Category Archives: Connecting Ideas

#LL2LU, Ask Don't Tell, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Learning Progressions, Professional Development Plans

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician: week 3 agenda

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Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.

Effective teaching of mathematics facilitates discourse among students to build shared understanding of mathematical ideas by analyzing and comparing student approaches and arguments.

Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Slide deck

7:15 Homework Splats! discussion, Q&A, Problem of the Week
7:35 Open Middle: Closest to One (recap)

7:55 3-Act Task:  The Cookie Thief
8:25 3-Act Task: How big is the World’s Largest Deliverable Pizza?
8:55 Book discussion from homework
9:10 Closure
9:15 End of session

Homework:

  • Read pp. 146-151 from TAKING ACTION: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5
    • Examining Mathematical Discourse
  • Deeply Read pp. 175-179 from TAKING ACTION: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5
    • What the Research says: Meaningful Mathematical Discourse
    • Promoting Equity through Facilitating Meaningful Mathematical Discourse

Standards for Mathematical Practice 

  • I can make sense of tasks and persevere in solving them.

  • I can construct a viable argument and critique the reasoning of others.

“Connect Extend Challenge A Routine for Connecting New Ideas to Prior Knowledge.” Visible Thinking, Harvard Project Zero.

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Gough, Jill, and Jennifer Wilson. “#LL2LU Learning Progressions: SMP.” Experiments in Learning by Doing or Easing the Hurry Syndrome. WordPress, 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

Gough, Jill, and Kato Nims. “#LL2LU Learning Progressions.” Experiments in Learning by Doing or Colorful Learning. WordPress, 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Previous Embolden Your Inner Mathematician agendas:

Connecting Ideas, Creativity, Professional Development Plans, Questions, Reading, Reflection

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician Week 2: Contemplate then Calculate (#CthenC)

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For our second session of Embolden Your Inner Mathematician, we focus on Numeracy and Visual Learning: Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

What is we use powerful tools to elicit student thinking? How might we learn about students to deeply understand them as mathematicians? And then, what actions do we take to ensure mathematical success for all?

This week’s session began with a gallery walk using Amy Lucenta and Grace Kelemanik’s first five Contemplate then Calculate (#CthenC) lessons found on at Fostering Math Practices.

From Ruth Parker and Cathy Humphreys in Making Number Talks Matter:

No matter what grade you teach, even high school, so-called “dot” cards (which may not have dots) are a great way to start your students on the path to mathematical reasoning. We say this because, from experience, we have realized that with dot cards, students only need to describe what they see— and people have many different ways of seeing! Arithmetic problems, on the other hand, tend to be emotionally loaded for many students. Both of us have found that doing several dot talks before we introduce Number Talks (with numbers) helps establish the following norms:

  • There are many ways to see, or do, any problem.

  • Everyone is responsible for communicating his or her thinking clearly so that others can understand.

  • Everyone is responsible for trying to understand other people’s thinking.

To embolden mathematicians and to prepare to elicit and use evidence of student thinking, teaching teams must practice to develop the habits put forth in 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions.

You can see our teacher-learner-leaders working to deepen their understanding of and commitment to the Making Number Talks Matter: norms, Smith and Stein’s 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions, and NCTM’s Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All.

How might we continue to deepen our understanding of NCTM’s teaching practices? What if we team to learn and practice?

From Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.
Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.

And, from Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5

In ambitious teaching, the teacher engages students in challenging tasks and collaborative inquiry, and then observes and listens as students work so that she or he can provide an appropriate level of support to diverse learners.  The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy. (Smith, 4 pag.)

Worth repeating:

The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy.

We continue to foster creativity, visual and algebraic representation to strengthen our mathematical flexibility as we learn together.

When mathematics classrooms focus on numbers, status differences between students often emerge, to the detriment of classroom culture and learning, with some students stating that work is “easy” or “hard” or announcing they have “finished” after racing through a worksheet. But when the same content is taught visually, it is our experience that the status differences that so often beleaguer mathematics classrooms, disappear.  – Jo Boaler

#ChangeTheFuture

#EmbraceAmbitiousTeaching

#EmboldenYourInnerMathematician

“Seeing as Understanding: The Importance of Visual Mathematics for Our Brain and Learning.” Journal of Applied & Computational Mathematics 05.05 (2016): n. pag. Youcubed. Standford University, 12 May. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

Humphreys, Cathy; Parker, Ruth. Making Number Talks Matter (Kindle Locations 339-346). Stenhouse Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Kelemanik, Grace, and Amy Lucent. “Starting the Year with Contemplate Then Calculate.” Fostering Math Practices.

