Episode #297: First Week of School Math Activities: What Is Most Important?
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Episode Summary:
What are the first week of school math activities that you should be using to start the school year off right and never look back?
In this episode, we explore how to kick off your school year with impactful math culture building activities and math classroom activities that set the tone for a year of growth and learning. We’ll also help you understand which components of effective math lessons you should focus on so you’re prepared to give a full year of impactful learning to your students.
What you’ll learn:
- Discover effective math first day activities to build a strong foundation and establish a positive classroom culture.
- Learn how to integrate assessment in mathematics seamlessly from the start with innovative problem-based math lessons.
- Find out how math activities for elementary students can foster curiosity, collaboration, and struggle, making math fun and meaningful.
- Discover which areas of effective math lessons you should focus on this year!
Listen now to uncover the best strategies for your math curriculum and make your first week classroom activities unforgettable!
Starting the school year with engaging and effective math classroom activities is crucial for setting the right tone. Incorporating math getting to know you activities as part of your math first day activities can help build a strong community and establish a positive classroom culture. Throughout the first week, a variety of first week classroom activities can be used to introduce problem-based math lessons, which are integral to a comprehensive math curriculum. These activities not only engage students but also lay the groundwork for ongoing assessment in mathematics. Additionally, designing math activities for elementary students, middle school students, and high school students that are both fun and educational can foster a love for learning and ensure a successful start to the school year.
Resources:
- #36 How To Start The School Year Off Right [Podcast Episode]
- #88 Start The School Year Off Right From A Distance [Podcast Episode]
- #139 – Making Math Moments Day 1 to 180 [Podcast Episode]
- Making Math Moments Academy – Strengthen all six (6) key areas of an effective math classroom.
Attention District Math Leaders:
How are you ensuring that you support those educators who need a nudge to spark a focus on growing their pedagogical-content knowledge?
What about opportunities for those who are eager and willing to elevate their practice, but do not have the support?
Book a call with our District Improvement Program Team to learn how we can not only help you craft, refine and implement your district math learning goals, but also provide all of the professional learning supports your educators need to grow at the speed of their learning.
Episode Summary:
Quick recap
Strengthening Classroom Roots and Branches
Jon and Kyle discussed the importance of focusing on strengthening the roots and branches of their classroom tree for the upcoming school year. Kyle emphasized the significance of pedagogical moves, encouraging teachers to ask more questions and allow students to do more thinking before providing answers. He also stressed the importance of focusing on content knowledge and conceptual understanding. Jon agreed with Kyle’s points but highlighted the need to also focus on understanding the ‘why’ behind mathematical concepts, such as the keep change flip. He urged teachers to make this a priority in their preparation for the year.
Enhancing Confidence and Process Expectations in Teaching
Jon and Kyle discussed the importance of confidence and process expectations in teaching. They emphasized that understanding and mastery of the basics, such as mathematical proficiencies and content, are essential for effective teaching. They also highlighted the need to integrate content and process expectations from the first day of class, rather than introducing them later. Jon suggested using activities like ‘Split 25’ to teach both process standards and curricular content simultaneously. They agreed that this approach would help students build a strong foundation for further learning.
Creating Positive Classroom Culture With Four Pillars
Jon emphasized the importance of creating a positive classroom culture based on four main pillars: growth, curiosity, collaboration, and struggle. He explained that these pillars guide every decision made in the math class, from assessment strategies to lesson planning. Jon also highlighted the significance of understanding and utilizing the concept of growth, which is reflected in their assessment policies. He further discussed the importance of fostering curiosity, encouraging collaboration, and embracing struggle as a learning opportunity. He suggested that these pillars could be co-created with students to ensure they align with their learning needs and preferences.
Focusing on Core Values and Math Classrooms
Jon and Kyle emphasized the importance of focusing on the ‘trunk’ of a school year, representing the core values or pillars, and encouraged educators to start their learning journey by understanding these concepts. They suggested using the ‘Make Math Moments’ report as a tool to assess and strengthen the six areas of an effective math classroom or program. Kyle stressed the need for a growth mindset, self-reflection, and self-compassion in the process. Jon also recommended three previously released episodes on starting the school year off right.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:03 – 00:00:25:14
Jon Orr
What are the first week of school math activities that you should be using to start the school year off? Right. And never look back? Stick around. We are going to get into it, talk about the activities for the first week, but also help you zero in on which areas of effective math classroom structures you should be focusing on to ensure that you provide the most impactful learning experience for your students this year.
