Episode #343: Shifting From Textbook Teacher to Responsive Teacher Through Formative Assessment
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Are you struggling to help students who seem years behind their classmates catch up in math?
This episode dives into a practical, step-by-step approach for using targeted, small-group instruction to close gaps quickly guided by formative assessment—so you can ensure every student feels confident and capable in your math classroom.
We speak with Jacqueline Williams-Wedner, a dedicated math educator with nearly 30 years of experience teaching 3rd through 5th grade in Brooklyn and Farmingdale and coaching educators by exploring math concepts.
What you’ll learn:
- Uncover an easy-to-follow formative assessment cycle that pinpoints misconceptions and drives immediate next steps.
- Explore concrete strategies to strengthen your own content knowledge and adapt instruction on the fly.
- Learn how to create a supportive math culture that keeps even your most reluctant learners asking, “When do I get to do math again?”
Press play on this episode now to discover a transformative way of teaching and using formative assessment that boosts student engagement, fills skill gaps, and ignites a deeper love for math.en techniques that transform passive lessons into engaging, dialogue-driven experiences.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jon Orr: Hey there, Jacqueline. Welcome to the Making Math Moments That Matter podcast. We are excited to kind of dig in here. And actually, we’re rolling off the back end of the 2024 Make Math Moments Virtual Summit. are a presenter there, along with, I think, you’ve had 50 other presenters over the course of that weekend. We are excited to kind of dig into what you shared there, but also dig into what else is rattling around. in your mind in terms of math education for our listener here. so, hey, welcome and give everybody a little snapshot of about, know, where you’re coming from, you what’s your role currently.
Jacqueline Wedner: All right, thanks, John. Well, I’ve been an educator for 30 years now. I started out in the classroom in Brooklyn, New York. I was a fifth grade teacher, sixth grade teacher, and I didn’t really like it that much because I found that there were so many gaps to fill in the higher grade levels. Then I got
another job in Long Island and that’s where I spent the last 25 years as mainly a third grade teacher. And then I became a math coach after 10 years. I was a math coach for five years and then I became a math specialist. The difference in the roles are that as a math coach, I directly pushed into teachers classrooms and led all day PD sessions. And as the math specialist, I now focus on the teachers bring their classes to me. where I model math teaching and also I pull small groups for remediation.
Yvette Lehman: So Jacqueline, in those 30 years of vast experience, is there one moment that really sticks out with you? A transformative moment either in your own education as a student or in your career?
Jacqueline Wedner: There really isn’t one moment, there’s many moments. And the moments that always stick out for me are the ones where the kids see me in the hallway and they’re like, Mrs. Wedner, when are we coming to you next? It’s that feeling of excitement that the kids have about math and knowing that I was a part of it to bring them to that place.
especially the struggling students, you know, so the kids that see me in the hallway that say, when am I coming to you? Those are usually the kids that I’m seeing in a small group and they know they’re struggling with math, but somehow when they’re leaving my classroom, they’re feeling a sense of success. So knowing that I brought that to them, it’s just that light bulb moment that every teacher hopes for. And, you know, I have a reel of them just go that that are there in my head.
you know, and I just see them asking me, when am I coming to you next, Mrs. Wedner? And that really feeds me.
Jon Orr: Yeah, I think that’s one of the—there’s—there’s—there’s light bulb moments that we’re always after in math education as educators, you know, and they come in different forms. You know, one of the—one of the ones that I was always sought after was like—you get the light bulb moment, but the other—the other common response that I was always gunning for, you know, and I don’t know if you two were like this too, but it was like, I wanted that kid at the end of class to say—or a kid or any kids in the class to say like, wow, it’s already time to go.
You know, like I wanted that response. either it’s a light bulb moment or it’s like, my gosh, I didn’t even know time went by so quickly. I was always after that one. Which brings us, I think, to moments, you know, like our math moment. Jacqueline, when we think about math class, when I just say the words, math class, usually personally, we have like a reaction to that. We have a memory of that. We have something that sticks with us over the years. So when I say math class, what has stuck with you?
all these years as this kind of memory that you can’t shake, you whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, we’ve heard lots of different ones, but what’s your math moment?
