Math Professional Learning - 5th Grade Algebraic Expressions & Real World Math

The teachers who attended the NCTM Regional Conference, Houston, Texas in November 2014 presented the "most impressive" things they learned during our professional learning on January 21, 2015.

Algebraic Expressions
Lisa Lothspeich shared an activity where students use a bag of M&M's to learn about variables and how to write algebraic expressions.  The following questions were posed to teachers (one by one) and we began writing expressions to identify different color groups of M&M's.

Real World Math Insights

Monica Bramlett and Lynette Summers shared some insights from a session they attended led by Dan Meyer called, "Fake World Math - Why Modeling Goes Wrong (and how to get it right)".

They shared what effective modeling looks like and two great videos from Dan Meyer.  

http://threeacts.mrmeyer.com/hotcoffee/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRMVjHjYB6w

Sources:  NCTM Regional Conference, Houston, Texas, November 19-21, 2014
Session Name:  Fake World Math: Why Modeling Goes Wrong (and how to get it right), Dan Meyer

Math Professional Learning - 4th Grade Angle Measurement & Performance Tasks

The math teachers who attended the NCTM Conference, Houston, Texas in November presented what they learned about angle measurement and performance tasks.

Angle Measurement
Rachel Davis presented a progression to help students develop a deep understanding of angles and their sizes (before ever picking up a protractor):

Angle Measurement
Rachel Davis presented a progression to help students develop a deep understanding of angles and their sizes (before ever picking up a protractor):

1) Direct Comparison - Making comparisons between different        angles.

2) Non-Standard Units - Comparing angles to standard units (pattern blocks).

3) Standard Units - Measuring with standard units (fractional parts of a circle).

Performance Tasks
Sara Wessel shared a great resource with us: Nextlesson.org.
She showed us a sample performance task from this site, which included various activities designed to differentiate.










Sources:  NCTM Regional Conference in Houston Texas, November 19-21, 2015.
Session: Angling for Understanding - Peter Stowasser, ORIGO Education
NextLesson.org

Math Professional Learning - 3rd Grade Purposeful Questioning

The math teachers who attended the NCTM Regional Conference, Houston, Texas in November presented "the most impressive" things they learned at our math professional learning on January 21, 2015.

Laney Horn and Mary Elaine Williamson presented on Purposeful Questioning.  They attended this session led by Linda Gojak, the former President of NCTM.  Posing purposeful questions is one of the 8 effective mathematics teaching practices (NCTM).  Laney and Mary Elaine showed us with how important the question prompt is when we assign a task.  We compared two different prompts:

One of the questions has students arrive at a short answer, and doesn't really tell us what they know about area/perimeter.  The second prompt tells us a great deal about the students' depth of knowledge on area/perimeter.

They also gave us a guide for "what to do" and "what NOT to do" when posing questions to students.

Source:  "Asking Questions that Promote Student Understanding" presentation by Linda Gojak, Immediate Past President of NCTM.  NCTM Houston Regional Conference 2014.