Curriculum
The foundation of Bixby’s mathematics curriculum was developed during the years that Bart, Bixby’s co-founder and a mathematician, was actively teaching at the school. Bixby Math emphasizes:
- Individualized instruction in small class setting, with problems tailored to the student’s needs and pacing, within the mathematical concept/context being studied. Problems that arise from a student’s own thinking/questioning are valued and responded to.
- The development of analytical thinking (reasoning, testing, and proving), persistence, and practice so that students approach problem solving with less emphasis on having the “right” answer and more emphasis on understanding how to find the correct answer, including the skills to approach a new problem in a competent way. This involves taking time to work a problem or set of problems, then describing/discussing one’s approach either individually with the teacher or to the small class.
- The use of everyday objects and manipulatives (i.e., base-ten blocks, Bixby tiles, coins, number boards/lines, etc.) in order to assist students’ development of ways of understanding the problems they are solving and discovering methods of solution. As development progresses, the use of objects is transformed into graphical number and symbol representations on paper.
- In the upper elementary grades (3rd-5th) students continue individualized instruction, with a focus on deepening algebraic thinking and problem solving skills, learning conventional vocabulary that hasn’t yet been taught or mastered, and accurate and efficient use of conventional algorithms.