Jacqueline Wedner: you know, with me, it’s many as well. I’m going to go back, I would say about 12 years ago. I pretty much was a textbook teacher. I turned the page every day. I went day one, you know, page this day to the next day without really reflecting on where the kids learning and you know, the way that I was teaching, I was just teaching from a textbook and a colleague who
was new to my school told me about a book and I’m not going to name the book right now. And I just, I voraciously read that book and that colleague and I sat and planned math lessons together and that’s how I became smarter at math. And the moment, because I was such a procedural thinker about math, because that’s how I
learned it. And I remember when we were looking at a child’s example and the child had chosen to add starting from the hundredths place and then went to the tens and then the ones. And I remember saying, they you can’t add that way. That’s not how you know you’re supposed to add. And the child, you know, figured out that it didn’t matter which way you added as long as you were using place value. And he got the right answer. So
That’s the moment that stood out for me because it changed my thinking about how math is not a procedure. It’s about number sense. And that’s what carried me through the last 12 years of my career. I just started reading everything that I could, attending as many workshops as I could, and really growing my pedagogy. and that’s, you know, I’m trying to give that back.
Jon Orr: Hmm. You know, and I heard, I feel like I heard you say a couple of things there, you know, and like impactful things. think a lot of us are nodding our heads, having very similar realizations because we all came from that same spot. You know, I think we all have had that epiphany moment at some point in our career that, you know, once you learn it and you have it, you can’t unlearn it you can’t go backwards. Like you can’t, you can’t change direction at that point. It’s, it’s you’re on this new path and there’s no choice going back.
And you said, you like there was a, you kind of dug into learning math and consuming as much as you could. Would you say you folk, you know, what was that, was the focus for you, like the epiphany moment, like the understanding the math, or was it like grappling, like these pedagogical moves in the classroom to get kids like to lean in, like, which do you feel like was the more impactful move in learning you took over the course of these 12 years?
Jacqueline Wedner: I would say it’s really the math content knowledge, really grounding myself in that. And you don’t know how many times I run into adults. Like, for example, the other day I was in Trader Joe’s and the woman, we got into a conversation the cashier and she asked me what I did. And I said, I’m a math teacher. And she went, I hated math in school. And I wanted to give her a hug. And I’m sure we’ve all run into those people as adults who say they hated math as a child.
Jon Orr: Yeah, how many of us get that?
Jacqueline Wedner: I, whenever someone says that to me, I want to take them under my wing and like bring them into my classroom and show them how much fun math could be and how it’s so ingrained in number sense. And I wish I had gotten that teaching as a child. over the years, really learning the content and learning the vocabulary and the way to make it come alive for students, making it visual and really honing my content so that the students in front of me have their light bulb moments. That was pivotal.
Yvette Lehman: You mentioned earlier, Jacqueline, that one of the challenges you faced in the classroom was the fact that you had such varying entry points and there were just, you know, significant gaps that at the time you likely struggled to remediate and students probably like just like in my textbook classroom 15 years ago, many students weren’t accessing the grade level mathematics. And I know that in the 12 years through the journey you’ve been on, you’ve really been focusing on leveraging assessment to drive targeted instruction. to actually be responsive and remediate those gaps for students. So can you tell us a little bit about that journey?
Jacqueline Wedner: Yeah, so one of the things I realized as a classroom teacher is that students get moved on to the next grade level no matter what. And a lot of our kids are not ready. Another thing that I realized is that, well, my big philosophy of teaching is that all students can learn, right? I strongly believe that. However, I don’t think that some of our students are getting the amount of practice that they need.
and they end up moving to the next grade level without that practice. So some kids can get something in two iterations, some in five, some in 10. There are actually some kids that need 5,000 iterations to really understand the content well. And when you are that textbook teacher and you’re going through a curriculum without giving the needed practice, that’s how our kids fall behind. So what I do,
with my students and I help teachers to do this is we use the formative cycle. Okay, so yes, you’re giving your summative assessments and the summative assessments are that one grade. Throughout the unit as you’re teaching, so for example, if you’re in a place value or fractions unit, somewhere in the middle of that unit, you need to pause and see where your students are. And you need to give them that high quality task to assess where are they?
