Math Steering Committee Talking Points - January 2016

The WCSU Math Steering Committee had the opportunity to meet during our in-service this past Friday.  Among other things, we developed these "talking points" that we want to share out with all of you...

Curriculum work

In grades K-8 this year, we have been working on:

• Developing (and revising) levels of knowing for each non-negotiable skill; 
• Developing (and revising) scope and sequencing documents with benchmark expectations for October, January, April and June; 
• Creating, revising and aligning benchmark assessments (using feedback collected from those who piloted assessments). 

This work will allow us to begin the 2016-2017 school year with a common understanding of what students are expected to know and do at various check points throughout the year. This way we can monitor our students' progress in relation to our non-negotiables, inform our tier 1 (core) instruction, and plan targeted supports. Most importantly, we can report out this progress to students and caregivers in a consistent way.

Additionally, we are developing a resource guide so that we can put the resources that we are developing in the hands of teachers. We will be asking for input from all of you: What would you like to see in the resource binder? Here are some of the ideas that we brainstormed on Friday:



What do you think? Click here to add your ideas to a brainstorming google doc. Please let us know your ideas...

In the meantime, the Math Steering Committee wants to encourage everyone to check out and use the resources we are developing, but know that there will continue to be revisions, so please check back frequently.

In grades 7-9, the steering committee has been taking a closer look at the Algebra 1 content standards and performance indicators (which are basically the same thing as our non-negotiables). We are also looking at what would it take to get our 8th graders taking algebra to the same place our algebra 1 students would get to. Could we cover Algebra 1 in a semester?

Instruction

Math steering committee members have been partnering to develop and facilitate professional development modules delivered during Wednesday professional development times. For example, Anne Carter (EMES), Kim Farone (Berlin) and I worked together on various PD sessions around math mindsets that have been used at Berlin, EMES and Rumney. At U-32, Mary Ellen Simmons and Jen Miller-Arsenault have been facilitating a fourth Wednesday group that is piloting a "math mindsets" course for teachers. In the future, we hope to get math steering folks at other schools involved in developing SU wide professional development, too.

For more information on "math mindsets," you can check out these posts.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions?

Please feel free to send me an email (edorsey@u32.org), or get in touch with the Math Steering Committee members in your building:

Berlin: Kim Farone, Cindy Gauthier, Bhavana Singh

Calais: Kate Rob, Stacey Rupp

Doty: Lisa Hanna, Sonya Rhodes

East Montpelier: Anne Carter, Ellen Shedd, Dave Willard, Jillian Zeilenga

Rumney: Ben Weiss

U-32: Katie Jarvis, Julie Kiefer, Jason Reichert, Hollis St. Peter

Math choices are so choice!

Okay, for those of you who didn't grow up in the 80's, the title of this post is in reference to a quote from Ferris Bueller, for whom "choice" means "great."

I get a lot of questions about differentiation strategies.  My favorite recipe for differentiated math instruction involves setting up a structure like this:

I have described components of this recipe in previous posts (such as these), so I won't go into all of that now.  

For this post, I want to highlight a couple of simple ways that creating opportunities for student choice or self directed instruction can help with differentiation specifically during the "Practice" phase which is shaded in orange in the diagram above.

February 5, 2016 Grades K-3 Math PD

Greetings, math nerds!  Here's a quick video to tell you about what we'll be doing during our math workshop tomorrow from 11:00 - 2:30 in room 15 at U-32:

Please bring a device (Chromebook, iPad, etc.).  Click here to see the agenda if you want more information.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Looking forward to working with you!

Ellen