BELTSVILLE, MD—With less than two months to go in the First In Math® Online Program competition, Math Resource Teacher Gale Waibel was looking for a unique way to motivate her Calverton Elementary students to work harder in the First In Math® Online Program. The Title 1 school was ranked 17th nationally, but Waibel knew they could do better. “Motivating some groups of students to complete assignments can at times be a challenge, but as soon as they heard about the First In Math rap project our students were excited.”
The Rap project actually began as a writing assignment 6th-grade teacher Nicole Baum created to get her students excited to take the state test. "It was the perfect assignment for the kids to practice their language arts and math skills simultaneously," says Baum. A group of boys in Baum’s homeroom began working together and practicing during their lunch period. Soon several other students joined the effort, each contributing ideas. Waibel met with some resistance when she insisted they write out their lyrics but once written, the students combined ideas, identified the refrain, and added more content.
“There were both group and solo parts,” says Waibel, who explains that negotiations got interesting because most of the boys wanted a solo. It was decided that the fairest way to assign parts was to give the students with the highest sticker counts first choice, and suddenly students who were not particularly motivated earlier in the year began playing intently to have a shot at a solo. “In the quest for more stickers the boys started exploring different games on the site and as a result added more math content to their rap—and more math skills to their knowledge base.”
The boys worked hard on their delivery and practiced the rap for other classes, taking to heart suggestions from students and teachers. According to rapper Isaiah Brown, they had disagreements, but made it work. “We worked so hard to earn this, but really the only thing we needed to do was work as a team.” The school, its teachers and students all became part of that team, and by the time the rap was complete, Calverton had become the 9th-ranked school in the nation—all grades—for the 2009/2010 school year.
“Aside from the obvious benefit of improved math skills, the boys have learned other lessons in the process,” explains Waibel. “The boys realized that ‘give-and-take’ resulted in an improved rap. They saw that the extra practice time spent on their delivery made a difference. They learned to adjust when a member was absent or if they didn’t get the part they really wanted. They came to practices on time and worked to implement suggestions. They monitored each other and kept the focus on the rap.” Principal Mary Tschudy says she is very impressed with the way the boys took ownership of the creative process.
The boys all agree that First in Math is more than an online program—and they all enjoyed creating an original rap that captured a lot of the experiences they had playing. According to one participant, “First In Math is cool, and ever since I got in it I have been getting good grades and my behavior has changed. I used to have a bad reputation, but I transformed myself.”
WATCH THE CALVERTON RAP VIDEO