Differentiation, or the adoption of different strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners, is at the core of the IB. Teachers often focus on those students with learning difficulties, a task whose importance is beyond all doubt. But what to do with those pupils whose curiosity and will to learn stand out? Whose knowledge is far ahead from the rest of the class? Who timidly approach the teacher when the class is over to find out more about a specific topic they have been learning on their own? How to make them know they are not alone? How to meet their quenchless thirst for knowledge?
The idea of creating a Mathematics Club came from Nadia Sadowska, an MYP4 student. She proposed her teacher, Daniel Fernández, as the ‘Club leader’ and convinced some of her classmates to join her. They decided to meet twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, during lunch break. And so they did for the last 6 weeks of the school year.
The fact that all of them were ready to miss half of their break time, says a lot about their commitment to and passion for Maths. Still, the first rule of Mathematics Club was: ‘Attendance is voluntary’: The second rule was ‘not to talk about homework, assessment criteria or summative tasks’. Following these two simple precepts, in a non-pressured atmosphere, the students, paradoxically or not, gave their best on every session. It took them no time to stop sitting down and stand up to grab a marker and write on the board. The sessions shifted from probability and statistics to successions and fractals.
Mathematical contents, though, were not the key for the success of the Club. It was the fact that they could share a time when entertainment and knowledge walked together. When differentiation takes place in an atmosphere of fellowship, it makes all the difference.
