Reflect
Read the two summaries linked below to get a better understanding of the design principles and key structures of Illustrative Math. Then watch the short video to learn more about the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Math Discussions.
Consider
- What is resonating with you from these readings or this video?
- What caused you to pause and think?
- What principles or structures from your own math classroom align with some of these beliefs or components?
Respond and Interact
After reading and watching, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
As I am reading thru the principles and structures of Illustrated Math I am becoming more hopeful that this will provide a way for sped students to overcome the challenges they have in their math journey. I like that students will be learning mathematics by doing rather than watching. My concern is the time involved with preparing for each lesson for both 4th and 5th grades. The statement that "it is important for teachers to understand the progressions in the materials. Grade-level, unit, lesson, and activity narratives describe decisions about the organization of mathematical ideas, connections to prior and upcoming grade-level work, and the purpose of each lesson and next lesson? It does seem like a fair amount to know and reflect on in order to be prepared for the next lesson. I do also wonder what additional supports might be needed for sped students and how they would be incorporated into the lessons?
ReplyDeleteOne point that caused me to pause and think is the idea of journal writing in math. The key structures document states, "Journal writing not only encourages explicit connections between current and new knowledge and promotes metacognitive frameworks to extend ideas, but it also provides opportunities for teachers to learn more about each student’s identity and math experiences." This has challenged me to think of ways to incorporate the use of journal prompts in my math class. I found it helpful that Illustrative Mathematics provides both journal prompts and sentence stems in order to encourage students to write about both math content and their beliefs and feelings about math. I will continue to ponder on how and when to use journal writing in math as I make plans for teaching this year.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was drawn to the information shared about journal writing. This is not an area I have focused on in math but I am intrigued by the opportunities for students to communicate their connections, thinking, and feelings in written form. Besides providing students with an opportunity to connect "school to their lived experiences in the world", it also could open a door for those students who need a way to express their struggles or challenges in understanding the mathematics from a lesson or task, and lead to my becoming more aware of and providing for those needs.
ReplyDeleteAnother piece that stood out was the reminder to revisit weekly (all year long) the norms and expectations my class develops for our math learning community in the beginning of the year. My class developed the norms and expectations last year with IM but we only revisited the document once or twice. I believe having this document more visible and reviewing our shared commitment could have helped my students work more collaboratively and been more supportive of one another as they learned math last year.
I love that the Key Structures of IM includes suggestions for PLC work. I also appreciated the table with teacher moves & questions that will support building a math community in our classrooms. Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Design Principles document and watching the video, I am reflecting on the importance of teachers being adept at moment-to-moment decision making to facilitate rich discussions. It all starts with intentional planning and then monitoring your students closely so that you can help students make connections in math. Selecting and sequencing student work to support the big ideas is something that I know I need to work on next year. I am thinking about how we can use the PLC activities to work together to become better at building on students thinking and create new learning. I am also thinking about how using some of the journal questions might help students make connections and help me learn more about my students’ math experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhen reviewing the document about design principals it mentioned the value of purposed representations. We of course use them to help students develop an understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures and to help solve problems. However, it also connected them to the importance of students making connections between representations as they become more efficient at problem solving. I this ties so nicely into the journaling aspect of math that they also discussed. We work so hard to build conceptual understanding with our students, and to build connections and relationships. One area that students seem to struggle is articulating these relationships, or their thinking. I think the journaling piece would be a great way for them to practice explaining their thinking in a meaningful way and gather feedback from peers or teacher.
ReplyDeleteWhat stood out the most to me during part 2 was the structure of using student journaling and developing a mathematical community within my classroom. I can see how journaling could help my students communicate more mathematically, as well as it could help me to become more aware of their ideas, thinking, and interests. This would help me to better guide them as well as hook them into enjoying math. In the small group MAP setting, I see this happening as more of a quick reflection. I also feel I could use some of the prompts to build mathematical discussions around a lesson or an activity. It is super important to build an encouraging and supportive mathematical community in my small MAP group setting. Even though I know I have been working on this, I feel I could be doing even better in this area. I made a note to look into the first six lessons to find what structures are being used in the classroom setting. I also would like to develop even better questioning skills to get my students more actively engaged and sharing their thoughts. They learn so much from each other.