And then you need to gather that information and interpret it, right? And you have to say, okay, these kids got it, these kids are almost there, and these kids didn’t. And then you really need to look at those kids who didn’t get it and say, okay.
Where am I going? What are my next steps going to be for these students? And that’s where the math content knowledge comes in. Because without that content knowledge, you’re going to look at those papers and not know how to fix the misconceptions that are there. So you’re looking at the papers and you’re deciding on next steps and you’re pulling those kids for remediation in small groups and you’re doing those small group activities. to bring them to success over time.
Yvette Lehman: think that you just, you know, address something that we feel very passionately about, which is that idea of content knowledge. The work that we’re asking of teachers, that transformation from the textbook teacher to the responsive teacher hinges on teacher content knowledge. We cannot engage in dynamic assessment and understand where a student is along a developmental trajectory and give them what they need.
Jacqueline Wedner: Absolutely.
Yvette Lehman: to reach that next step without understanding math development and understanding it conceptually and deeply. And I think that you shared that was the journey you had to go on. You had to move away from approaching everything procedurally or that surface level approach and deeply investigate the content. So what did that learning look like for you?
Jacqueline Wedner: learning was not easy. It was, I have to say the person that helped me the most with this was Graham Fletcher with the progression videos and everything that I teach today I think of it as where did those kids come from? Where did those students start in this knowledge gathering? So it might be kindergarten. So for example in
my curriculum fraction starts in third grade. But before that in second grade, they’re partitioning shapes, right? So in second grade, they’re partitioning shapes. And if they’re struggling with fractions, I need to say, okay, let me go back to that second grade partitioning shapes a little bit. Place value, however, starts all the way back from kindergarten when students start to learn about unitizing, right? When they learn that five fingers is the same as one hand.
and then they start to learn T numbers, which T numbers are a group of 10 and some more ones. And knowing that I need to, if a child is in second or third grade struggling with place value, I need to go back to that kindergarten first grade knowledge and remediate some of those activities to bring them to where they need to be in their grade level. So I look and then I think about, okay,
As the students are in front of me, where do I need them to be so that they’re successful in the next grade level that comes? So that’s how I teach and that’s how I want to support teachers in that development.
Jon Orr: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think the question that everybody asked, and I’ve got my, know, Yvette’s got her stance and thoughts around this particular question, because we did this. We lived a very similar style of teaching in this formative cycle way that you’re describing and the way that you’re encouraging teachers to teach the way you taught. Now, the question I think many teachers have is, OK.
So I’ve got a class of kids, and I’ve got many below grade level. I’ve got some at grade level. I’ve got some above grade level. I’ve got my content standards that I got to teach. Let’s say I know some of it. I’m OK. I feel pretty confident with what I’m teaching. How do I juggle, say, pulling small group at different times to give those like that?
that check in formative assessment task or, or this bigger task to kind of like think about like, do I juggle the timing here? Like, what are you recommending to teachers right now to kind of let go? This is what it looks like in the classroom when you have all of these competing kind of priorities, but also these competing kind of students who are who are needing different levels of attention and support.
Jacqueline Wedner: I knew you were gonna ask me about that because when that’s always a teacher, you know, they’re gonna say, where do I find the time to do this? And I can tell you that as a classroom educator, I was in the classroom for a good 20 years doing this. I pulled kids when they were reading, okay? So silent reading time.
you’re reading, I’m pulling you then for a math group. So it didn’t have to be during the math workshop time. It was a time that I, anytime that you see in the day, I called kids as they came in in the morning and they were unpacking. was like, Johnny, quickly, put your stuff away. You’re coming into my group in two minutes. There are times in the day that you can find and it’s not just in your math block. It’s look across your day and say, okay,
Where are those windows that they’re working on? Anything independently. could be you gave them some pages to read in their social studies textbook and you’re going to pull that math small group at that time. I know for me the biggest part of this for me in my learning was I had an administrator that supported me and when I went to her and I said this is what I want to do, I was told do what you need to do. But then I also had to go with go to her with the data, right? She trusted me to.
that I had the content knowledge to bring the students where I needed to get them, but I had to go back to her and say, here, look at how Johnny did. Look at how Johnny’s doing now.
