NCTM Regional Conference in Nashville

Several of our math teachers will be attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference in Nashville, November 18-20.  Trussville City Schools is sending a small group of teachers from every school.  The following teachers will be attending from Paine Elementary (grades 3-5):

• Karen Ekonen - 3rd Grade
• Rachelle Taylor - 4th Grade
• Susan Brandon - 5th Grade

Participating teachers will design future professional development for all of our math teachers based on what they learn at the conference!

Lisa Lothspeich and Jana Walls will be leading a session at the conference on Developing Multiplication Fact Fluency in the 21st Century. They will also attend sessions at the conference.

If you would like to apply to present or co-present at one of the regional conferences in the future, please get with Lisa and she can step you through the process.

Updates - Curriculum Guides, Grade Weights, Online Assessments

Grade Weights

Math Teachers met 10/21/15 to discuss, and finalize, the weights for our report card categories.  We agreed to the following:

55% - Classwork (Includes workshop, menu, and investigative tasks)
40% - Assessments (Includes mid & end of unit assessments and performance tasks)  
5% - Homework

We were comfortable increasing classwork to 55% because it is comprised of independent tasks completed in math workshop in addition to collaborative tasks (menu & investigations).  This should provide a balance in that category.

Curriculum Guide - Additional Performance Tasks

Math Teachers expressed a need for additional assessments (that can be graded) in the curriculum guides.  We discussed not wanting to spend too much instructional time on these additional assessments.  In response, we will include additional short (15 minute) performance tasks in future curriculum guides.  These will included in place of a number talk at strategic points in the unit (after a concept or skill has been taught for mastery).  We still must complete a minimum of 3 number talks per week.

Online Assessments on Achievement Series

As we continue to transition to administering our unit assessments on Achievement Series, here are a couple of things to remember:

• If you provide a paper copy, please do not have students use this in isolation, and enter their data later.  This will not prepare them for an authentic online testing experience (which they will have with ACT Aspire in the spring).
• If you provide the paper copy, please do that in addition to having them work on the computer. This should be done simultaneously, i.e., they work a problem on the paper copy, then enter the response on the computer; and then, they move on to the next problem.  This provides a better simulation of an online testing experience, and reduces the number of "data entry" errors (that commonly occur when done in isolation).

Once all students in the grade level have taken the online assessment, this data should be briefly analyzed in CAD.  CAD leaders please let me know when all tests have been administered, and I will run the grade level report and send to you.  This is a way for us to analyze the effectiveness of our unit of study.

As always, if you need any help with this please let me know.

Eureka Mini-Lessons (Key Points & Video Links)

The following are key points on how to use Eureka as the resource for our mini-lessons.

• The guided instruction component in our curriculum should be in the form of "mini" lessons not to exceed 20-30 minutes.
• These mini-lessons typically occur in our curriculum every other day.
• If your guided instruction is exceeding this time allotment, consider working fewer problems (eliminate duplicate types of problems). 
• Condense mini-lessons if you have evidence that students are already proficient with the concept or skill.
• These mini-lessons should be used to "cement" knowledge already constructed and discussed in math congress or classroom discussions.
• Allow students to use a choice of models...Eureka models are "one" tool in their toolbox.  Supporting a variety of strategies and models in considered best practice!
• Modify mini-lessons, practice sets, and homework as needed to support best practices.

The South San Francisco Unified School District has a link on their website containing tutorial videos that may be used by teachers or parents.  They are organized by grade level, with tabs for each of the modules. There are lesson videos within each module.

Please use the links below to access these videos:
3rd Grade Eureka Videos
4th Grade Eureka Videos
5th Grade Eureka Videos

Math Studio Day (GBMP)

On September 21, 2015 our math teachers participated in a Math Studio Day, a lesson study model developed by the Greater Birmingham Math Partnership (GBMP). We partnered with Faye Clark and Ann Dominick, founders of the Greater Birmingham Math Partnership initiative, to analyze cognitive demand through this model. We reviewed the factors associated with the decline and maintenance of cognitive demand.

The goals of the Math Studio Day are to: 1) Bring the math practice standards to life, 2) Increase accountability and quality of implementation, 3) Develop shared understanding of practices, 4) Deepen teacher math knowledge, 5) Foster norms and habits of instructional practice, and 6) De-privatize classrooms for professional learning and increased student achievement.

The Math Studio Protocol includes the following steps:

1. The studio teacher will discuss the lesson plans and math tasks planned.
2. All participants do the math, exploring the strategies students may use.
3. Participants anticipate the questions and misconceptions students may have.
4. Participants discuss how strategies, questions, and misconceptions may be addressed in the classroom, and how cognitive demand can be maintained.
5. Participants observe in the the studio classroom (without talking to each other or students).
6. Participants reflect on lesson objectives and level of cognitive demand.

 

A huge thank you to Jana Walls, our Math Studio Teacher for the day! Thank you for for providing us with this opportunity!

Math Data Meeting

In September 2015 math teachers met by grade level to analyze our ACT Aspire Data and baseline Global Scholar data.  We achieved growth over the previous year in all grade levels on ACT Aspire!!! In the "Ready" category, we had a high percentage of students who scored in the "Exceeds" level.  This is confirmed with our distribution of scores in our Global Scholar baseline data for this year.  This reinforces the need to differentiate instruction to meet all students' needs. Specific ideas for differentiation are included in our curriculum guides on providing additional support for students needing assistance and enrichment for students who have mastered the content.

Curriculum Guide Training

In August 2015 all math teachers (grades 3-5) participated in Curriculum Guide Training.  

Our learning targets were:

• I can describe the structure of the curriculum guides.
• I can describe the components in the curriculum guides.
• I can reason through key points that will aide me in instruction/using the guides.
• I can explain the integration of Eureka.
• I can utilize the Unit 1 guide.

We discussed how research shows the most effective instructional practices include classroom discourse and small group/one-on-one interaction with the teacher. Our curriculum provides many opportunities for peer collaboration and small group instruction with the teacher.

We discussed how Eureka math will be utilized in the form of Guided Instruction/Mini-Lessons to cement concepts after students develop conceptual knowledge through investigative tasks. 

Our curriculum is based on research-based best instructional practices. The component parts of our curriculum are shown below.  Future blog posts will highlight these components in greater detail.

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