Chapter 8:
1. Are cognitively challenging mathematical tasks a common feature of mathematics instruction in your school? If not, how might you take an active role in changing the status quo?
2. What steps can you take to improve the quality of discussions in your classroom?
I don't think that we are challenging our students with math tasks. Each of our middle school grade levels, our resource teacher, and our instructional coach have now all taken the class. That is a big step. Our curriculum director has allowed 6th grade to try Open Up Resources for this year. I think we are moving in the right direction, just not there yet.
ReplyDelete2. I have to get much better at selecting, sequencing, and asking questions. My co-teacher and myself are working with our instructional coach on questioning this year. It will help that each grade level and our coach have taken the class.
Quality math tasks are not highly utilized through our K-12 school, very procedure oriented and our math data at the middle school this year, really hit us hard. Good news is we looked at our data and we are making changes for the upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteJenelle Jarnagin
ReplyDelete1) I think we have the resources to cognitively challenging mathematical tasks in our school, I don't feel that they are implemented in our classrooms. We don't have a like planning time to work on lesson plans we all teach different levels. I need to start implementing the 5 practices in my classroom and hopefully other will follow.
2) Working the anticipation process and writing out accessing and advancing questions will be the first step. I obviously from past experience haven't come up with questions on the fly well enough to advance the conversation.
No, cognitively challenging mathematical tasks are not a common feature in my district’s middle or high school. Two of the three middle school teachers are taking this course and I can safely say that we are both finding value in the concepts we are learning. The last part of our MS team is new to our school this year and has only taught middle school math one year previously. Therefore, she might enjoy learning this methodology of teaching mathematics. I can also be an advocate for the implementation of this style before, during, and after our PLC times.
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to focus on pre-planning lessons and setting up the monitoring sheet. Also, collaborating with my colleagues that will be teaching the same or similar content to hear their suggestions and ideas.
I totally agree Kristy! I think that we can get the other math teachers on board and start getting some plans and ideas down if we all work together!
DeleteAmanda
1. I do not think that cognitively challenging math task are a common feature. I do believe that we do this every once in a while, but not nearly as often as we should. During the past week I have been visiting with the another teacher taking this course with me. We have both been very excited to start adapting this into our classroom. I feel that I can be more vocal when it comes to asking for ideas and help with other math teachers. I may run an idea past, but I would like to be able to have other teachers come in and observe my room.
ReplyDelete2. I think that I need to work on the anticipation phase. Working through problems and learning to write down the strategies, questions, misconceptions, and any other ideas that might be brought up during class. I want to use a monitoring sheet so that I can have this all out in front of me to make the lesson focus on student understanding.
Amanda Thorsen
Kate Wonders
ReplyDelete1. No, I do not think using math tasks is a common practice in my building. I can help change this my doing tasks in my classroom and inviting other teachers to come and observe. I can teach my PLC about using math tasks and the benefits. I can also continue to work as the building math lead and use the math team to educate others about this different approach of teaching.
2. I can model questioning strategies and train my students how to explain their thinking. I plan to post sentence starters for students to use during math work. I can also work to build a supportive classroom environment where students feel comfortable to ask questions and learn from their mistakes.
We have just begun to look at tasks as a 9 - 12 math team the last year or so. We have looked at some during our curriculum review days and during our PLC time when we have been using a protocol to unpack our standards. I think our math PLC team is willing to try them but I think we need a little more learning to do it correctly using all the components.
ReplyDeleteI have my classroom set up so groups of students can sit together and discuss problems. I just need to plan for discussion and not just let them happen.
1) If I'm answering this question honestly, I would have to say that I'm not entirely sure. I think there is plenty of room for improvement with regard to cognitively challenging mathematical tasks at Ballard. But I know we are on track to make things better. Sixth graders will be doing Open Up Resources everyday, and I know that the 7th grade and 8th grade teachers, along with our instructional coach, are attending this class and are committed to more effective math instruction in our building.
ReplyDelete2) The main thing I can do to improve the quality of discussions in my classroom is to commit to the planning that will be involved in carrying out the Five Practices. The planning and anticipation stage will truly be the key to my noticing during the students' work time, my responses to them, and the direction that the discussion takes during whole group discussion. Obviously questioning and what was discussed in Chapter 6 with the discussion moves is great information to keep in mind and do my best to apply as well.
1. I don't think that engaging students in cognitively challenging tasks is a common practice in my building. Although there may be examples that show themselves from time to time and from classroom to classroom - there isn't any consistency.
ReplyDeleteI do think however that as a building we are becoming aware of the need for these tasks and are doing the reading, taking the classes and working together to begin the process of implementation. We are all here today to build our knowledge and grow as a math department with cohesive practices.
2. I think it all will come together with quality planning and utilization of 5 practices. It is something that requires careful planning and practice.
1. Are cognitively challenging mathematical tasks a common feature of mathematics instruction in your school? If not, how might you take an active role in changing the status quo? I believe our math department staff does a good job challenging the cognitive, but I also believe we have room for improvement..
ReplyDelete2. What steps can you take to improve the quality of discussions in your classroom? Probably, number one is listen better. Take time, slow down use questions to move kids and listen.
1. No. We are currently working on a new curriculum. I am taking an active role by looking through curriculum with our team of math teachers at the middles school. In my classroom this year, I am having students explain their thinking a lot more often in writing and verbalizations.
ReplyDelete2. This year, I will be looking for more challenging tasks that relate to the topics we are discussing to have discussions. I am also having students work in groups/pairs to have students explain their thinking.
1. Are cognitively challenging mathematical tasks a common feature of mathematics instruction in your school? If not, how might you take an active role in changing the status quo?
ReplyDeleteNot currently, but our 6th grade teachers are going to pilot OUR this coming school year. And we are also in the process of picking out new curriculum.
2. What steps can you take to improve the quality of discussions in your classroom?
Start inserting tasks found on resources like Illustrative and make sure my plans are well thought out and anticipated.
Kelsey Burger
1. Cognitively challenging mathematical tasks I would say are present in our school but I would not say they are the expectation or the norm. I feel like I present my Precalculus student with some challenging mathematical tasks to discuss in small groups but I don’t do a good job of hosting a class discussion over them. I have been satisfied that the individual groups have found success in the tasks and do not regularly go a step further to connect the mathematics between the groups. I also feel like I can do better at selecting or posing the mathematical tasks.
ReplyDeleteI have already shared some of the sites with rich tasks that you shared with us with some my collogues. I plan to incorporate more tasks in my classroom and encourage my PLC to do the same. I am a model teacher for our district and I can invite staff to watch my students work with a rich task and compare the learning to a sit and get lesson. I would ask for feedback on the lesson from the staff to see what their concerns are and help them talk through them. I will encourage my PLC to help me build, find and alter a task so we can see the value of working together more.
2. I plan to try the 5 steps with a few lessons this semester. I am interested to see the actual time it takes to fully plan and implement a good discussion in my classroom. I would like to challenge myself to try each the different mathematical language routines at least once and see which ones work best for my students and class material. I can see many of them working out well as a warmup to get the students ready to engage and talk for the day.
In the future it would be a goal to try to ideally work in at least one good discussion per unit. I could see many of them happening at the beginning of a unit to launch and explore a new topic and solidify the connections to background knowledge.