Mathematics PD Assignment Fall 13

Mathematics PD Assignment Fall 2013 

As a way to further develop and incorporate the ideas we've been working on - both the 8 math practices and using more cognitively complex problems with students - each teacher will have their class work on a cognitively complex problem and write up that activity. The problem and write-up are due on Dec. 13th, 2013 as the final requirement of your participation in this PD opportunity.

The activity/problem should target specific math practices in support of preparing students to persist in the face of math problems of Depth of Knowledge levels 3 and higher. Problems should meet the following criteria:

•  students are unable to proceed directly towards a solution 
•  the problem can be solved in different ways 
•  there is a perplexing situation that the student understands 
• the solution requires the use of mathematical ideas 
• offer teachers an opportunity to draw out and develop some of the 8 mathematical practices

In addition to moving to a common language in the way we talk about math instruction in our program and with our students, we are also striving to develop a more common format in our lesson plans. To this end, please include the following components in the write-up of using a rigorous math task with your students:

Part 1: Planning: Answer before you work on the problem/activity with your students 

• How does this problem meet our criteria for cognitively challenging math tasks? 
•  Describe how you solved the problem. 
• Create a list of questions you can ask students to help them uncover their methods and/or a solution for solving.
• What are others ways to solve the problem? 
• Identify three challenges you think students will have in solving this problem. For each challenge describe what questions you would ask to support the problem-solving efforts of those students without giving too much away. 
• Which math practices are you hoping to develop by using this problem? (It might be helpful to consider which practices you used in order to solve the problem) 
• What do you want students to get from working on this problem?

Part 2: Student Work: Collect your students’ work and choose one or two samples for further analysis.

•  Describe the specific problem-solving strategies of each student. What do you appreciate about each student’s method? How could each student’s method be improved? 
• Briefly describe some of the challenges your students had while working on the problem. 

Part 3: Your Reflection: 

• How did it feel doing this problem with your students? 
• What did you learn from using this problem with your students (about math, about individual students, about your class, about student thinking in general)? 
• Briefly comment on how your class (individual students, or as a whole) benefitted from their work on this problem. 
• Did all of your students get what you wanted from the problem? How do you know? 
• Describe one highlight from the class discussion of the problem and solution methods. 
• What (if anything) would you do differently if you used this problem again? • What advice/message do you have for a teacher who is considering using this problem with their class

Part 4: Student Reflection: At the end of doing the activity with your students, please have them reflect on the experience by writing a response to one of the following prompts.

• What did you learn from working on this problem? 
•  What are you still wondering about? 
•  Describe what was easy and what was difficult for you. 
• What is one thing you want to remember? 
• What was difficult about this problem? What did you do when you felt challenged/confused by this problem?

 In your write-up, please include the prompt you choose and a few excerpts of your students’ responses post your lesson write-up to the blog by December 13th, 2013. You can post it as a new comment or a new post.

Reading and Writing PD Assignment Fall 2013

Please post your lesson plan assignment to the blog by December 6, 2013.  You can post it as a comment or a new post. 

As a way to further explore and incorporate the practices of reading and writing instruction that we are working on, each teacher will produce a lesson plan that they will teach in their class. The lesson plan is due on December 6, 2013, as the final requirement of your participation in this PD opportunity.

The lesson should support the overarching goal of preparing students to use textual evidence to support a claim.  Because the skill of using textual evidence to support a claim is large and complex and because you are all teaching different levels, the lesson can focus on one aspect of the skill, such as:

·         A lesson on the skill of focus in personal narrative writing

·         A lesson on the skill of showing in personal narrative writing

·         Close reading of a non-fiction text where students are mining the text for specific evidence focused on one aspect of the reading (the prompt in How to Make Salt Lesson 2 is one example of this). 

·         A close reading of a non-fiction text where students are beginning to write about what they notice about specific evidence (How to Make Salt lesson 1 is one example of this. This is the lesson that Maura taught.)

·         A close reading of a non-fiction text where the students are using evidence from the text to find and write about the main idea of the text (How to Make Salt lesson 3 is one example of this.

·         A close reading of a non-fiction text where students find accurate and relevant evidence that supports a given claim and explain how the evidence supports the claim. (Frederick Douglass lesson 7 is one example of this)

·         A close reading of a non-fiction text where students find accurate and relevant evidence in two texts that supports a given claim and explain how the evidence supports the claim.  (This is what student’s will be asked to do on the TASC)

In our third meeting with Maura on 11/25 we will explore the skill of using textual evidence to support a claim. We will incorporate reading and breakdown the steps to using evidence.

In addition to moving to a common language in the way we talk about reading and writing in our program and with our students, we are also striving to a more common format in our lesson plans. To this end, please include the following components in your lesson plan in this order:

·         Guiding questions and/or objectives

·         Brief description of the lesson

·         List of College and Career Readiness Standards that this lesson addresses

·         Materials needed for lesson

·         The Steps of the Lesson

·         Homework

·         Assessment: this is the place where you may think about feedback, both in class feedback (your comments to students as they are writing and other students’ comments during a sharing session) and after class feedback (your written comments on student work)

·         Any handouts that are part of the lesson