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.
Right off the bat, I was struck by IM's commitment to deepening teachers' knowledge of mathematics and professional practice while concurrently fostering high levels of student thinking and empowering students as capable thinkers. As I have begun to reflect the ways I wish to grow as an educator, and as a human, this coming year, I have found myself identifying different areas of my life in which I may have become stagnant or fail to continue to develop. A favorite TED Talk by Eduardo Briceño brought these thoughts back to the surface again. IM does not wish for its teachers to recycle the same strategies and formulas year after year, but rather to challenge ourselves to grow in our practice and cultivate an equitable community of learners who DO math in authentic contexts. I appreciated IM's effort to, "prompt teachers to reflect on, and challenge, the assumptions they make—about mathematics, learners of mathematics, and the communication of mathematics in their classrooms" (p. 85). I am excited to use these questions as a tool to fuel my instructional decisions and collaborate with my colleagues.
ReplyDeleteOf the key structures described, it is evident that IM seeks to raise the level of student voice and emphasizes communication throughout the learning process. Through the prompts described, students and teachers are encouraged to think not only about HOW a problem is solved, but also consider their feelings toward the problem or larger concept. Furthermore, students are asked to think about the role they play in the learning community with such prompts as, "I felt heard during class today when . . . I felt my ideas were valued during class today when..." (p. 74). Already, I am thinking through how I can effectively incorporate these reflective prompts into every content area.
From the Five Practices video, I was reminded of the importance of intentional listening and limiting my own quantity of speech in order to allow student voice to drive learning. Listening to the speaker describe each student example, her observations, and the sequence in which grouped and presented them were a valuable reminder of the importance of deliberately presenting student work as a tool to support student understanding. The infographic at the end provided a helpful visual summary and is something I will continue to reference.
Being an early implementer of our new IM curriculum, one of my biggest connections tied to these readings has been the importance of really listening to the work and conversations students are having with their peers during each activity. While I am circulating around the room, I am taking note of the areas of confusion so I can step in and assist if needed, but also where students are really embracing the productive struggle while they are working through problems together and independently. Then, I'm (trying) to determine the most effective way to have kids share their thinking so they are able to build on to where they already are, or are able to help others' thinking as well. It has been a journey trying to figure out what works best for sharing thinking and the questions to ask kids that don't always lead them to the answer, but instead foster the productive struggle that will help them land on the ideas on their own. I am still working on this - I'm definitely NOT an expert, yet.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I am really enjoying is the amount of student talk that is incorporated with IM. It has been a challenge getting my students to be willing to share their thinking some days, however, the number of risk takers willing to try even when they aren't sure is definitely increasing!
I am also an early implementer of our new IM curriculum and have been find the new curriculum challenging and enjoyable from both the prospective of the teacher and the student. It has been a challenge adjusting to the new routines and structure of IM. However, it has been enjoyable to see how positively my students have been responding. IM is very collaborative and exploratory, and I know that's something that my students have been really enjoying. I feel that we have created a strong math community where students feel comfortable taking risks and rising up to the challenge. Students have been learning to rephrase other students thinking, share their ideas with a partner and the whole class, and really be able to learn from their peers.
ReplyDeleteThis is so fantastic, Lauren! To hear you say that your little FIRST GRADE mathematicians are rephrasing other students' thinking, sharing their ideas with a partner and the whole class and learning from their peers. Learning is social and the high expectations that you have set in your classroom is so impressive. What's even more impressive is watching your littles soar to those high expectations. Yay YOU!
DeleteIn the first article, I love the reminder that students learn by doing not being told what to do. It’s important that we, as teachers, do not just stand in front of the room explaining the steps of the problems to them. This can be easy to do since this is the way we learned math growing up. Students need to be exploring and learning in a way that they are feeling challenged, yet get to the end result. This will help them not only learn the skill, but retain it. I also loved reading about how students begin to see themselves as mathematical thinkers. Confidence is crucial in math. When students don’t have the confidence in a skill or the confidence to try to work through it they give up. They rely on their peers to answer the problem for them or just say “I don’t get it” and want the teacher to do it for them. I liked reading the this curriculum has pieces in the beginning to show their prior knowledge. It will be so great to know who knows what and what they already know that needs to be taught more explicitly. It is exciting to hear how this curriculum has an emphasis on community and working not only individually, but in a group setting often. What a great way to share thinking and learn from others. I’m intrigued by the teacher reflection at the end of each lesson. This makes me think of the notes that I take for myself in the teacher edition to remember for the following year. What a neat way to reflect, and then be able to use that reflection with my colleagues when planning forward. I also like the student reflection part where they are asked guiding questions in order to reflect. I especially liked “How has your thinking changed since the math lesson today?”, “How might you use this skill in the real world?”, and “In math today, I learned from my mistake by…”. The most important take away is to remember that all students can learn. This sounds like an easy task, but it can be really challenging when working with some of your lowest students.