00:00:25:14 – 00:00:26:08
Jon Orr
Let’s go.
00:00:26:10 – 00:00:44:10
Kyle Pearce
Oh, welcome to the Making Math Moments That Matter podcast. I’m Kyle Pierce.
00:00:44:10 – 00:00:47:10
Jon Orr
And I’m John or we are from that moment Scott.
00:00:47:12 – 00:00:57:02
Kyle Pearce
This is the only podcast that coaches you through a six step plan to grow your mathematics program, whether it’s at the classroom level or at the district.
00:00:57:02 – 00:01:12:15
Jon Orr
Level. And we do that by helping you cultivate and foster your mathematics program like strong, healthy and balanced SRI. So if you master the six parts of an effective mathematics program, the impact that you are going to have on your teachers, your students will grow and reach far and wide.
00:01:12:17 – 00:01:26:18
Kyle Pearce
Every week you’ll get the insight you need to stop feeling overwhelmed, gain back your confidence and get back to enjoying the planning and facilitating of your mathematics program for the students or the educators that you serve.
00:01:26:20 – 00:01:39:21
Jon Orr
All right, Kyle, the school year is approaching and you’re like, John, it’s only August. And we said this I think in every year. The last few years of teaching is that August feels like the longest Sunday night of all time or.
00:01:39:21 – 00:01:42:08
Kyle Pearce
July for our Southern state friends, right?
00:01:42:09 – 00:01:59:24
Jon Orr
Yes, Some of them are like back to school. Like I remember our Katie friends from down in Texas. We just talked with Seth from Katie a few weeks ago. And they’re they’re probably back at the time of this recording. They’re kind of entering classrooms and getting they’re doing their kind of district kickoff days. So you’re starting up in August.
00:01:59:24 – 00:02:15:12
Jon Orr
And we thought, hey, let’s talk again about what the first week looks like, What are the activities, what are the things we’re really focused on? And I wanted to toss this at you in this year, if there’s any changes you thought over the years we’ve talked about the first week, the first it’s kicking off the school year repeatedly.
00:02:15:14 – 00:02:33:07
Jon Orr
I think every year since we started the podcast. It’s an important time to kind of set the stage. So I want to get your take on like if we think about the areas of our tree, our math classroom tree and strengthening that up, we’ve talked about that here for a year now on the podcast, a year and a half, specifically on strengthening your classroom tree.
00:02:33:09 – 00:02:50:22
Jon Orr
What do you think like going into the school year? How what would you say is I know what I would say, but what did you say is like the most important piece of the tree to focus on and be like, don’t just not mess this up. Let’s make sure we do this one, strengthen this one up this year.
00:02:50:22 – 00:02:53:13
Jon Orr
What would be the tree piece you’re going to focus on?
00:02:53:14 – 00:03:16:23
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, well, I want to say that I think what I used to do was I used to focus in on the leaves, write the resources. What am I going, you know, what content or you know, what amazing sort of lesson content am I going to create or find or redo or whatever it is. But actually I’m going to leave the leaves out because I’m going to say there’s so much time that goes into the leaves.
00:03:16:23 – 00:03:41:14
Kyle Pearce
It’s fun, it’s engaging, but it’s a rabbit hole. And what I’m going to say I want to talk about two parts of the tree. One is, I think pedagogy we all look at, we all focus on it. And I would say we might even hyper focus on it. So I want to gloss on what’s important about the branches of the tree or our pedagogical moves and less about kind of revamping everything you’re doing from a pedagogy perspective.
00:03:41:20 – 00:04:02:16
Kyle Pearce
I want you to think about whatever leaves I have whatever resources I have currently see how do I take that and simply ensure that I’m asking kids to do some thinking before I do some telling, asking some questions before I make some statements. Right? So again, it’s that rush to the algorithm part that is such an important piece.
00:04:02:16 – 00:04:26:04
Kyle Pearce
It’s so much more important than the actual lesson itself. Then actually asking kids to think about something and getting their feedback right. So if I can ask them a question, it’s like diagnostic data city going on there, right? You ask them to do something and see what they come up with, and that’s going to guide you as to where you go from there.
00:04:26:04 – 00:04:49:09
Kyle Pearce
It’s like a leaping off point, right? When we do mentorship calls with teachers and district leaders, we use the same approach. It just makes perfect sense. We ask questions to figure out what is on their mind now, what do they know? What are they bringing with them, and where should we take off from here? Instead of me saying a bunch of things, randomly guessing what’s important when it may or may not be important to them.
