Pumped Up Math for Grades Pre-K- 2

Meg Dawkins, speech and language pathologist at Berlin Elementary, threw down the gauntlet (but in a sweet way, because she's Meg, and she's really sweet). She's got a garden brimming with vegetables, so she challenged me to come up with some ideas for how to integrate the veggies with lessons that target our WCSU Performance Indicators for math from kindergarten right on up to grade 6.  In this post, I'll share what I've come up with in the primary grades.

Math Reporting Guidelines for Grades 1-6 SY 2016-2017

FALL 2017 NOTE FOR WCSU TEACHERS: Please note that this blog post provided guidance for last year (2016- 2017). It provided a work around with the old report card that used the reporting labels: Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Progressing, etc. Now that the labels on the report card are changing, the work around described here will no longer be necessary. I will edit this information when I get more information about what the report card will look like.

The purpose of this blog post is to provide guidance for WCSU teachers in grades k-6 on how to communicate and report student achievement in relation to our grade level performance indicators for mathematics.  I’ll provide some background information and then explain how to proceed going forward this school year.  If you have questions or suggestions, please let me know (email me at edorsey@u32.org or comment below), and I will update this post to incorporate your feedback.

Getting Fancy with a LFHC Telescoping Task

Blog readers know that I have a definite "thing" for low floor high ceiling tasks as a way to unite a class and engage all students in high depth problem solving in a heterogeneous classroom (click here if you're not convinced).  Low floor, high ceiling problems are also an excellent means of formative assessment and a way to emphasize math norms that encourage growth mindset in a math classroom.

As we start off the year, we take stock of our students.  What do they do well and what do they need to work on?  We see students at different places, and we wonder how to create a structure that includes, engages and challenges all learners.

In this blog post, I offer up a telescoping task as a low floor, high ceiling instructional tool.  It is linked below, and for lack of a more creative name, I'm calling it: 

"Creating Fancy Duck Tape Problems"

This task could be used for any grade level from second grade (although maybe the number would need to change) up through algebra.  It can be used as a formative assessment to gauge your students' ability to apply math concepts along a progression ranging from place value to additive and multiplicative reasoning to fractions to ratios and percents all the way up to algebraic systems.  Teachers and students can assess based on conceptual mastery as well as use of these math practices:

• CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 Model with mathematics.

I would launch this task with the whole class after (or maybe while) introducing students to Jo Boaler's "Positive Norms in Math Class" (presented in the Prezi below or you can use the 8.5 by 11 posters linked here). 

I would use math mindsets to frame the task and explicitly focus on these positive norms:

• Norm 3. Questions are really important.
• Norm 4. Math is about creativity and making sense.
• Norm 5. Math is about Connections and Communicating
• Norm 6. Value depth over speed.

To kick off the task, students are given some information about the amounts of (yes, you guessed it) fancy duct tape left on rolls in an art classroom.  The low floor, high ceiling prompt is to ask students what they notice about the data:

Live from Berlin - Formative Assessment Strategies & STAR 360

This blog post accompanies our Wednesday, September 7, 2016 PD session at Berlin Elementary. 

Essential Question:  How can we use assessments to maximize student learning?

Entry Slip Formative Assessment (5 minutes):

Choose either a high tech or low tech option:

• High tech option - Complete the entry slip in Google Forms (Note: you will need to be logged into our google domain wcsu32.org to access the form.)
• Low tech option - On a notecard, jot your name and complete these sentences: 

1. Some of my formative assessment strategies are...
2. I would assess my skill level for designing and using formative assessment strategies as... (Choose 1 - beginning, 2 - developing, 3 - proficient, 4 - advanced) 

Take a minute to share favorite strategies with those seated around you.  Consider these questions:

  

Facilitator to hand out hard copies of:

• Formative Assessment Strategies
• 2016-2017 Teachers' Guide to Administering the STAR 360 Screener

Introduction (5 minutes)

Next week, we start our first math residency at Berlin Elementary.  We'll be focusing on using formative assessment to inform teacher (and ideally student) planning for instruction. This focus ties into these aspects of Berlin's Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP):

Literacy 1a: Task 2: Staff will use a variety of measures to assess student performance data to guide instruction and allocate instructional resources

Literacy 1b: Task 4: Students are actively involved in setting their own goals based on learning targets and feedback; moving toward student centered classroom.