Jon Orr: Totally. Yeah. Well, it was like, yeah, I can imagine. Not only the conditions here were perfect for you and can be perfect for many, many teachers. It’s like you’ve got an administrator who is supportive and also an administrator who’s saying, these are some of the priorities we’re after right now and do what you got to do to help us achieve those particular priorities. And also, what you have in your back pocket is you’ve done some learning on understanding
conceptually understanding mathematics, you’re feeling comfortable with the mathematics because, know, and Yvette, I think you would agree to this as well, is that when we have that sound foundation of understanding what we’re teaching, it’s a lot easier to find time. It’s like, we don’t feel like the time is as a crunch because, you know, because you know, when you’re seeing this happening in the classroom, you can address it or you can pull a kid here and you can quickly kind of, you know, have those conversations, show them that it was next step, show them that progression.
you know, engage them in this thinking because you’ve got that sound foundation of like what that particular concept is and the big idea is trying to get at and where you’re going to get to. You know, we have all of these kind of, we need to have all these kind of skills for the time to be freed up, you know, and it’s like.
Jacqueline Wedner: Yes, and if it’s not an administrator, John, so you know if you don’t have a supportive administrator, go to a respected colleague and said, look, know, Jamie, I need to find time in my schedule. Can you sit down and look at my schedule with me? You know, see where can I find some time? So there is, it could be your coach. If you have, you know, math coaches or instructional coaches that sit with you to look at your schedule to find those times.
Yvette Lehman: One thing that I thought about coming into this session, because I did have the opportunity to attend your summit session. And for anybody who did not, I encourage you to go back and watch the replay. I think one thing that we took away from your session, Jacqueline, is that it was incredibly practical for educators. They walked away from your session with ideas that they could implement next week in the classroom. But one question I had walking away from the session was, you had mentioned you taught fifth and sixth grade, and that’s where I come from as well. I taught mostly sixth and seventh.
And sometimes I find the challenges for middle years teachers are unique. It’s like as the students grow, the gaps grow and also class sizes typically increase. So what would be your advice for middle years teachers as far as where to start and what to do in particular when you are confronted with students who have potentially three, four years of learning gaps in your classroom?
Jacqueline Wedner: And that’s hard because as students get older and the gaps widen, you do need more time with them, right? So when I see a struggling student who’s two years behind, typically I should be seeing them at least three to four times a week to fill that gap. My biggest suggestion for the middle school teachers is to form a PLC.
You’re not the only one teaching math. Find other math teachers and sit and really think about what are the gaps that you see that need to be filled. Look along the progression and say, okay, I can’t do everything. What’s my focus going to be for the next three to four weeks with this set of students?
I do believe that you do need to still live in that formative cycle. You do need to give that assessment task to see where the gap is and gather and interpret the evidence, but really focus and say, okay, what is the one thing that I’m going to focus on in the next three or four weeks? And not make it overwhelming because I think once…
One of the things I see with teachers is that they want to do everything at once and that’s impractical and I think that’s how you get despondent. And I really forced myself to take a breath at all times and say, OK, where is Johnny at this moment? What is the one thing that I can teach him or sometimes it’s Jane that will get him to the next step? So find a group of like minded educators and sit and do that work together.
And I think that, you know, that’s the way to go. Yeah.
Jon Orr: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now, when we think about that formative assessment cycle, you outline kind of a little bit of what that looks like. Is there any more details that you want to provide the people of what does it look like on a day-to-day basis, a week-to-week basis, so that we can get a sense? It sounds like some of what you’re describing is I’m imagining what we’ve talked about here on this podcast in previous episodes around what Kyle and I used to call kind of our growth days.
You know, this happens, I think, daily. This is way you’re trying to describe it and think about it. Or maybe it’s not. But give everybody kind of a little bit more of a quick kind of preview of what this might look like on a week or day basis.