00:04:49:09 – 00:05:09:00
Kyle Pearce
The same things going on in our classrooms with our students. So the branches. I don’t want you to spend a ton of time on the branches, but I just want you thinking about like if I can just ask more questions upfront and hold off on the telling, hold off on the action steps for kids and really let them do some thinking that’s going to be a game changer.
00:05:09:02 – 00:05:41:10
Kyle Pearce
And then I want to move right down to the roots because the roots of our tree is all about content area, right? It’s all about content knowledge. And really, I can’t ask a good question if I’m not focusing in or honing in on the roots of the tree. Right. Like, I want the question to tell me something about what they know about that content area and then how do I help take from I don’t know, I’ll use the analogy here and say one root that they have and how do we strengthen those roots for those students?
00:05:41:10 – 00:06:09:04
Kyle Pearce
Where do we go next so that they have a better foundational understanding of what’s going on here? And that all comes down to content knowledge. It all comes down to conceptual understanding. And I’m telling you, if we focus on those two areas, you’re going to see a huge amount of improvement, much more so than just finding the next coolest lesson to fire in on day one week, one month one or semester one of your school year.
00:06:09:06 – 00:06:25:14
Jon Orr
Yeah, I agree. I’m going to share a different part of the tree as a focus, and I think that would come as a surprise once I kind of outline that part of the tree. But if I think about the roots, well, if I had to pick between those two, like you’re saying, you started with pedagogy, which is the branches of your tree, they support the leaves.
00:06:25:14 – 00:06:40:11
Jon Orr
Like we’re going to go back a couple steps here, like let’s go back and look at the branches of the tree. And I think people and this is what you said, a lot of times the focus is on the pedagogical moves. But in order for you to be strong on the pedagogical moves, you do have to have that solid foundation.
00:06:40:11 – 00:07:03:21
Jon Orr
So I would say like if you had to pick one this year, one area of the tree to really focus on and I’m just really thinking about the two that you just highlighted, Kyle. I’m going to I’m going to push back on you here a little bit, is to say like you really should focus on the roots. You should go like, this is the year that I’m going to make sure that I have an answer to why the keep change flip on dividing fractions works.
00:07:04:00 – 00:07:27:08
Jon Orr
I’m going to have that answer like I’m going to make sure I know why and I’m going to also be able to demonstrate model talk about strategies around that. And that’s this one thing like let’s one math epiphany that you’re going to want to make sure you can bring to students this year. And I don’t care what grade level you are, you’re teaching grade to grade three, Grade seven, Grade eight, Grade nine, Grade 12.
00:07:27:08 – 00:07:47:11
Jon Orr
And you still don’t know why the keep change flip works. Go figure that out. Make that your to do list. That would be the thing I would say. If you’re going to make one change this year in the work that you’re going to be putting in all year long is go. What are the math epiphanies that I need answers to so that I can be confident in the classroom?
00:07:47:13 – 00:08:02:11
Jon Orr
Because when you’re confident in the classroom around the roots of what you’re teaching, all of those pedagogical moves, the branches of the tree just get stronger automatically. They get stronger automatically. Just because you’re confident in the thoughts, in the strategies around those roots.
00:08:02:17 – 00:08:20:24
Kyle Pearce
I love it. I love it. Something that you’re reminding me of is this I think I’ll call it a bit of a trap, but not saying it’s not bad. It’s not bad, but I think we can do it better. Is the idea that, like we always talk about day one, like we do math on day one, we don’t just do the syllabus on day one.
00:08:20:24 – 00:08:35:18
Kyle Pearce
I used to do the syllabus on day one or eight and I used to do the rules and everything and I’m going to get this class and, you know, in in gear here and so forth. And of course, in the younger grades, maybe it doesn’t look exactly like that. But coming from the high school classroom, it certainly did for a long time.
00:08:35:20 – 00:08:58:12
Kyle Pearce
We have a lot of people now that are going, well, I’ll do some math in week one, too, but I’m just going to focus on these other we’ll call them, like the process expectations, as we call them here in Ontario or the math practices. And we’re not going to really hone in on the actual content itself, like we’re not going to dig in to like the standards, the expectations of the course.
00:08:58:12 – 00:09:25:06
Kyle Pearce
And we would argue it’s like we want the process expectations, we want the practices happening all the time. And I don’t want kids to see them as separate from learning content. We want the content to be the reason that they’re able to engage in these practices and these process expectations. So like to think about the mathematical proficiencies. For example, we talked about understanding the actual conceptual understanding, right?
