Role of a Volunteer

At SUMM, we want to spark each and every person to love math. That can look like two things: playing with math and productive struggle.

The role of a volunteer is to help students and families understand the activities and ask engaging questions. Here’s what that means for you as a volunteer.

Playing with math: Math should be fun!

• Refrain from using phrases like “good / bad at math”

• Show excitement for the work and activities

• Affirm students who try new things, create something beautiful, ask a question or think outside the box

• Ask questions to engage students in mathematical thinking beyond the “answers” such as:

• Can you tell me about what you're working on/creating?

• What do you notice?

• What's working with your strategy?

• How are you feeling about this?

Productive struggle: Struggling with a problem builds math confidence!

Struggling with a problem helps kids: 

• develop creative problem solving skills

• learn concepts more deeply

• demonstrate persistence and curiosity when you’re unsure about a problem

Remind students:

• math can be challenging but we have tools & resources to help solve challenges

Affirm students who:

• persevere, stick with a challenging task, ask questions or try new things

Ask questions to engage students in mathematical thinking:

• What’s working with your strategy?

• Where are you getting stuck?

• Did you change your strategy at all? If so, why? What happened?

• Does this remind you of anything?

• How are you feeling about this?