Morning Session from #TMC14: #gwwg14

So I actually had to close twitter in order for me to start this post.  I've been wanting to write about all the amazing things that happened at #TMC14, but my brain is on overflow!  I'm pretty sure that a concise organized summary of EVERYTHING is not going to happen, but I did want to share how amazing our morning session with @cheesemonkeysf was, because it was awesome!

However, now that I've been home a few days, I can already feel myself giving up hope on implementing some of the things I learned about.  It's crazy how when I was a part of the community at #TMC14 it all seemed so easy and now that I am home it all seems so much more difficult.  So as @lmhenry recommended, I'm going to share some of the things I would like to implement, and find someone to hold me accountable.  I'm going to do this, #MTBoS, but only with your help!

I debated for days before going to #TMC14 which morning session would be best for me.  I took @ddmeyer 's advice before he gave it, and chose the selfish option.  I choose to join the Group Work Working Group.  I felt that I had a handle on Algebra 1 content (not necessarily on how to teach it, but hey) and knew that what I needed most was to be able to get my students to interact together with the content.  I was terrified the first day, because it was definitely the choice that was outside my comfort zone!  However after the first day, I knew I had made the best choice ever!

One of the big take-aways for me was "talking points".  It gave everyone a voice and demonstrated that all voices were equal, and thus opening me up to listen to others in a way I'm not sure I ever have.  (Read about @cheesemonkeysf 's write-up on talking points here:  Talking Points Activity.)  We liked talking points so much that we tried them several times, including even taking the opportunity to observe others who were doing talking points.  We even started to create our own talking points specific to math!

One of the things that we heard over and over again was that in order for group work to be successful, as teachers we need to consistently push the authority back onto the students.  It sounded crazy at first and I know that I didn't fully listen to all that statement implied.  However, hearing it again on Saturday, it finally made sense.  But, I won't lie and say it sounds easy.  It's scary.  Really scary.  In fact, I'm worried I'm going to be too scared to try it.  It is so different from what I'm used to doing in class.  It's outside of my comfort zone, but for my students I need to.  I need talking points ingrained into my classroom so that all students have a voice.  And that they can use that voice to earn and demand respect from their peers, and support each other in that process.

Main point: my goal is to use talking points and other "restorative practices" (ask me more later... I'm only throwing that phrase around because I heard it during our session and want to know more) as the center of my classroom management.  Elizabeth said that things like that have worked at her school, and so I am very excited to try them for my classroom.  (And really scared--read above.)  I also hope that it is something my entire school might pick up on and use because I think it could really, really, really help.

Shoot, no picture, so @ddmeyer isn't going to read this!

-Kathryn

Checklists: Why I'm Excited to Try Them!

This morning I saw Steph Reilly's post about Checklists and Error Analysis.  Both are genius ideas (please, go read and I'm grateful to her for posting them.  I think checklists are going to be a life-saver for me...and here's why.

I don't grade homework or notebooks.  I don't have time and I don't want to put so much emphasis on homework that students want to copy.  (I wrote a lot more about homework here.)  However, I had a lot of trouble getting students to do the work required to get the learning.

Because of that I chose a unit and planned to have students do an Agenda assignment in preparation for the test.  I gave them an "agenda" with lots of options for tasks to complete.  (By the way, creating the agenda was a LOT of work for me.) They got to choose which ones to do in order to earn x points.  They had class time to work, but were expected to complete some if it out of class.  They had to have it completed BEFORE they could take the test.  This was pretty unsuccessful.  Students hated the agenda, to put it nicely.

I've been debating all summer how to hold students accountable for doing the work, but I knew that agendas probably weren't going to work.  There is something similar I'd heard of called "menus", but I'm not really sure they would be any better.  So I had a problem with no solution, and that is one of the reasons I was so excited to read Steph's post.

Here are the things I like about the checklist:

• Can be built as we go, so I don't have to plan everything out ahead of time
• Can include whatever I want, even notebook pages
• It won't overwhelm students at the beginning because it will be empty
• It will give students things to work on if they finish something else early
• It will remind students of things that we have done that they have forgotten about

Anyway, I liked the idea so much that I am fairly certain it is the solution to many of my problems.  I wanted to link the assignments to specific learning targets, so I added a column that Steph didn't have in hers.  I also typed up some instructions, but didn't want to have to include them on the actual checklist, so I think I will make them notebook friendly and tape them in the front of our notebooks with our syllabus, bellwork schedule, and classroom expectations.

Since I made the documents, I'm going to go ahead and call them my #Made4Math Monday, but I totally stole it from Steph as stated above, so please read her post!

My instructions document

My Unit 0A Checklist as shown above

Note:  These files will open in google drive and you will have to download them to edit them in Microsoft word.