Math 2a: Task 3:  Teachers develop and use formative assessment regularly that is aligned with the WCSU Levels of Math Knowing to plan instruction

Math 2a: Task 4:  Teachers assess all students using the WCSU Levels of Math Knowing and benchmark expectations (based on WCSU Scope and Sequencing)

Math 2a: Task 7:  Set up a system for teachers to self-assess and peer-assess citing evidence and track teacher growth in relation to expectations.

Math 2b: Task 9: Teachers routinely use formative assessment to improve their instruction.

Additionally, formative assessment strategies and systems are included in components 1f (Assessing Student Learning) and 3d (Using Assessment in Instruction) of the Danielson rubric.

This afternoon, we prime the pump for this work with a workshop targeting these learning objectives:

• Learn how to use the STAR 360 assessment tool to administer reading and math screening assessments.
• Reflect on how formative assessment strategies can be used systematically across the curriculum to provide feedback and inform instruction.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down Formative Assessment (1 minute):  

How well do either (or both) of these objectives align with Berlin's CIP goals for this year? 

How well do either (or both) of these objectives align with your own goals for this year? 

Thumbs Up (Well aligned), Sideways (Somewhat aligned) or Down (Not at all aligned)

Popcorn Discussion (10 minutes)

One person starts a prompt.  Each person responding picks the next person to respond.  Facilitator records responses.

1. Formative assessment is ...
2. A "screener" (screening assessment) is ...

Question: How can these two types of assessments work together to improve student outcomes?

Administering the STAR 360 (30 minutes)

• Walk through the WCSU STAR 360 Training website.
• Walk through the 2016-2017 Teachers' Guide to Administering the STAR 360 Screener.
• Use the checklist to complete your training (either assisted or independently).

Exit Card (5 minutes)

Choose either a high tech or low tech option:

• High tech option - Complete the entry slip in Google Forms (Note: you will need to be logged into our google domain wcsu32.org to access the form.)
• Low tech option - On a notecard, jot your name and: 

1. Rate your comfort level administering the STAR 360 screener (on a scale of 1-4 where 1 means "Help! I don't know how!" and 4 means "No problem! I've got this!) 
2. What are you taking away from this session?
3. What would you like to know more about?
4. What is your feedback for the facilitator. 

Parting shot: How many formative assessment strategies can you spot in this session?

I'll send mathematically correct tattoos (temporary ones, of course) to WCSU employees who can find them all...  Send me an email.

2016-2017 ...And we're off!

Greetings, WCSU math nerds!

I hope you're all having a fabulous first week back with our students.  It was nice to catch up with so many of you last week.  As always, I was reminded how fortunate I am to work with you.  To kick off the year, I'd like to deliver this post in bite-sized chunks to update you on these news items:

• Math Coaching goals, schedule and format for 2016-2017
• Non-negotiables are "performance indicators?" - A summary of language changes
• Guidance for math reporting
• WCSU Benchmark Assessments - What and When?
• STAR 360 Assessment Tool

June Curriculum Work

The math steering committee spent three days writing common benchmark assessments for math that are aligned with the scope and sequence and benchmark expectations (for levels of knowing) for October, January and April.

Here are the criteria we used to develop these tasks.
Here is the plan we followed.

The assessments that we created for each grade level are available on the grade level tabs included in the header of this blog.  For example, here is a screen shot of the Grade 3 tab:

 The last bullet contains a link to the common assessments for grade 3 that are aligned with the scope and sequence linked in the first bullet.

In the next weeks, we will be cleaning up formatting and language... Please check out our assessments and provide us with feedback by posting a comment.

Thanks!

MathLibs: A Lit-Integrated Low Floor, High Ceiling Strategy

Several months ago, I wrote this blog post about revamping math problems to make them more "low floor, high ceiling."  I also offered up this graphic organizer for analyzing and making over problems detailing these possible change strategies:

• Devise a concrete and visual introduction.
• Remove or change restrictions.
• Remove or change known quantities.
• Swap the known and unknown.
• Inject some choice.

One or more of these strategies can be used to tweak the problem and increase the accessibility and reach of the problem.  One strategy that I recommended was to re-write the problem in the form of a MadLib.  I got this idea from a former colleague who created a MadLib project to teach qualitative graphing to her seventh graders.  I thought the idea was pretty genius, so I have retooled it frequently.

Recently, I found this site where you can create your own MadLibs (or "MathLibs").  It's easy to use.  Here's how it works...