00:09:25:09 – 00:09:48:23
Kyle Pearce
And the roots really help us with that. But you have like adaptive reasoning and strategic competence and productive disposition, right? You have all these the five math proficiencies there. We should be looking at those to frame all of the content we’re exploring all year long. So why hold back on curricular tasks, as many people would call them, versus say, doing non curricular tasks.
00:09:48:23 – 00:10:12:20
Kyle Pearce
Now, again, it’s not bad to do non curricular tasks. I just worry that it’s hard for us to go from a non curricular task and do certain processes and certain practices and then we start to go, okay, now the contents coming in, what I often see is people then shift into a different mode of instruction and it’s like now that we’re into the content, well, I’ve got to teach it a different way, like it’s got to happen a different way.
00:10:12:20 – 00:10:34:17
Kyle Pearce
So from day one, if you have a good task, it’s a good task. So how do I just pick good tasks that are related to either content you’re going to explore that year or it’s great content that is worth re exploring because let’s be honest, when’s the last time entire class of kids came to you and they had everything with them from the previous year?
00:10:34:17 – 00:10:38:13
Kyle Pearce
You’re like, Yep, they got it all, you know, They’ve got it all. They came to me.
00:10:38:13 – 00:10:39:17
Jon Orr
They knew, yeah.
00:10:39:21 – 00:10:43:01
Kyle Pearce
They knew all the stuff, right? I used to think that’s what’s supposed to happen.
00:10:43:01 – 00:10:44:21
Jon Orr
Don’t remember that. I’ve never met.
00:10:44:21 – 00:11:10:16
Kyle Pearce
An educator who taught me that. No, never met an educator that was like, Wow, My class came in and it was like, we are ready to go from day one, and they’re ready to start knocking off these expectations. Know what we want to do is we want to, instead of going say non curricular is that we actually want to take content that maybe they have some familiarity with, familiarity with, not necessarily strengthen because Somer’s long or they never got it the first time.
00:11:10:18 – 00:11:34:16
Kyle Pearce
We want to use that content as a means to determine where are they at and how do I inch along this trajectory re this journey towards deeper content over time so that I am doing curricular content all the time. Because the reality is you need these foundational ideas to be built upon in order to get to the stuff that you’re supposed to cover anyway.
00:11:34:18 – 00:11:55:24
Kyle Pearce
So that time is of the essence. We don’t have time to quote unquote do non curricular tasks and then leave content for later in week two or whatever it is. Dig in, show kids that math is fun, show them that they can problem solve and show them that, hey, they probably know more than they realize or recognize from prior years.
00:11:56:05 – 00:12:17:06
Jon Orr
Yeah, I completely agree. And I think your key statement there is that showing students that the math practices or the math process standards are not separate from learning content. They go hand in hand at the content ends up being the vehicle for us to actually get at those practices. And I think when we do non curricular, like you’re saying, we’re separate those ideas in a way.
00:12:17:10 – 00:12:39:18
Jon Orr
For example, you can choose tasks that allow you to get the content that also achieve that same things that you were trying to get at. But using a non curricular test, like for example, I would change and I do change what I do. In the first week I used to use the skyscrapers activity, which like the puzzle where everyone’s building the skyscrapers that are trying to create the four, three, two, one cross this way across this way.
00:12:39:18 – 00:12:57:06
Jon Orr
We do it in groups. We did that to build this idea of productive struggle and like resiliency and trying to go like, what does it mean to, like, stick with problems? Because it sometimes they get tough and we built like our continuum of what does it look like when I give up on tough problems and what does it look like when I struggle through problems?
00:12:57:06 – 00:13:15:15
Jon Orr
That was an important part because that kind of goes into my piece what I think is the most important part of the tree, and I’ll share that in a minute, but I used to do skyscrapers. I don’t think I’m going to do. I wouldn’t do skyscrapers anymore because it is a not like there is no curricular expectation or curricular standard attached to that particular thing.
00:13:15:15 – 00:13:40:02
Jon Orr
Other than the process standards or the pragmatic practices. So I would rather do split 25, which we’ve talked about on podcast before, around what do we do on the first week of classes to split 25 gets at the exact same lesson non curricular that I want to get to, but at the same time we get to talk about what is an exponent and how do we relate exponent, how do we write exponents, What are the pieces of an exponent in a power?
