Professional Profile: Dara Glazer
Reaching a New Perspective with...
DARA GLAZER, MR Intervention Specialist Leader and AMVR Champion
- Dara Glazer
When Dara Glazer says she wishes she’d had Add+VantageMR training at the beginning of her teaching career instead of 15 years into it, it’s a testament to the program’s powerful and far-reaching results. Not only is Dara a passionate advocate of AVMR, she’s a champion of its effects, both on those who teach it – and those who are taught by it.
“We know the longer students struggle with math, the wider the gap
becomes,” Dara explains. “Early intervention is key. I don’t know of
any other program that arms teachers with the theoretical knowledge,
practical application and ongoing support that Math Recovery
provides.”
Dara stumbled into Math Recovery in 2003 when a small group from
her district in Colorado went to an introductory session held in
Sheridan, Wyoming. She jumped at the chance to be trained; and from
the first day, found herself challenged to think about how children
develop their mathematical skills. She also found herself questioning
her own teaching practices. “Oh, that’s why they didn’t get it!” ran
through Dara’s mind repeatedly throughout the training as she reflected
on all the 4th and 5th graders who struggled so valiantly yet vainly to
learn math.
Today, Dara occupies top status as an MR leader and AVMR
champion. She played a vital role as instructor, coach and trainer at
the Summer Institute held last June in Nashville, an experience that
brought her closer to others sharing the Math Recovery journey.
“I always learn when I’m with this community,” says Dara. “The greatest satisfaction comes from the growth and reactions of the participants. Teachers from all over the country go back to their schools and districts with a new perspective. It’s both empowering and overwhelming.”
Using Math Recovery in the Hispanic Community
Because she’s worked with the Hispanic/Latino community for much
of her career, Dara also has a unique and very useful multi-cultural
perspective. In addition to her teaching accreditation and Math
Recovery certifications, Dara holds an endorsement in Language
Minority-Bilingual Education. She can attest first-hand to Math
Recovery’s applicability and success rate in almost every conceivable
learning environment.
“Many of the children I work with are from Mexico,” she explains.
“These children come in with a wide range of mathematical knowledge,
yet they often struggle in class. From my work in Math Recovery, I have
come to realize that our impressions of what these children know are
often erroneous. Countless times I’ve heard teachers say, ‘I had no
idea he knew so much!’ after giving a Math Recovery Assessment.”
Dara recalls the time she went into a first grade classroom to
film some Add+VantageMR assessments to be used with teachers. She
asked the teacher for two of her strongest math students, as well as
two others whose math skills were weaker. Dara describes the
experience in detail.
“The first two children were native English speakers with very
positive self-concepts about their mathematical abilities. They both
told me how good they were in math, and they were quite competent with
the counting sequence and reading numerals. Both were unsuccessful,
however, at solving addition and subtraction problems with screened
counters. Andy could not solve ‘3+2’ with screened counters, and Alice
could not come up with any strategy for ‘16 counters take away 4.’ A
Hispanic student named Eduardo was next. He made some errors counting
forward and back, and he confused several numerals. Yet Eduardo
immediately answered the problem of ‘16 counters take away 4 counters’
with screened materials and could show his strategy by counting back
from 16 using his fingers to keep track of the counts. The teacher was
shocked when I told her that Eduardo had the most sophisticated
strategies of the four students.
“I use these video clips all the time now with teachers. These
assessments clearly isolate areas of strengths and difficulties, and
they help teachers of language minority students understand what they
know and where they need extra help.”
Dara notes that many of her Math Recovery students have been
English language learners, which doubles the process since content and
language objectives are both needed equally for each lesson.
“These children need explicit instruction and scaffolded support
to use mathematical language to explain their thinking,” Dara
explains. “The materials we use support them and show their thinking
-- first concretely, then later with words and symbols. Vocabulary
support is important as well. If you’ve ever tried to learn a second
language, then you know how hard concepts like ‘before,’ ‘after,’
‘more,’ ‘less,’ ‘higher,’ and ‘lower’ are to learn. These students
return to their regular classroom more confident in their mathematical
abilities and in their ability to communicate their thinking.”
Dara finds this aspect of her work in Math Recovery especially rewarding. “I love working with this population of students!” she says. “I speak Spanish myself, so I’m able to communicate with parents about what we are working on, and how they can help at home. Two years after participating in Math Recovery, my very first MR student, who was a native Spanish speaker, tested ‘advanced’ on the 3rd grade state mathematics test!”
Advice for Others in Math Recovery
Dara urges everyone engaged in Math Recovery to try and attend at
least one annual MR Institute. “It’s a great place to learn more about
the programs and gain new information about teaching math in your own
community or school district,” she says enthusiastically. “Last year,
the Institute was held in Kentucky – this spring, it will be in
Minnesota. If you can’t do that, at least check the Math Recovery
website to find out about signing up for one of the regional MR
conferences around the country.”
As for advice to others new to Math Recovery, Dara has these words
of encouragement: “The journey can be a rewarding and frustrating
one. At first, many of us feel less than adequate because there’s so
much to learn. Yet, once it starts making sense, and we see successes
with our first students, then we begin to see its power, and we want to
change the way math is taught in our schools. But we are often up
against a system that provides little time for teacher collaboration
and growth. Like everything in this field, change takes time.”
Drawing on her own lengthy experience, Dara concludes, “The Math Recovery community continues to teach, challenge and inspire me. It’s been one of the highlights of my 23-plus years in public schools.”