Jacqueline Wedner: So it looks like you’re giving that high quality task assessment, that formative assessment, say midway through the unit. Let’s say that you give that on a Monday, right? On that Monday, you’re sitting, you’re gathering the papers and you’re sorting through them in three piles. I always do a got it group, almost got it group, and your don’t got it group. That same Monday, I’m sitting and I’m saying, what are my next steps with this don’t got it group?
And yes, I am also giving some activities to the Almost Got It group and you might, because we have to think about enriching our students that got it too. So let’s say that’s a Monday. I’m going to that small group of students who did not get it, who are struggling with some misconceptions. I’m pulling them Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right, for 10 minutes. And it’s not long because
I really want to target what the skill is during the remediation practice piece, and it’s 10 minutes. Maybe I’ll go into the next week, maybe the next week, Monday, Tuesday. On Tuesday, I’m going to stop and say, okay, let me do a check-in to see, are there, is there, have they gained more understanding around the concept that I’m trying to teach them? So I’m going to give them a quick assessment again to see have they gotten it? Have they moved along?
the progression in any way. And that’s how it works. And yes, I’m still teaching a whole class lesson, you know, to all the students in the class, but I’m pulling those kids in small group. There’s also vocabulary work, I find that needs to happen within those small groups, because I find that it’s not just our English language learners who are struggling with math vocabulary, our, you know, general ed students need that
to understand what unbundling is in place value, unbundling and regrouping and renaming. So there’s always a vocabulary lesson that starts off that small group work with these students. And then we’re doing activities. And I’m a firm believer in the CPA approach. So everything that I’m doing in those small groups starts with math manipulatives. So if it’s place value.
I spoke about this in the podcast that for our students that are not unitizing, giving them base 10 blocks is the worst thing that you can do for them. So I actually showed pictures of in the presentation of how I have baskets of Unifix cubes. So the Unifix cubes are connected in a 10 strip where it’s all one color. And then I also have other baskets where it’s five and five.
five one color, five of another color, because I want them to practice that bundling on bundling, right? With the base 10 blocks, you know, your rod is one piece and you can’t break it apart. So the Unifix cubes, so it’s also making decisions about the tool usage, right? What tools are you going to use in that concrete stage to support your students? And then I’m leaving, I’m, I’m.
then progressing through what is it going to look pictorially and then what is it going to look abstractly. So I’m consciously doing that. When I sit down to think about the remediation, I’m walking myself through that CPA approach of how I’m going to support students.
Yvette Lehman: When you were describing the process, Jacqueline, I had an immediate connection when you mentioned collecting that assessment and putting it into the three piles. an additional consideration I had in my classroom was that when students submitted their assessment, so if it was, you know, some type of consolidation journal or a task, they placed the work on one of three colored construction papers based on John Hattie’s thinking around green, yellow, and red.
So it was almost like an extra layer of self-assessment because then if a student demonstrated that they actually understood the concept, but they placed themselves in red, which means I don’t understand, there was a disconnect between their confidence and their skill. And usually what I did is the students who had the biggest disconnect, so let’s say you had a student who placed themselves in green, but demonstrated a significant misconception or lack of understanding or the opposite, they were the ones that I saw first.
because I felt like when it comes to ownership of learning, they weren’t really understanding where they were relative to the learning goals and I needed to remediate quickly. So very similar process. I just layered in that self-assessment component as well.
Jacqueline Wedner: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, disposition is really important, right? And I find that, you know, and it’s so funny to see that change take place. I find, you know, the first time that I’m talking about my small students that I pull for academic intervention, and they’re coming to me in a group of three or four. And the first time they walk in, they’re like, you know, they’re all tense, and they’re stressed. And they’re like, I don’t know why I’m here. And we talk about
you know, that math can be fun and I really have to make it fun for them for them to want to come back in that door the next time, you know, so that they’re not thinking, I’m bad at math. I hate math. I’m not good at this. I can’t do this. If we if we don’t consciously work on those negative messages that are going around in kids minds, they’re not going to progress either. So, yeah, this this work is hard and it’s huge. Yeah.