ReplyDeleteLike a few of you, what stood out the most to me, were the reflection questions for student math journaling. I have never required students to have a math journal outside of our unit workbooks, but looking at the questions really made me stop and pause. I was really inspired by these reflection questions and how they can contribute to my students learning and thinking, not only through math, but also picking up that ELA component of being able to restate a question! I think instead of journals, I will make an anchor chart of the different reflections/prompts and have my students choose one to respond to each day on the back of their cool down. This will keep them more engaged in their learning, but also help me to understand their thinking and where they are in their learning.
ReplyDeleteThe thing to stood out to me was also the journaling and refection questions. that is something I would have never thought of, but it would be such a great tool for teachers to use and would help them understand how much the kids are understanding.
ReplyDeleteStop talking, observe, listen. This stuck out to me again. Observing the problem solving and letting it unfold without jumping in too early. I also enjoyed the vertical standing stations. I have seen this used in math lessons and it really engages the students so much more than when they sit at desks.
ReplyDeleteThe journaling and prompts stuck out to me as such a useful tool that I would like to incorporate into my lesson planning. Writing prompts and journaling work well because students who may not advocate well for themselves when they are struggling get their voices heard in a different way, and thus their needs met.
ReplyDeleteReflection, reflection, reflection. Reflection is my big takeaway from this week's review material. Having students reflect, connect, and evaluate their math learning and feelings about math by using math journals is a new concept for me, however, I can definitely see the importance of incorporating this into our math routines. I also saw the need for reflection highlighted within the suggestions for PLC time, which will be wildly helpful this year as we are all rolling out this new curriculum.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is capable of enjoying the process of mathematical thinking. I like the idea of Monitoring. It is important to develop understanding in students rather than memorizing and applying a set of procedures.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of my goals to incorporate is using the journal prompts. In using them in an effective way for my MAP students to really communicate their understanding of the "Why" behind the answer and using post- its for This ( XYZ) was confusing or challenging.. as a way for them to communicate to me to circle back around the following day to the concept. It also gives my students a safe place to practice putting their math thinking into words in place without peer judgment or concerns.
ReplyDeleteThe part that resonated for me was journaling. I have never considered giving students time to journal and reflect upon their understanding of the math lesson. Many of the students I see may not want to open up about confusion or lack of understanding towards any one problem, as they do not want to be ridiculed by their peers. Journaling would give them a chance to not only reflect upon their potential confusion, but also to better be able to put into words where they might have been lost along the way. This would allow for them to ask more focused questions and seek out the necessary information that will allow them to master a concept.
ReplyDeleteI am with a lot of my colleagues here and left thinking about the power of math journals. How can I make journaling a part of our regular routine? Do I have the capacity to use them meaningfully - meaning, I have time to collect them, read them, and maybe even respond? Do I encourage sharing journals between peers so they can encourage and coach one another?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to have the second article/resource as it really defines the intention of each section of the lesson. I have printed it and will keep it as a resource. I think this will be especially useful as we enter our PLC cycles.
I love reading through IM principles knowing that the focus is on building problem solving in students and they understand that students learn best when performing the math in hands-on ways. This seems evident in the lesson plans they have lined up. I also really like how the routines are built into the curriculum in a way that keeps things simple, consistent, and engaging. For me, this has been a struggle, trying to reformat lesson routines when the curriculum doesn't support best practices adds a lot of extra load, but is vital to the success of our students. I find it refreshing to see a curriculum that relies so much on student-to-student and class conversations. Those are the best parts of lessons!
ReplyDelete