The Core Smore
Getting to the 'Core' of Reading and Math in Region 1
4th Edition - April 2015
In our first issue, we started talking about the overall 'portrait' of a literate K-12 student, according to the Iowa Core. In January, we looked at helping students be more independent learners, as well as facilitating the deeper understanding of content knowledge - the first two characteristics of literate students. March's issue touched on the importance of critiquing and valuing evidence. This month, we'll explore how literate students use technology responsibly and understand other cultures and perspectives.
As essential as it is to understand how we create literate citizens, I do understand the overwhelming stress of preparing for Spring benchmarks, particularly with our new state requirements. Please click here to jump to a Smore for tips on intensifying instruction for all students before the next FAST/DIBELS windows open!
We hope you find some information and tools that you can share with your teachers, instructional coaches, and students. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests for assistance. You may also opt out of future newsletters by replying "Unsubscribe" to this message.
Thank you for reading!
Portrait of a Literate Student
They use technology and digital media strategically and capably
Literate students use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.
In my experience, technology in education can usually be placed into one of three groups of thinking:
- I LOVE technology! I can take my kids beyond the walls of my classroom and use it to extend their thinking in ways I never thought possible. They now have the incredible opportunity to share their thinking with a world-wide audience!
- I use Facebook most nights and check my email frequently. I'm pretty comfortable online, and I really WANT to use technology to enhance student learning, but we mostly end up going to educational websites and practicing skills instead of creating things.
- Ugh. Technology is great. WHEN IT WORKS. I'll stick with paper, thanks very much.
I've met all of these people, and, quite honestly, I have BEEN all of these people at some point in my career. To get to 'Group 1' takes time, and it takes experience. Fortunately for us, our students are now digital natives and have never known a world in which the answers to any question they've had aren't just a few key clicks away at any given moment. Unfortunately for us, they don't generally come to school with the greatest understanding of how to use technology effectively and appropriately, or with an innate knowledge of APA and MLA formatting.
In order for our students to become truly literate in a (whether we like it or not) completely digital world, they'll need skills that didn't exist a couple decades ago. It's imperative that we teach them how to find relevant information and correctly cite their sources.
They come to understand other perspectives and cultures
Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds. They evaluate other points of view critically and constructively. Through reading great classic and contemporary works of literature representative of a variety of periods, cultures, and worldviews, students can vicariously inhabit worlds and have experiences much different from their own.
This relates back to technology so well. Never before in history have we had the unique opportunity to interact with people from almost every country and culture around the world, from the comfort of our classroom. Pen pals are great, but what an amazing thing to be able to have a face-to-face video chat with a school across the ocean. To be successful in a global marketplace, students today will need to have an understanding of and appreciation for the diversity that makes up our reality.
To that end, we are responsible for exposing our students to a variety of literature genres and stories that help to create a respect for other cultures and perspectives. Did you know that there are at least 16 different versions of the story of Cinderella? China, Egypt, France, Germany, Russia... Each culture has put their own stamp on the story over the years. Can you imagine the power behind a Cinderella unit in which your students are exposed to each of those stories and then technologically connect with schools from each country to discuss the similarities and differences between our country and theirs? The two classrooms, thousands of miles apart, could even collaborate to create their OWN Cinderella story, combining their cultural traditions and beliefs. Magical!
- Kelly
Standards of Mathematical Practice
Structure and Generalizing
In prior editions of the Core Smore, the eight Standards of Mathematical Practice (SMPs) were grouped into four categories:
(1) habits of minds
(2) reasoning and explaining
(3) modeling and using tools, and
(4) seeing structure and generalizing.
We have looked at the SMP’s for the first three categories; this edition will focus on seeing structure and generalizing.
SMP 7: Look for and make use of structure
Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure. Young students, for example, might notice that 3 and 7 more is the same value as 7 and 3 more, or they may sort a collection of shapes according to how many sides the shapes have. Later, students will see that 7 x 8 has the same value as 7 x 5 + 7 x 3 in preparation for learning about the distributive property. In the expression x2 + 9x + 14, older students can see the 14 as 2 x 7 and the 9 as 2 + 7. They recognize the significance of an existing line in a geometric figure and can use the strategy of drawing an auxiliary line for solving problems. They can see more complicated things (some algebraic expressions) as single objects or as being composed of several objects.