Jon Orr: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. For sure. For sure. And I was just reflecting on your process of kind of saying, hey, I’m going to give this assessment on this skill or this idea or this concept, and then I’m going to kind of monitor and pull throughout the week. The teacher’s probably going like, OK, so I can wrap my head around that. I can see myself doing that with my particular group of students or my class this year.
And then they’re like, okay, obviously I can’t do that with every new math lesson that I have at my, know, that I have to teach, you know, this year or this week. So obviously you’re picking certain standards to go more in depth with than others, you know, thinking about, or big ideas versus others. yeah, so how are you, help them figure out like, where do I, where do I, like, know it’s going to depend on, on grade level is going to depend on, you know, you know,
Jacqueline Wedner: It’s yes, it’s the big ideas.
Jon Orr: certain concepts, but how do you help people choose?
Jacqueline Wedner: Yeah, so there are obviously big ideas out there. I’m a firm believer in big ideas of math. And yes, I teach by standards, but not there are the priority standards. So that’s where I go. So they’re the big hitters. know, place value is going to range all the way through every grade level. Fractions, multiplication, division. So think about your priority standards and
choose one unit this year that is a priority for you. You know, let’s face it, we don’t want teachers teaching for the test, but our teachers have to give state assessments no matter where they are. There’s some big assessment at the end of the year that says this is how your students are doing. Think about the priority standards. Think about those heavy hitters that are coming at that assessment at the end of the year. Usually, you know, I’m naming fractions as one of them.
Okay, so when you’re in that fractions unit, say, okay, this is where I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna try using this formative cycle in this unit and start with one unit and then maybe next year, do two units, but start small and find a community that wants to try this with you. This work is hard enough. Please don’t attempt to do this on your own. Feel free to contact me with any questions, but.
In your school, find like-minded educators to really work together to help you with your goals and your math learning. And that makes it not as lonely because that’s how, when I started this work without that teacher that I mentioned, we sat down and we sorted our papers together and we talked about what would be the next steps together. And there were times that
She came to me with her data and her kids were doing so much better than my kids were. And I was like, how are you getting all these results? And she talked to me about what she was doing. And then I started integrating some of what she was doing, but it wasn’t, my God, her kids are doing better than me. I give up. It was, okay, I’m a learner. How am I gonna reflect on this and grow and help support my kids as well as I can? So just find those like-minded individuals and do it together.
Yvette Lehman: I think you are speaking to my soul right now. This is one of my things that I say all the time. I was so fortunate as well that I spent time in the classroom with a teaching partner and we team taught 100 % of the day. And there is nothing more powerful than engaging in this work with somebody else who supports you and is invested in the work alongside you. So I always say to people, just like you shared with our listeners, you know, find your people. This work is hard and it’s really hard in particular when you’re doing it alone. So as we wrap up here today, Jacqueline, what is, if there was one big takeaway you’d like to leave with the Make Math Moments community today from engaging with this podcast, what would it be?
Jacqueline Wedner: Part of the formative cycle is knowing the math. Increase your math content knowledge. It’s so important that you have a clear understanding of the math that you’re teaching. Where did the learning start for your students and where is it progressing to? There are so many great resources out there. remember, I would say 10 years ago, there
really was not a lot of math resources for educators and now it’s so like you literally click a button and the greatest resources, there are so many great books, increase your content knowledge and again start small, right? If you’re teaching fractions and you’re like I really want to get smart about fractions, start there, just. Yeah, it’s that the content knowledge is huge. Know the man.
