Imperfect and Unfinished
Welcome back math geeks! I want to share with you a video that shows the raw power of using Clothesline Math in your classroom to promote student to student discourse. I share this video because I want you to see how clothesline activities generate student to student discourse and promote student thinking and math development. And I … Continue Reading
Check out this video from Andrew Stadel. What do you notice? What do you wonder? http://101qs-media.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/1772-black-box2–act-1.mp4 (Click here if viewing on your phone) I conducted a lesson study about fractions with some 5th grade teachers. We used Andrew’s elegantly simple lesson called Black Box 2 to get students talking about adding fractions with unlike denominators. This … Continue Reading
I had the opportunity to give a talk at CMC-South in the fall of 2017 about my work conducting lesson studies. About 40 inspiring educators showed up to geek out with me and learn about ways to generate teacher buy-in so that teacher learning made during lesson study leads to lasting professional growth. This post … Continue Reading
I conducted a lesson study with some elementary teachers. We used Dan Meyer’s engaging lesson called Sugar Packets to get students talking about an interesting problem, sharing their thinking, showing what they know about division strategies. Dan has the lesson listed as 6th grade ratio and proportional reasoning activity, but we found this problem to be … Continue Reading
A Story A friend and I were reflecting over a beer one evening at Twitter Math Camp in July about how to get more elementary teachers to attend this amazing conference. (Click here to know more!) He’s an inspirational colleague with a background in special education at the elementary and middle school level. We were talking … Continue Reading
Imagine a football team operating like a faculty at a school site. Players (teachers) gather at the beginning of the season (school year) for some team-building and some pep talk (fall PD) about goals and visions for improvement from their coach (principal). The players then study a playbook (curriculum) and some plays (instructional strategies) and … Continue Reading
I worked with a team of amazing 2nd grade teachers this week as a part of an ongoing lesson study. They were in the latter chapters of their curriculum where the Measurement and Data content is often stuffed away as an afterthought because they aren’t “Focus Standards.” And it’s a drag too because there’s so … Continue Reading
Have you seen the amazing visuals over at Number Talk Images? These pictures are ideal for any teacher looking to get all students talking about numbers and mathematical reasoning, regardless of ability levels. We used this image as a number talk to launch a lesson that focused on first grade students making statements about a data display. Inspired by … Continue Reading
Have you seen the amazing visuals over at www.fractiontalks.com? They’re ideal for any teacher looking to get all students, regardless of ability levels, talking about equivalent fractions (4.NF.1), comparing the value of fractions (4.NF.2), and expressing mathematical reasoning. This activity could also work for 3rd grade students that are exploring fraction equivalence (3.NF.3). We used this … Continue Reading
Have you seen the amazing visuals over at www.fractiontalks.com? They’re ideal for any teacher looking to get all students talking about fractions and mathematical reasoning, regardless of ability levels. We used one of the images to introduce fractions to some 3rd grade students. We learned a lot and the students did too! We’d like to … Continue Reading
