Elementary Math Update
October 2015
Math Facilitator Meeting Rescheduled: Monday, October 5, 2015 @ Spaugh 12:30-3:30
Meeting Agenda:
Opening Meeting/ Updates (30 minutes so don't be late)
Breakout Sessions (3- 45minute PD preview sessions)
- Making Use of Mentor Text in Mathematics Lessons
- Unwrapping Text Complexity in Mathematics & Strategies to Support Students
- Tasks & Instructional Strategies that Promote Productive Math Talk
All sessions are designed to give math support staff a glimpse of PD offerings for elementary math teachers seeking to support math & literacy proficiency through the use of math and literacy skills.
Cycle 2 Assessments
Beacon Cycle 2 Math 3-5 2015-2016
- Assessments are live and available on Schoolnet
- Teachers may want to preview assessments to consider instructional implications for upcoming units of study (note this does not translate to teach the test)
- Cycle 3 assessments will be longer and more cumulative at each grade level
- Cycle 4 will be a mock EOG
- Please send issues and concerns with assessments to Kaneka or Gabr'l
Schoolnet IDs for Cycle 2: 3-5 Assessments
Grade 3: 666487
Grade 4: 666704
Grade 5: 666647
First In Math Webinar 10/6 @ 4:00PM
Math and Literacy Unplugged Pilot
Gabr'l and Kimberly Shumaker have teamed up to support 7 schools in integrating literacy and math! They have plans to offer short professional learning sessions at these sites throughout the year. Stay tuned for details in upcoming PD newsletters from Elementary Math!
Reading Numbers and Counting Words
The CMS PD department has a magnificent course designed to support the use of integrating literacy and mathematics. This course is bigger than reading math books in math class. It truly addresses reasoning skills alongside math content. I had the pleasure of previewing the content and am so excited about what this means for teachers and students in CMS. Look for the course in My Talent (For now this course is only offered to Title I schools)
-Kaneka
Professional Learning for Mathematics: A Change
During the week of 9/15 we had the pleasure of meeting so many teachers, facilitators and administrators. One noted difference in this experience was the power of having teachers learning alongside building support. Please keep this in mind as you request professional development for teachers. Research suggests that professional learning is most powerful when it is "real time" and " job embedded. We are encouraging facilitators to participate in professional learning sessions with teachers this year. We saw the best results from professional learning last year when teachers attended Number Talks sessions with facilitators or building administration.
K-2 Cycle Assessments: A Wake-up Call
I have answered so many emails about misalignment of the K-2 cycle assessments. I want you to know that the assessment team was extremely thoughtful about alignment. A few pacing changes happened after assessments were created which caused a need to adjust grade 1 assessment tasks only. K and 2 have gone unchanged. We have learned that we are shifting a culture of "if I didn't teach it to them they don't know it". A few tips to help teachers with this are:
- Review cycle assessment tasks before each cycle
- Take time to complete each task as a team and discuss them
- Review the problem types chart located on page 39 of the grade 2 unpacking
- Consider the idea that problem types that were expected for mastery in the previous grade's standards may be assessed on the upcoming cycle tasks (note this is not misalignment, this is assessing the prerequisite learning expectations)
Thank you to every one of you who have sent an e-mail about maps, standards or assessments! We are so happy to see so many people critically analyzing the standards we are teaching.