked about xp, monsters and levels and they soon figured out how 2 digit multiplication can tell them about how many monsters they need to defeat to get enough xp to level up. With that theory on the board and in their heads, I challenged them to see how many ice trolls (at 25 xp each) they’d need to defeat to gain 4000 xp (the xp needed to go up to the next level.) Without exception, every student grabbed their pencils and dove into the challenge.

It was then that I had my first real “Yes!” moment as a teacher. I had managed to engage all 30 of the kids in the class with the same math concepts we were all struggling with only a day before.

With every student furiously working away at the monsters/xp/level challenge, I had time to work one on one with the students still struggling with the multiplication. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that when you have 30 kids in your class, having the chance to work with an individual student is not only a rare opportunity, it is also an incredibly effective way of teaching. A few minutes of one on one instruction is worth more than a whole 40 minute period of whole class teaching.

The rest of the lesson was a noisy, boisterous blur of math activity. Students who usually didn’t volunteer much in the past were eager to come to the board to display their work. Others debated each other on the merits of the various mathematical paths they each took to reach their conclusions with a passion usually reserved for last night’s hockey results. It was great.

For some, however, the monsters and levels weren’t doing it for them. They were chatting away but it clearly wasn’t about math. When I asked them about it, they said they didn’t play any of those rpg games. No problem. “What about Club Penguin?” I asked. Their eyes lit up. Bingo. I turned monsters into the sledding game and xp into coins. Instead of another level, the girls told me it costs 800 coins to buy a Puffle. Their challenge? If you get 15 coins for each sledding game, how many sledding games will you have to win to earn enough coins to buy your Puffle? They grabbed their pencils and dived in.

Twenty minutes later, the lesson was over. Levels had been gained, Puffles bought and for many the concept of 2 digit multiplication was little bit clearer thanks to a solid block of time practicing the skills.

As the students headed off to lunch, I was practically bouncing off the walls myself. It’s one thing to read about the importance of engaging students, making the learning meaningful, valuing their outside literacies and creating inquiry-based lessons, it’s quite another to actually make it happen. And let me tell you: it’s a blast!