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Algebra, Assessment, Connecting Ideas, Creativity, Professional Development Plans, Reading

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician: Week 2 agenda

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Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.
  Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Slide deck

7:15 Establishing Intent, Purpose, Norm Setting
8:00 Continuing Talking Points – Elizabeth Statmore (@chessemonkeysf)
8:15 Number Splats – Steve Wyborney (@SteveWyborney)
8:25 Fraction Splats – Steve Wyborney (@SteveWyborney)
8:45 Planning for Splats
9:00 Closure and Reflection

  • I learned to pay attention to…
  • I learned to ask myself…
  • A new mathematical connection is…
9:15 End of session

Homework:

  • Elicit and use evidence of student thinking using Splats. What will/did you learn?
  • Write to describe you quest for Closest to One using Open Middle worksheet with I can show my work so a reader understands without asking me questions.
  • Deeply Read pp. 207-211 from TAKING ACTION: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5
    • What the Research says: Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking
    • Promoting Equity by Eliciting and Using Evidence of Student Thinking
  • Read one of the following from TAKING ACTION: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5
    • pp.183-188 Make a Ten
    • pp.189-195 The Odd and Even Task
    • pp. 198-207 The Pencil Task

 

Kelemanik, Grace, and Amy Lucent. “Starting the Year with Contemplate Then Calculate.” Fostering Math Practices.

Kaplinsky, Robert, and Peter Morris. “Closest to One.” Open Middle.

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Statmore, Elizabeth. “Cheesemonkey Wonders.” #TMC14 GWWG: Talking Points Activity – Cultivating Exploratory Talk through a Growth Mindset Activity, 1 Jan. 1970.

Wyborney, Steve. “The Fraction Splat! Series.” Steve Wyborney’s Blog: I’m on a Learning Mission., 26 Mar. 2017.
#LL2LU, Ask Don't Tell, Connecting Ideas, Learning Progressions, Professional Development Plans, Questions, Reflection

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician Week 1: Number Talks

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How might we deepen our understanding of NCTM’s teaching practices? What if we team to learn and practice?

For our first session of Embolden Your Inner Mathematician, we focus on Subitizing and Number Talks: Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

From Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.
Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.

And, from Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5

Meeting the demands of world-class standards for student learning requires teachers to engage in what as been referred to as “ambitious teaching.” Ambitious teaching stands in sharp contrast to what many teachers experienced themselves as learners of mathematics. (Smith, 3 pag.)

In ambitious teaching, the teacher engages students in challenging tasks and collaborative inquiry, and then observes and listens as students work so that she or he can provide an appropriate level of support to diverse learners.  The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy. (Smith, 4 pag.)

Worth repeating:

The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy.

How might we foster curiosity, creativity, and critical reasoning while deepening understanding? What if we listen to what our students notice and wonder?

My daughter (7th grade) and I were walking through our local Walgreens when I hear her say “Wow, I wonder…” I doubled back to take this photo.

To see how we used this image in our session to subitize (in chunks) and to investigate the questions that arose from our wonderings, look through our slide deck for this session.

From  NCTM’s 5 Practices, we know that we should do the math ourselves, predict (anticipate) what students will produce, and brainstorm what will help students most when in productive struggle and when in destructive struggle. What if we build the habit of showing what we know more than one way to add layers of depth to understanding?

When mathematics classrooms focus on numbers, status differences between students often emerge, to the detriment of classroom culture and learning, with some students stating that work is “easy” or “hard” or announcing they have “finished” after racing through a worksheet. But when the same content is taught visually, it is our experience that the status differences that so often beleaguer mathematics classrooms, disappear.  – Jo Boaler

What if we ask ourselves what other ways can we add layers of depth so that students make sense of this task? How might we better serve our learners if we elicit and use evidence of student thinking to make next instructional decisions? 

#ChangeTheFuture

#EmbraceAmbitiousTeaching

#EmboldenYourInnerMathematician

Boaler, Jo, Lang Chen, Cathy Williams, and Montserrat Cordero. “Seeing as Understanding: The Importance of Visual Mathematics for Our Brain and Learning.” Journal of Applied & Computational Mathematics 05.05 (2016): n. pag. Youcubed. Standford University, 12 May. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Connecting Ideas, Professional Development Plans, Questions

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician Week 1: Talking Points

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How might we deepen our understanding of NCTM’s teaching practices? What if we team to learn and practice?

For our first session of Embolden Your Inner Mathematician, we focus on Subitizing and Number Talks: Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

From Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.
Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.

And, from Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in K-Grade 5

Meeting the demands of world-class standards for student learning requires teachers to engage in what as been referred to as “ambitious teaching.” Ambitious teaching stands in sharp contrast to what many teachers experienced themselves as learners of mathematics. (Smith, 3 pag.)