ReplyDeleteTwo things that I found very interesting and would like to try to incorporate more into my classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne is the writing about math. I love the writing prompts that illustrative had listed and think that it is a great way for students to better understand their learning, but in kindergarten we're all not writing...yet! I think there are ways to include it, maybe drawing a picture and then verbally telling the teacher what they learned? Going into the spring though I want to try this. We will have a better grasp on writing and I would love to just test it out and see how it goes. My kiddos are always surprising me!
The second thing I found really interesting were the number talks in the video. Renae did this with me and some other new teachers in August when she introduced the math curriculum to us. We all had so much fun solving the problems and she had white boards up around the room. I want to find a way to incorporate this. It was so easy for Renae to see what we were all doing, watch our thinking, and hear us when we were standing all around her working. I think sometimes I get too caught up in the "but how will this work" and with both of these ideas the best is to just jump in and try it! I think the benefits far outweigh the risk of it not working.
It does sometimes feel overwhelming to imagine how to get started..I would be happy to come and join you the first time you give it a go. I know that Emily would offer that as well. Let's do it! 🤩
DeleteAs I read the design principles I noticed that many of the tenets of the IM curriculum align with Peter Liljedahl's work in Building Thinking Classrooms. I underscored the statement "Students learn mathematics by doing...rather than watching someone else do..." It reminds me Lijedahl describing students 'mimicking' rather than actually learning. The curriculum seems robust in all that it offers. I was impressed to see they are intentional in encouraging culturally responsive pedagogy. At the beginning of the school year I set out to focus on building a math community, we had a lot of discussion on what our experiences have been with math (positive and not so positive). After these discussions and some time to reflect the students shared what they wanted their math block to look and FEEL like. We created our math norms and refer to them frequently. I was so impressed with their thoughtfulness, some of my favorites are: "If I'm stuck, offer me strategy, not the answer," "Don't say 'this is so easy' because it might not feel easy to me." I'm looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of not only the curriculum, but how I can be more effective in class.
ReplyDeleteWhen watching the video of the 5 practices for orchestrating productive math discussions the part that really stood out to me was step 2, Monitor. Especially where she specifically pointed out that this means that the teacher is to stop talking, observe and listen. This is so hard to do, but really allows for that productive struggle for the students so that they are thinking and learning from each other. I love that she pointed out that the observing is much easier when the students are are vertical non permanent surfaces. Then the listen part requires that the teacher is close enough to the groups of students to hear their conversations, but not so close that they stop talking and look to the teacher for direction.
ReplyDeleteAll five (or actually 7) practices are so important when teachers are planning for, implementing and reflecting on productive math discussions in their classroom. I think it is really important to point out that the teacher cannot plan everything in a discussion if the students are truly thinking and working toward a solution. There are alot of in the moment teacher moves that take place!
One idea that stood out to me was that students learn mathematics by doing mathematics, rather than watching someone or being told what to do. I think this is such an important point and emphasizes that our learners, even the young ones are capable and need to be exploring on their own. It made me pause and think of how I teach math now vs. where I hope to be with the new curriculum. Another thought that resonated with me is that math is community building. I always strive to have a positive class community but it has me thinking about things I can do to really build a strong foundation for our math community.
ReplyDeleteIt was really nice to get a first look at how the new curriculum will set up the lessons. It is daunting to think that how you have been teaching math may not always been to most effective way and to be faced with changing everything about your lessons. The two readings that we had take some of that burden away by showing the changes to the new curriculum and how by following the steps outlined we can adjust our teaching of the lessons to get the most out of them. This curriculum does really align with the philosophy set forth in "Building a Thinking Classroom" and I can see how what was taught there can definitely be incorporated in the new curriculum. I am excited to restructure my math lessons!
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading about the design principles and key structures of Illustrated Math, I got struck by how IM empower both students and teachers.
ReplyDeleteStudents can see themselves as” a capable learner of Mathematics” as they engage in mathematical practices with their peers, share and exchange their ideas, participate in discussions about other solutions to the presented math problem. In this kind of design, they get exposed to the best way to learn math by “do it themselves” in contrast to when someone does it for them. They develop math language without even know it.
Teachers get tools and resources to plan the course, units, and lessons. I love idea of “to reflect on and improve on” each day’s instruction and build on it. It also gets teacher abilities to know better their students.
How can I relate it to MAP support?
In my small MAP groups, I have students from IM pioneer classes, and I noticed that it is much easier for them to start answering questions like: “what did you notice?”, “what do you wonder?”, not afraid to present their idea in contrast to rest of the group. Of course, I have limited number of students in each group, so it isn’t necessarily the proof of advantage of IM curriculum, but I am eager to familiarize myself with it more.