-Kathryn

#5things I Need To Do Before School Starts

Well, this morning on twitter @druinok inspired this post.  It really is #105things, but I simplified them into categories to help me feel better :)

1.  Get Organized
I need to organize EVERYTHING:  my closet, my wardrobe, my desk, my filing cabinet, my inbox, my google drive, my dropbox.  Name it and I would prefer it to be organized! (I also need to finish my teacher binder for the upcoming year, but I've got a few things to figure out first...)

2.  Buy Things
I need new things for a new year.  I have an Oriental Trading order (and maybe an Amazon order) to put in as well as some Target/Dollar Tree shopping to do.  I do very much enjoy the buying, but deciding what I need is important otherwise I would spend thousands!

3.  Plan Classroom Structure (ie Procedures)
I need a better way for distributing classroom supplies.  But I don't have a solution yet.  Also I need to decide how I'm going to do bellwork and how strict I want to be about the beginning of class.  I need a plan for storing notebooks in the classroom and maybe even folders too, since I just read Sarah's post about that yesterday.

4.  Plan Units
For many reasons I am restructuring some of my units (again!), and I don't have everything really figured out yet.  I want to make sure to incorporate more problem solving tasks into them as well, so I need to figure some of that out.  I also want to link the foundational standards into my units.

5.  Solidify Grading Expecations
For many reasons I also want to make changes to how my gradebook looks.  I'm not sure how to balance SBG with understanding of concepts (rather than just performing skills), but I really want to find a way to make it work.  Also with the foundational standards identified, I want to have different expectations for them (ie. higher level of proficiency) than with the others.

So there it is, all the big stuff I'm trying to do before school starts...obviously I need to plan individual lessons, write a syllabus, and other things too.  I also need to blog a lot!

Any suggestions for me?  What do you have left to do?

-Kathryn

Vocabulary Quiz Rubric

I was working on my units this week and started thinking about how I wanted to focus on vocabulary.  I began to think about how I could score vocabulary, and my thoughts needed to be recorded.  Before I knew it, I had something to share for #Made4Math Monday!

Here is an image of the rubric I created.  I think it shows that I want to balance use and understanding of the words as well as knowing the definitions.  I usually provide the definitions and ask students to give the word and an example.  This gives me a better understanding of what they know.  It's not perfect, but it's the best I Have found.

Since I don't allow scores below a 2 to be final (students will have to reassess), I figured I didn't need to define what those lower scores might be.  That made my job a little easier.

I also was thinking of usually having 10 words for a vocab quiz.  If I have fewer new words than that I will add old words.  That will show that I value retention of the words not just memorization.

Do you quiz your students on vocabulary?  How do you score it?

Here is my file.  (It is set to print two per page for student notebooks.)  It will open in google drive, but you can download the Word file from that.

-Kathryn

5 Practices by Smith and Stein

After finishing Mindset and reflecting on it, I chose to read 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions by Margaret S. Smith and Mary Kay Stein.

I first wondered if actually naming the 5 Practices would give away the purpose of the book, so I was curious how I would blog about it without doing that.  But after reading it, I know there is SO much more to the book than the names of the 5 Practices...so here they are:  anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting.  The whole purpose of the 5 Practices is to best prepare for teaching mathematical tasks so that we have to make fewer decisions during the lesson where we are less able to make good decisions.

It helps me to look at the 5 Practices in terms of the big picture of lesson planning and teaching.  As most people who read math teacher blogs are familiar with The Three Acts of a Mathematical Story [Task], probably most famously, if not first, presented by Dan Meyer, I will present 5 Practices in terms of the 3 Acts...except I'm going to start before Act 1.

ACT 0:  LESSON PLANNING

Before any planning can occur, the teacher must "specify a goal that clearly identifies what students are to know and understand about mathematics as a result of their engagement in a particular lesson" (p. 13).  After having a clear goal, then the teacher must select an appropriate task.  A task that can be used to meet the lesson goal while engaging the students with the concepts and that "stimulate students to make connections [that] lead to a different set of opportunities for student thinking" (p. 15).  

This part is going to be a challenge for me, because I have trouble seeing what big ideas can be learned from tasks.  I know that there are a lot of tasks available from the #MTBoS, but selecting ones that are going to best fit my goals is a challenge.

Once a goal and a task have been established, the teacher begins anticipating all the possible solution strategies.  Consider strategies that lead to both correct and incorrect solutions.  Then create good questions to ask students who are using each strategy.  If it is a strategy that might lead to an incorrect solution, questions should be redirecting students down a correct path.  ALL questions should seek to reveal what understanding students have about their strategy.

Once this has been done, a teacher should complete a monitoring chart.  Here is an example I created to match what the book suggested:

I want to add a column for questions.  It will help me remember all those questions I came up with!  Here's a link to my version of the monitoring chart. [Note:  You will likely need to download into Microsoft Word to preserve formatting.]

After you have the monitoring chart completed you are ready to teach the lesson.  So here we go into Act 1!

