I accompanied a high school AP on some walkthroughs of math classes.  What I noticed most was the use of overheads or the front board.  In every class students were at their desks working on worksheets or lined paper while the teacher was in front teaching.  When discussing with the AP later, he said that is a typical math classroom.  Madeline Hunter 101.   While most of all the students were on task, I wouldn’t say they were engaged.   Even though I used to teach English, I can imagine how challenging it would be to teach math without overhead, board, book, worksheet, etc.   Fortunately our district has an incredible online curriculum warehouse.  Why are these teachers and others doing what teachers did 50 years ago?  (See previous post on out of date education and read the article.)  After observing these classrooms, I was worried that, when I was teaching, administration might have seen the same things in my classroom.  I racked my brain trying to think what I had done in the past.  Used an overhead?  Yes, to give notes, but I only did that once a six weeks.  Used the board?  Rarely, other than to post info, journal prompts, or objectives.  Students did worksheets?  Not unless I had a substitute.  Me talking at front and students sitting and getting?  Maybe to intro the lesson, but definitely not the whole period.  Now, I do not in any stretch of the imagination think I was the most awesomest teacher ever.  I know I had a lot of improvement to do.  But because I used many group activities and engaging lessons, I thought about my fellow English teachers and how they did much of the same things.  That got me to thinking on whether there was a correlation between high English and social studies scores and the kinds of activities in those classrooms versus low math scores and the activities in those classrooms.  It would be interesting to find a math teacher with innovative, highly engaging lessons centered on group learning and see how his/her standardized test scores compare to his/her counterparts.  Just a thought.