Math Talk Professional Learning

Today I facilitated a professional learning opportunity with about 10 teachers working with students grades kindergarten through 4th grade.  It was a fun and busy day of learning with fabulous discussions.  The content was developed utilizing online resources as well as content from Visible Learning for Mathematics (Hattie, Fisher, Frey), Talk Moves (Chapin, O'Connor, Anderson), and Number Talks (Parrish).  The books are fabulous, and I would highly recommend a read.  In the meantime, feel free to utilize some of the slides from these Google Slides I put together to help guide our work for the morning.

Workshop Model and Small Group Differentiation

When working with teachers looking to better understand the workshop model and small group instruction, consider utilizing these two resources: Workshop Model and Management and Types of Small Groups.  These documents can help to clarify the parts of workshop teaching and possible pitfalls to avoid as you plan.

Planning with Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) in Mind

When introducing GRR to new to the profession teachers it is important to help them to make connections to the content and lessons that they will be teaching.  This GRR lesson planning template is one way that I have coached new teachers through lesson planning with GRR in mind.  The template was created by me, but obviously based on the GRR work of Fisher and Frey.  In my experience this tool is best used after direct teaching of the GRR framework and used collaboratively in partners or small groups of teachers to work through a lesson together before moving into independent use.

Math Differentiation

Today was a fabulous day of professional development offered by my district around math instruction.  So much great learning around differentiation, math talk and formative assessment influencing thoughtful math instruction in the classroom.  As was absorbing lots of new ideas and thinking, I was reminded of a book I began utilizing really heavily last school year.  The book I am thinking of is "Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Math Instruction", written by Marian Small.  This was recommended to me by a trusted colleague and I have to say it is my favorite resource in planning  my math lessons.  The focus of this book is on two easy to implement and extremely effective ways teachers can differentiate mathematics to meet the needs of their students in the classroom; through open questioning and through parallel tasks.  The first chapter or two of this book defines open questioning and parallel tasks for the reader and also outlines how teachers might create their own questions and tasks that inherently differentiated for the needs of learners.  If you look at the 2nd Edition, the final 3/4 or more of the book is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and gives both primary and intermediate examples of open questions and parallel tasks that can be used in the classroom.

What are open questions and parallel tasks?  I need more information...

• Open Questioning:  Open questioning is about asking broad questions that provide opportunities and access points for students at many developmental level to think about mathematics through a variety of approaches and responses.
• Parallel Tasks:  Parallel Tasks are sets of related task that look at the same big idea, but are designed to meet the needs of students at differing developmental levels and that lend themselves to discussions around strategy and thinking.
• Additional Information and Resources:
• Examples of Open Questions and Parallel Tasks
• Differentiating Math Instruction K-8
• Durham Catholic District School Board on Math Differentiation

Planning: Creating a Curriculum Calendar/Map

So, this was my big project this summer to help me get my footing just a little bit into what first grade is really going to entail this school year.  I worked with some of my colleagues from my previous school to piece together what reading, writing and phonics instruction would look like in a first grade classroom when focusing on the school year as a whole.  We took into consideration CCSS, Benchmark Reading, Benchmark Writing and Lucy Calkins materials in order to comprehensively meet all of the rigorous learning expectations.  I then took what we had done together with literacy and added in math, science, social studies, assessments and even what positive behavior qualities I also wanted to be sure to focus on throughout the year with my students.  Linked is the (DRAFT) end product of that work.  Very helpful for me to know I can fit this all into a year!

Again, I have linked my "finished" product as well as a blank template if other would like to try this themselves.

2013-2014 Curriculum Map/Calendar

Curriculum Map/Calendar Template