 Update on Math Initiatives Principals’ Meeting October 24, 2013

PSAT SOAS Report  Note: Data only includes Sophomores taking the test

College and Career Readiness Benchmarks

Score Distribution - Mathematics 44

49% 56% 30% 40% 58%

WHAT DOES RESEARCH SAY ABOUT HOW MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION SHOULD BE CONDUCTED? A variety of instructional methods should be used in classrooms to cultivate students’ abilities to investigate, make sense of, and construct meanings from new situations; to make and provide arguments for conjectures; and to use a flexible set of strategies to solve problems from both within and outside mathematics. In addition to traditional teacher demonstrations and teacher-led discussions, greater opportunities should be provided for small-group work, individual explorations, peer instruction, and whole-class discussions in which the teacher serves as a moderator. (NCTM, 1989, pp. 125, 128)

To sum it up... Teachers need to support students in engaging in Mathematical Discourse.

 Keys to Mathematical Discourse Let’s Review... (Common Core Math Summer Training 2013)

The Keys to Mathematical Discourse  Authentic, Rich Tasks  Level of Questioning

How can we improve our questioning?  Develop and/or select deeper, richer mathematical problems to give to students  Increase the level of questions that we ask students  Change the type of questions that we ask students So that we can increase Reasoning and Connections skills!

Question Analysis  Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy  Question Analysis Activity

Question Prompts and Stems

Walkthrough Tool

DateSchool Tuesday, October 29 th Garner Magnet Wednesday, November 6 th Broughton Thursday, November 21 st East Wake Thursday, December 12 th Heritage Tuesday, January 28 th Wake NC State STEM EC Thursday, January 30 th WYMLA Thursday, February 13 th Holly Springs Wednesday, February 26 th Fuquay-Varina Wednesday, March 12 th Cary Tuesday, March 18 th Athens Drive Wednesday, March 26 th WYWLA Thursday, April 17 th Sanderson Wednesday, April 23 rd Leesville Tuesday, April 29 th Panther Creek Thursday, May 15 th High School Mathematics School Visits

A Challenge:  How can we team within the department to be more intentional about creating discourse?

Shifting Our Perspective When students don’t seem to understand something, my instinct is to consider how I can explain more clearly. A better way is to think “They can figure this out. I just need the right question.” - D. Kennedy (2002) Never say anything a kid can say. - Reinhart (2000)