ACT 1:  INTRODUCE TASK

Nothing new from 5 Practices for this act.  Essentially distribute needed materials, read through task, and ensure all students/groups have an understanding of what they are being asked to do.  Work to hook your students into the task so they can't wait to strategize a way to the solution.

ACT 2:  STUDENTS WORK, TEACHER GUIDES

After letting the students get to work, the teacher begins to monitor their progress.  This is where all that hard work of finding as many strategies, creating good questions, and having the monitoring chart ready is going to pay off.

As you move from group to group you have preplanned questions to ask students.  Likely the major change of this act as a result of the 5 Practices is that you will take notes on what strategies students/groups are using.  This will better help you prepare for Act 3 and it is also why the monitoring chart is so helpful.

In between Act 2 and 3, the teacher has to make some decisions.  First, select students to present their strategies.  This can be done effectively and efficiently because you have all the notes in front of you.  You will likely want to select at least one student to present each strategy.  Once you have selected the students, you will need to decide on an appropriate sequencing to best facilitate the discussion you wish to have in Act 3.  There isn't necessarily one sequencing that is best, but you must choose one that will work for you.

ACT 3:  DISCUSS AND CONCLUDE

It is time to begin the conclusion of the task by drawing the whole class together and start sharing strategies.  During this time the teacher has the important job of connecting student strategies to each other and to the learning goal.  Good implementation of this will change Act 3 from a show-and-tell, to actual mathematical discussion.  This will probably be the most challenging of the 5 Practices for me.  I definitely see it as what will turn tasks from "fun days" into "fun, productive learning days".  I also think that the anticipating I will have done with the strategies will help me to see the connections, which in turn will help me guide my students in making connections as well.

THE FINAL ACT

There is always the Final Act of reflecting and modifying for the future.  I think the first time I implement a task this year I will plan to do it a different day in each of my classes.  That way I have time to reflect and improve in between implementations of the task.  And since I teach Algebra four times a day, it won't hold the stress of four possible dud lessons on my first attempt.

I am so excited to try to implement tasks.  I think this book really gave me a way to make them a productive use of class time.  My goal will be to implement at least one task per unit.  And in July I plan to continue to develop my units, learning targets, and lessons...so I will begin selecting tasks :)  

During the year I plan to create a task binder where I keep a record of the tasks I use, the strategies we find, my monitoring sheets, and other notes.  This will help me to stay accountable and to have evidence of what I have done throughout the year.  

One more thought...the book gave a flow chart for The Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol.  I plan to use this as I plan each task, but I will likely modify it to make it more usable to me in my lesson planning.  Don't worry, I'll post again as I plan my first task!

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

30/30

Paper Organizer

This is my first #Made4Math of the summer!

I always try to keep my desk clean, but I can never seem to manage it no matter how hard I try.  It seems like everyday after school my desk is a giant pile of papers...

So I decided to reorganize a desk drawer that I never knew what to do with before because it was so deep.  I bought one of these...

...and put it in my drawer.  (I think that is what it is for...it just took me a few years to figure it out.)  I labeled folders for each class that say "Algebra Today."  That is where I put copies for the day so that they don't pile up on my desk.  I also keep a folder for the unit next to the today folder.  Then after school I can empty the today folder into my bulletin board for absent students and into the unit folder.

It wasn't a perfect system, but it did help keep my desk cleared off.  It even helped me to use the drawer to store my papers to grade folder and my teacher binder.  This is what it looks like right now...kind of a mess since I haven't sorted anything since school got out!

I turned a wasted drawer into something useful that helps keep my desk cleared off! It felt like a very productive change :)

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

29/30

Plans for June [Update]

As I mentioned in my first Plans for June post, I have been working with a few students in order to try to help them pass second semester Algebra.  I had three students commit to attending class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9am to 11am for the month of June.  The deal was that if they completed enough work prior to June 30th they would not have to come anymore. But that they are not to miss any days before their work is completed.

Of the three students, one student missed a day and has not returned.
Another student missed a day, but came they next and I allowed him to continue (Is this bad of me?...probably in some ways...)
The other student has been early everyday, gotten all take-home assignments completed, and even taken time to pick up one of the other students.

Things I like:

• Few students means I can really meet their needs without excessive commitment on their part
• I told them day 1 that summer Mrs. Freed was not as organized or well-planned as school Mrs. Freed and they would have to be patient with me
• They are learning
• I am making them responsible for their learning
• We are working on growth mindset (but they don't know it)

Things I don't like:

• I feel guilty when they don't show up
• I did not stick to what I said about missing
• Sometimes getting them willing to WORK at what they are learning is a really big challenge for me and I get frustrated (it is awesome when the still do though)
• I have really had to analyze everything and choose THE MOST IMPORTANT and THE MOST DOABLE in our short amount of time.  Paring down when I already felt like I pared down the curriculum was challenging and I didn't really like it.

I don't know if I would offer this again.  I would have be decide after I have finished.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

28/30