In student friendly language, this SMP can be rephrased as “I can use what I already know about math to solve the problem.” Students need to be encouraged to be metacognitive, to carefully think about math, and to understand their level of knowledge. They also need to be able to accurately communicate their thinking.
Questions teachers could ask include:
Why does this happen?
How is _____ related to _______?
Why is this important to the problem?
What do you know about ______ that you can apply to this situation?
How can you use what you know to explain why this works?
What patterns do you see?
Teachers should look for these student dispositions:
Students are looking for patterns or structure.
Students are recognizing that quantities can be represented in different ways.
Students are using knowledge of properties to efficiently solve problems.
Classroom indicators:
Students are encouraged to look for patterns and structure, especially when using properties and composing/decomposing numbers.
Teachers provide time for students to discuss patterns and structures that emerge in a
problem’s solution.
Teachers foster persistence/stamina in problem solving.
Tips for Parent involvement:
Parents helping their children at home might include these questions:
What do you notice about the answers to the exercises you’ve just completed?
What do different parts of the expression or equation you are using tell you about
possible correct answers?
SMP 8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated and look both for general methods and for shortcuts. In early grades, students notice repetitive actions in counting and computation. When children have multiple opportunities to add and subtract ten and multiples of ten, they notice the pattern and gain a better understanding of place value. Upper elementary students might notice when dividing 25 by 11 that they are repeating the same calculations over and over again, and conclude they have a repeating decimal. In junior high and high school, students use repeating reasoning to understand algorithms and make generalizations about patterns.
In student friendly terms, this SMP could be rephrased as “I can use a strategy that I used to solve another math problem.” Teachers need to encourage reasoning so students stretch their understanding and knowledge to solve challenging problems. Reasoning requires students to pull together patterns, connections, and understandings about the rules of mathematics, and then apply their insight into finding a solution to a more difficult problem.
Teachers promote reasoning by providing rich and varied tasks that allow students to generalize relationships and methods, and build on prior mathematical knowledge. Providing adequate time for exploration is essential, as well as providing time for dialogue, reflection, and peer collaboration. Creating strategic and intentional check-in points during student work time is valuable and allows the teacher time to ask deliberate questions that enable students to reflect on their own thinking.
Questions teachers could ask include:
What generalizations can you make?
Can you find a shortcut to solve the problem? Would your shortcut make the problem easier?
How could this problem help you solve another problem?
Teachers should look for these student dispositions:
Do students notice repeated calculations?
Do students look for general methods and shortcuts?
Do students maintain oversight of the process of solving a problem while attending to details
and continually evaluate the reasonableness of intermediate results?
Classroom indicators:
Students reason about varied strategies and methods for solving problems, and check for the reasonableness of their results.
Teachers encourage students to look for and discuss their reasoning.
Teachers provide rich tasks that encourage students to use repeated reasoning to form generalizations and provide opportunities for students to communicate these generalizations.
Tips for Parent involvement:
Parents helping their children at home might include these questions:
Can you think of a shortcut that will always work for these kinds of problems?
What patterns do you see? Can you make a rule or generalization?
Being able to see the structure of mathematics and talk about math using mathematical language to reason through your solution is key in solving challenging problems that are yet to be encountered. Teachers who are developing students’ capacity to "look for and make use of structure" help learners identify and evaluate efficient strategies for solution. Planning for lessons that prompt students to look for general methods and shortcuts is just as important as attending to and listening closely to their students’ “a-ha” moments and to follow those moments so that they generalize to the classroom as a whole. Make your classrooms safe places for these standards of mathematical practices to develop.
- Diane
Kelly Sigler
- As a Reading Consultant, I am available to provide leadership, organization, and coordination in developing and implementing the Iowa Core and evaluating reading curricula and district programs. I can also support best practices through collaboration, demonstration, coaching and feedback to teachers, as well as integrating technology into the learning process.
800-255-0405 ext. 15020
Diane Royer
Diane Royer
Math Consultant
- As a Math Consultant, I am available to provide leadership, organization, and coordination in developing and implementing the Iowa Core and evaluating mathematics curricula and district programs. I can also support best practices through collaboration, demonstration, coaching and feedback to teachers, as well as integrating technology into the learning process.
800-255-0405 ext. 13309