Jon Orr: We agree. Yeah, we agree. It’s probably the biggest move you could make to, if you’re after true impact in the classroom, if you want more engagement from your students, if you want to have lessons where kids are leaning in. Our journey was focusing on engagement and then realized that, we need to focus on this area and actually to get the impact that we’re actually after. Is it connected? Yes. But the bigger impact is really understanding.
the math you’re teaching at that conceptual level. If you had to choose one thing to work on this year, that should be it, right? Like at that, because that’s gonna empower you to like take the next step to do other things and get more comfortable in the classroom. You every single pedagogical move that is out there right now that if your coach is, know, asking you to try, if you’re, you know, people are, you’re going to conferences and you’re seeing pedagogical moves, they’re all accessible if you understand the math at that level, because they’re all asking you to be flexible in the moment.
in order for you to be flexible in the moment, we really have to understand that math. So that would be, I love that huge takeaway and I think it’s probably the number one thing as we said to make an impact in your math classroom. Jacqueline, we want to thank you for being here on this episode of the Making Math Moments That Matter podcast. Where can folks go to learn more about you, contact you, get in touch with you?
Jacqueline Wedner: you can go to my website which is mathwithjackie.com and there are links there to my social media so but that’s the first place to go and visit. Thank you for having me. Yeah? All right.
Jon Orr: One stop shop, one stop shop. We’ll put it in the show notes. Thanks again, Jaclyn, and we’ll connect soon.
Jacqueline Wedner: All right, thank you guys. Thanks, Yvette. Thanks, John. Have a great day. Bye.
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DOWNLOAD THE 3 ACT MATH TASK TIP SHEET SO THEY RUN WITHOUT A HITCH!
Download the 2-page printable 3 Act Math Tip Sheet to ensure that you have the best start to your journey using 3 Act math Tasks to spark curiosity and fuel sense making in your math classroom!
LESSONS TO MAKE MATH MOMENTS
Each lesson consists of:
Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson consists of a Teacher Guide to lead you step-by-step through the planning process to ensure your lesson runs without a hitch!
Each Teacher Guide consists of:
- Intentionality of the lesson;
- A step-by-step walk through of each phase of the lesson;
- Visuals, animations, and videos unpacking big ideas, strategies, and models we intend to emerge during the lesson;
- Sample student approaches to assist in anticipating what your students might do;
- Resources and downloads including Keynote, Powerpoint, Media Files, and Teacher Guide printable PDF; and,
- Much more!
Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson begins with a story, visual, video, or other method to Spark Curiosity through context.
Students will often Notice and Wonder before making an estimate to draw them in and invest in the problem.
After student voice has been heard and acknowledged, we will set students off on a Productive Struggle via a prompt related to the Spark context.
These prompts are given each lesson with the following conditions:
- No calculators are to be used; and,
- Students are to focus on how they can convince their math community that their solution is valid.
Students are left to engage in a productive struggle as the facilitator circulates to observe and engage in conversation as a means of assessing formatively.
The facilitator is instructed through the Teacher Guide on what specific strategies and models could be used to make connections and consolidate the learning from the lesson.
Often times, animations and walk through videos are provided in the Teacher Guide to assist with planning and delivering the consolidation.
A review image, video, or animation is provided as a conclusion to the task from the lesson.
While this might feel like a natural ending to the context students have been exploring, it is just the beginning as we look to leverage this context via extensions and additional lessons to dig deeper.
At the end of each lesson, consolidation prompts and/or extensions are crafted for students to purposefully practice and demonstrate their current understanding.
Facilitators are encouraged to collect these consolidation prompts as a means to engage in the assessment process and inform next moves for instruction.
In multi-day units of study, Math Talks are crafted to help build on the thinking from the previous day and build towards the next step in the developmental progression of the concept(s) we are exploring.
Each Math Talk is constructed as a string of related problems that build with intentionality to emerge specific big ideas, strategies, and mathematical models.
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Use our OPEN ACCESS multi-day problem based units!
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Partitive Division Resulting in a Fraction
Equivalence and Algebraic Substitution
Represent Categorical Data & Explore Mean
Downloadable resources including blackline masters, handouts, printable Tips Sheets, slide shows, and media files do require a Make Math Moments Academy Membership.
ONLINE WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
Pedagogically aligned for teachers of K through Grade 12 with content specific examples from Grades 3 through Grade 10.
In our self-paced, 12-week Online Workshop, you'll learn how to craft new and transform your current lessons to Spark Curiosity, Fuel Sense Making, and Ignite Your Teacher Moves to promote resilient problem solvers.
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