April 2018 - EMT Institute - Studio Day

Morning Session:
The EMT Cohort participated in a Math Studio Day, where we observed a lesson in Mrs. Bramlett's 5th Grade Classroom.  The learning goal for this experience was to recognize and enhance cognitive demand of tasks and lessons, and integrate new knowledge into our own teaching practice.

We followed the Studio Day Protocol developed by the Greater Birmingham Math Partnership.

1.  Setting up the Task - Mrs.Bramlett set the stage for the experience, providing us with the learning goals, background knowledge of students, grouping strategies, and tools students may use.
2.  Do the Math - Teachers worked the task, anticipating student strategies and misconceptions. We used a Task Analysis Guide to determine the task's cognitive demand, and we explored ways to maintain the level of cognitive demand with students throughout the task.
3.  Supporting Students' Exploration of the Task - We discussed how to help students progress through the task and understand key mathematical ideas, using assessing and advancing questions.
4.  Discussing the Task - We discussed how Mrs. Bramlett would structure her math congress (the following day).
5.  Classroom Observation - We observed in Mrs. Bramlett's classroom for one hour, which included a 15-minute number talk and 45 minutes of the investigative task.  We took notes on a graphic organizer for later discussion.

6.  Debriefing Session - EMT Teachers participated in a debriefing session to reflect on our observations and what we could take back to improve our teaching practice.

Afternoon Session
We discussed the importance of math practice and application, and explored more engaging alternatives to worksheets.  We engaged in these activities as learners!

February/March 2018 EMT Meetings

In February and March our EMT group took a deep dive into the Eight Mathematics Teaching Practices from "Principles to Actions" (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics).

We studied the first 4 practices in February and the last 4 in March.
For each practice, we read and discussed designated sections in "Principles to Actions", identified unproductive and productive beliefs, and explored what the teacher should be doing (and why) and what the students should be doing (and why).

February Meeting

1. Establish mathematics goals to focus learning
We read about writing effective learning targets and viewed a video of a TCS teacher "engaging" her students in the learning targets, and reflected on our observations.  We referenced "Leaders of Their Own Learning" by Ron Berger in our discussion.

2.  Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving.
We compared three different ways to approach teaching equivalent fractions to determine which task required more critical thinking and problem solving, and why.  We participated in a Paper Folding (https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/paper-folding/) task as learners to experience a rigorous task that requires a deep level of thinking.

3.  Use and connect mathematical representations.

We learned about a Math Connections Routine we found at the NCTM Regional Conference.  After experiencing the routine as learners, grade level teams created tasks that could be used for these routines in their classrooms and facilitated these routines for our group.

 4. Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.
We revisited the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Meaningful Math Discussions and watched a video of Diane Briars, former NCTM President, speaking about Discussion that Advance Mathematics Learning.

March Meeting

5. Pose purposeful questions.
We discussed the purpose of both "Assessing" and "Advancing" questions.  We participated in a task with specific learning goals, anticipated student strategies, and used this to plan questions in advance.

6. Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.
We revisited student learning opportunities on developing fluency (from a previous session), and read more about how to build on conceptual knowledge to develop fluency.

7. Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.
We reflected individually by participating in a self-assessment on the level of productive struggle currently experienced by students in the classroom.  We read and discussed a STEM article on "Productive Struggle in Mathematics" and identified our key takeaways.

8.  Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

We watched a video of a TCS teacher conducting a formative assessment where students pick a side of the room based on their position (a misconception debate).  Students alternate defending their position and students can move to a different side of the room if someone convinces them to change position.

Earlier this year, each teacher selected one of the 8 Teaching Practices as an area of focus.  We reflected individually on our growth and development this year regarding the selected practice.