Educ 475 D200

Griselda Pastora
DRILLS, DRILLS, DRILLS

Reading Chapter Ten of Elementary and Middle School

Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, Van de Walle et al. (2013) I
got to revisit the idea of math drills and their place in our students
learning. Through out the chapter they lay out how important it is for
students to learn the foundations of math and the skill before rushing
into drills. As Van de Walle et al. declare: students are not expected to
go from not knowing basic facts to knowing it through memorization
(p.162). I think a lot of us student teachers have had a hard time with
this idea of not using math drills since we were so used to having them
through out our experiences as a students. Reflecting back on my
experience, I remember I was very much the anxious child that Van de
Walle refer to, being the anxious child I would ask for practice sheets to
do at home so I would be extra prepared. In some sense it seemed to
have paid off because I ended up loving Math through math drills.
Through math drills I gained my confidence and started enjoying Math
a lot more. But my Math journey could have gone a lot worse if I did
not fight my anxiety about math drills.
An important thing to consider for us student teachers is the fact
that we have a variety of different types of learners in our class. As
discussed in the text, math drills can often make students feel
frustrated and overwhelmed (Van de Walle et al., 2013, p.178). And

June 1st 2015

DP #2

Educ 475 D200

Griselda Pastora

again, we do not want to drive them away from Math, we want to draw
them in. Instead of using math drills to drill-in memorization, we should
be using multiple types of activities for them to engage with. We
should make sure to know the place of Math Drills in our classrooms, if
we even find a place for it at all.

June 1st 2015

DP #2