In ambitious teaching, the teacher engages students in challenging tasks and collaborative inquiry, and then observes and listens as students work so that she or he can provide an appropriate level of support to diverse learners.  The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy. (Smith, 4 pag.)

Worth repeating:

The goal is to ensure that each and every student succeeds in doing meaningful, high-quality work, not simply executing procedures with speed and accuracy.

Let’s pay attention to the whole child. Content is mission critical, but so are disposition and efficacy.  What if we learn more about our students disposition to support the social/emotional well-being of our mathematicians?  How might we elicit and use evidence of student thinking to understand  assumptions/beliefs about learning math?

We used the following exploratory talking points from Elizabeth Statmore:

To learn more about cultivating exploratory talk, read #TMC14 GWWG: Talking Points Activity – Cultivating Exploratory Talk through a Growth Mindset Activity.

What is we use powerful tools to elicit student thinking? How might we learn about students to deeply understand them as mathematicians?

And then, what actions do we take to ensure mathematical success for all?

#ChangeTheFuture

#EmbraceAmbitiousTeaching

#EmboldenYourInnerMathematician

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Statmore, Elizabeth. “Cheesemonkey Wonders.” #TMC14 GWWG: Talking Points Activity – Cultivating Exploratory Talk through a Growth Mindset Activity, 1 Jan. 1970.

#LL2LU, Assessment, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Professional Development Plans, Reading

Embolden Your Inner Mathematician: Week 1 agenda

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Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.
Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Slide deck

7:15 Welcome, Materials, Q&A
7:30 Establishing Intent, Purpose, Norm Setting

  • Ambitious Teaching
  • NCTM’s Principles to Action
  • Read The Dot
7:45 Break for Birthday Breakfast
7:55 Talking Points from Elizabeth Statmore (@chessemonkeysf)
8:10 Subitizing (a.k.a. Dot Talks)
8:30 Number Talk
8:55 Planning

  • Anticipate
  • Plan to Monitor
  • Sequence anticipated responses
9:05 Closure
9:15 End of session

Homework:

Additional challenges

Kaplinsky, Robert, and Peter Morris. “Closest to One.” Open Middle.

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-5. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Statmore, Elizabeth. “Cheesemonkey Wonders.” #TMC14 GWWG: Talking Points Activity – Cultivating Exploratory Talk through a Growth Mindset Activity, 1 Jan. 1970.

Connecting Ideas, Professional Development Plans

Overview: Embolden Your Inner Mathematician

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Taking action on known national goals, 15 Trinity School teacher-learner-leaders will begin a semester-long professional learning journey to deepen our understanding of NCTM’s Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices.

We commit to curation of best practices, connections between mathematical ideas, and communication to learn and share with a broad audience.

Goals:

At the end of the semester, teacher-learners should be able to say:

  • I can work within NCTM’s Eight Mathematical Teaching Practices for strengthening the teaching and learning of mathematics.
  • I can exercise mathematical flexibility to show what I know in more than one way.
  • I can make sense of tasks and persevere in solving them.

Facilitators:

Weekly schedule of topics:

Sep. 6 Subitizing and Number Talks:
 Elicit and use evidence of student thinking
Sep. 13 Numeracy and Visual Learning:
 Elicit and use evidence of student thinking
Sep. 20 Make sense of tasks and persevere in solving them:
 Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse
Sep. 27 Attend to Precision and Construct a Viable Argument:
Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse
Oct. 4 Strengthen Mathematical Flexibility:
Use and connect mathematical representations
Oct. 11 Visual Patterns – Strength Mathematical Flexibility:
Use and connect mathematical representations
Oct. 18 Mathematizing Children’s Literature (part 1):
Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving
Oct. 25 Mathematizing Children’s Literature (part 2):
Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving
Nov. 1 Designing Intentional Number Strings:
Building Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding
Nov. 8 Using Appropriate Tools Strategically:
Building Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding
Nov. 15 Empowering Learners:
Establish mathematical goals to focus learning
Nov. 22 Thanksgiving
Nov. 29 Deep Practice – challenged and learning
Support productive struggle in learning mathematics
Dec. 6 The Art of Questioning or Making Sense of Tasks part 2
Support productive struggle in learning mathematics
Dec. 13 14 Review and Reflection:
Pose purposeful questions

Anchor Resources:

Norms:

Leinwand, Steve. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014. (p. 46) Print.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades K-. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Smith, Margaret Schwan., et al. Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades 6-8. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Stein, Mary Kay., and Margaret Smith. 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.