00:13:40:08 – 00:14:06:10
Jon Orr
What does it mean about repeated multiplication? Because that activity is fundamental in getting to that moment and like we achieve both things and we get to talk about curricular ideas at the exact same time. So choosing activities like that over top of say, non curricular. So I agree there. Now let’s get to my pick for the piece of the tree that I think is is fundamental in week one which is the trunk of the tree the trunk of the tree in our classroom is like our pillars.
00:14:06:10 – 00:14:29:01
Jon Orr
This is like our culture. This is like setting the stage so that we’re creating the classroom that we want to be seeing. And that is that trunk like everything springs from there. So we talk about acceptance. We talk about seeing ourselves as a mathematician and we see ourselves as our identities. In math class. We talk about making sure that we create this culture that we’re looking for.
00:14:29:01 – 00:14:50:17
Jon Orr
And then when I do this, like what I do in on week one is and we’ve talked about this before in previous first year, you know, getting ready for the year podcast episode and we’re gonna put those in the show note links is we talk about the pillars of math class like what are the things that really matter here in this room with this group of students around learning mathematics And then everything builds from there.
00:14:50:18 – 00:15:12:22
Jon Orr
All the rules come out from the pillars of math, all the other decisions around why we’re doing this lesson over this lesson comes from the pillars. Why are assessment strategies do This is comes from the pillars. It’s kind of like they become the philosophical ideas of every decision that gets made in math class. And for me, for a long time, the pillars were four different pillars, and you could create the pillars yourself.
00:15:12:22 – 00:15:32:00
Jon Orr
You create them with students, get them to say, What do you want? Put your magic one wish list out here. Get your magic wand and say, Hey, students, what is a math class look like to you? Where you learn in an optimal way and together you can co-create the pillars. And usually what I steer students to and I steer them towards these pillars.
00:15:32:00 – 00:15:54:00
Jon Orr
Kyle Because we want these things to come out and values. I steer in the four things growth, curiosity, collaboration and struggle. And it’s like when we talk about those pillars, we say, Hey, we are going to focus on growth here. And I’m concerned about growth. And that’s how everything we do is about how you grow along this trajectory of this continuum around the math practices and the math standards.
00:15:54:02 – 00:16:12:01
Jon Orr
So we are going to reward your growth, and that reflects in our assessment policies, that reflects and how we’re going to, you know, keep track of how you’re doing on those standards. We talked about different ways to assess. We’ve got our growth days. We’ve been past. We’ve got our whole course that we help teachers right now with on an assessment for growth.
00:16:12:03 – 00:16:31:09
Jon Orr
And that came out of that pillar that you and I spent years trying to figure out, how do we help kids understand assessment for growth and reward their growth so that is a huge pillar for us because it helps decide on how things will look in the classroom and students start to go, Oh, I believe that growth really matters and not just say, getting a mark on a report card.
00:16:31:11 – 00:16:50:10
Jon Orr
Curious City is the foundation for everything that we’re learning here, and we’re always going to put students in curious moments because we believe that being curious opens our minds to accepting new learning. And that’s a really important thing in our classroom. So we’re going to put you in different situations. So you are curious and curiosity is a huge thing.
00:16:50:10 – 00:17:06:24
Jon Orr
And so when students say, like, why are we doing this type of lesson? Really, because I’m a member of curiosity is really important for our learning and we want you to be as curious as possible. So we want you to ask questions and I’m going to ask you questions and I’m going to be curious. One of the first things we do in that first week is I want to be curious about you.
00:17:06:24 – 00:17:25:20
Jon Orr
And then that’s like, let’s talk about the math is like activity. We’ll put a link to that math as like activity in the show notes as well. It’s like getting you to express how you felt in the past about your experience or mathematics. You know. Sarah Banner where used name tense get to get up. How do I be curious about the students that are in my room?
00:17:25:20 – 00:17:48:00
Jon Orr
Like we have to create a culture of curiosity. And it doesn’t mean students are just curious. Teachers are curious as well. And we have to demonstrate that along that first week or all year and these pillars represent all your collaboration. You know, that’s that’s the third pillar is we’re always going to be asking students to work with each other because sharing ideas is an important part of math, learning and communicating ideas and being accepting of different ideas.
00:17:48:02 – 00:18:01:11
Jon Orr
So why do we do random grouping every time you get a card and you go and sit down at different spots in the room because we have to get to know each other. We have to collaborate with each other and feel safe in our environment. That’s a really important part of the learning that we’re going to do here in this classroom.
