"Curiosity about students’ mathematical thinking is at the heart of
effective and joyful mathematics teaching. There are four channels via
which we can gather information about student thinking: we can look at
student work and products, we can observe and listen to students while
they work and talk, we can confer with students about their thinking,
and we can ask students to reflect on their own learning and share their
self-assessments with us. We’ll explore how to open these four channels
strategically, so we can gather better, richer, more interesting
information about our students and their thinking, even when using
curricular materials that don’t prioritize formative assessment."
"
Routines
– Routines are well-understood structures that encourage discourse,
sensemaking, and equity in the classroom. A teacher may have many
different types of routines in her toolbelt and utilizes them daily.
Lessons
– Lessons include any activity that involves transmitting or practicing
content knowledge. Lessons can vary from whole class lectures to
hands-on manipulative activities.
Problems
– Problems are complex tasks, not immediately solvable without further
knowhow, research or decoding of the prompt. Problems can take anywhere
from one class period to three or four class periods.
Projects
– Projects apply mathematical knowhow to an in-depth, authentic
experience. A project occurs over the course of two to four weeks.
Ideally, projects are outward facing, community based, and/or personally
relevant."
"It seems to me that the status quo almost works. If more
schools had interventionists who could come in and focus on the needs of
the unchallenged, that would be amazing. (Those specialists along with
teachers and parents could then decide if a kid would be better off in a
different math situation.)"
"While the intent of structuring classrooms according to ability may be
to create a pace that is more manageable for students, more often
expectations are lowered and the work is overscaffolded. Students learn
best when there is a balance of struggle and support. It is important
that all students are held to high expectations (the end goals are all
the same right?) and that they have opportunities to problem solve
through mistakes with guidance such as questioning from the teacher."
"If you’re not a pre-k, kindergarten, or 1st-grade teacher, you need
to find one and give them a hug after watching this video. They do the
work of an army and many times their work goes unnoticed. There’s so
much happening in the early years of school, that without this
progression of early number and counting, we’d all be out of a job.
Here’s the 5th installment in the
Making Sense Series. If you’re looking for other progression videos you can find them
here."