00:18:01:11 – 00:18:25:05
Jon Orr
And the last part is struggle. Thinking about putting you in situations where you don’t know how to solve the problem, but we’re going to help you solve that problem and you’re going to learn through problem solving and through struggle instead of just being told how to solve problems. Because one of the fundamental pieces of that pillar is like we believe we can do hard things, you can do hard things, we can do hard things, and we’re going to help you do hard things.
00:18:25:05 – 00:18:43:00
Jon Orr
And that’s a really important pillar in our math class. But those are the four pillars we use. But doesn’t mean those are the four pillars you’re going to use. But I would say if you’re going to kick off the school year and one of those areas is the most important focus on the trunk in that first week and then follow the trunk all year long.
00:18:43:00 – 00:19:00:16
Jon Orr
It’s like create your pillars and then make sure that you’re valuing and showing students that you value the things that are those pillars in the trunk of the tree. So just a quick recap here, Kyle. I said the trunk. You said the roots and the branches. Anything to add before we sign off your for today?
00:19:00:21 – 00:19:21:17
Kyle Pearce
Well, I think that’s a good overview because, you know, as you’re talking, I’m going yes, I’m nodding my head. I love the ideas that you’re sharing here, John, and I’m reflecting back to some of the ideas I had shared as well. And I’m just picturing we have all kinds of educators. We have district leaders listening. We have brand new teachers listening and everyone in between.
00:19:21:19 – 00:19:41:03
Kyle Pearce
And what we want to let you know is that it is just like with our students, it is a process. It’s a growth process. So you have to understand that you can’t put all of these things in place in a day, right? So you’ve got to start somewhere. The best thing you could possibly do is to start doing some of this learning yourself, right?
00:19:41:03 – 00:20:08:02
Kyle Pearce
So we’re talking about the tree, but maybe you want to dig in and just better understand what we are really talking about when we look at these six parts of an effective math classroom. And for our district leaders, the six parts of an effective math program by heading over to make math moments dot com forward slash report and it will ask you are you in the classroom or are you a district leader and it will send you down a little kind of an assessment.
00:20:08:02 – 00:20:36:18
Kyle Pearce
Essentially, it’s a screener to kind of give you some ideas and we’ll send you a report. Now, it’s not only going to highlight the area of the tree that you might want to focus on now, but you can actually explore the report deeper and you can actually learn about all six areas of the tree. So that might be a great first step for you if you have not yet done so, because if you don’t really know what that tree looks like and what it will take to grow and strengthen those different parts of the tree, that could be very overwhelming.
00:20:36:24 – 00:20:59:00
Kyle Pearce
And we’re at the beginning of a school year and that can be overwhelming just in and of itself, right? So give yourself grace. Understand that this isn’t something that happens overnight. The reason we picked a tree for this analogy is because trees grow slow and steady and we just continue to try to work on those different areas for the rest of our careers.
00:20:59:00 – 00:21:37:17
Kyle Pearce
Right. That’s the key piece here. You’re not going to by the end of year one or the end of the first year that you start focusing on different areas of the tree. You cannot expect that that tree will be fully grown. Right? So keep that in mind. And remember, you need to give yourself grace, continue the journey. And just by continuing the learning and giving yourself that grace, you will strengthen those areas and you’re going to look back down the road some time somewhere and you’re going to see that, wow, that time, effort and just focus has allowed you to become the best version of yourself in that math classroom or in that district leader
00:21:37:17 – 00:21:46:08
Kyle Pearce
role. So again, head over, make math moments dot com forward slash report and take a few minutes to strengthen your tree.
00:21:46:10 – 00:22:16:05
Jon Orr
Also, folks, we put out three episodes in the past around starting a school year off. Number 36 was how to start school year off right number 88 was starting the school year off right from a distance. That was after the copied years and also number 139, which was making math moments starting from day one today, 181, all of those in the shownotes so that you can go back and maybe binge listen over the next little bit before you are showing up in the classroom with students.
00:22:16:11 – 00:22:33:00
Kyle Pearce
Ratings and reviews. Friends are super helpful and sharing the podcast in the same way that you found the podcast is also extremely helpful so we can reach more folks just like you. Well, until next time they’re John and Kyle Peirce.
00:22:33:00 – 00:22:34:14
Jon Orr
And I’m John are high.
00:22:34:14 – 00:22:36:19
Kyle Pearce
Fives for us.
00:22:36:21 – 00:22:41:12
Jon Orr
And a high five for you. Oh.
Thanks For Listening
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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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