1. Teaching: The Load-Bearing Walls Grades K-5
Summer 2017
Facilitator Notes:
Participants should sit at grade-level tables for both of today’s sessions.
Materials required:
Chart paper and markers for all participants
Grade-level manipulatives sets
Copies of selected EngageNY lessons for each grade level (Kindergarten Module 4, Lesson 2; Grade 1 Module 2, Lesson 3; Grade 2 Module 6, Lesson 6)

2. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Welcome Back!
Speaker Notes:
Thank you for your time and attention yesterday!

3. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Thank You for Your Feedback!+
Speaker Notes:
(2 min) Thank you for your feedback! I want to talk through some trends, and let you know what I’m doing for the factors within my control.

4. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) At a Glance
Day
Ideas
Day 1
8:30-4:00
ALIGN
Is my unit aligned to the standards and shifts?
Day 2
ADAPT
How do I adapt my unit for students who are behind?
Day 3
TEACH
How do I prepare to teach an aligned lesson?
Day 4
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
How do I support ELLs using my curriculum?
Day 5
8:30-2:30
ELECTIVES
Analyzing Tasks
Our 3-day sequence
Speaker Notes:
(2 min) As a reminder of how today’s sessions will fit into the rest of our learning, here’s our sequence for the week. The past two days, we’ve been examining curriculum at a high level, dealing with issues you might consider weekly or monthly. Today, however, we’ll be looking at alignment from the daily, lesson-level perspective.
Optional reminders from previous days:
Our approach is to blend the conceptual with the practical. We work to understand the big ideas and how they look in practice.
The two strands that run through all of our work are:
Supporting students with gaps in learning
Understanding math content by “doing” the math
We’re seeking to understand the principles that lie beneath curriculum, how to adapt curriculum, and how to interact with curriculum. This happens best when we understand the “load-­bearing walls” of the curriculum--the big ideas on which curriculum is based. 4 5

5. Take responsibility for yourself as a learner
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Norms That Support Our Learning
Take responsibility for yourself as a learner
Honor timeframes (start, end, activity)
Be an active and hands-on learner
Use technology to enhance learning
Strive for equity of voice
Contribute to a learning environment in which it is “safe to not know”
Speaker Notes:
Optional slide. At this point, participants are likely familiar with the norms.

6. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Today’s Sessions
Morning: Teaching: The Load-Bearing Walls, Grades K-5
Afternoon: Teaching: Practice with Your Lessons, Grades K-5
Speaker Notes:
Optional slide.

7. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Objectives and Agenda
Identify and prioritize key questions, activities, etc. (“load- bearing walls”) within lessons.
Identify opportunities to link to prerequisite knowledge and skills in a given lesson, and plan lesson structures that relate new and prior learning.
Agenda
Reflection and Motivation
Intro: “Load-Bearing Walls”
Practice: Highlighting the “Load-Bearing Walls”
Break
Intro: Connecting to Prerequisites
Practice: Connecting to Prerequisites
Speaker Notes:
(2 min)
Today we’re going to be looking at two key teacher moves that support standards-aligned instruction. For now, it’s enough to know that we’ll call them “load-bearing walls” and “connections to prerequisites,” and that our focus will be on identifying and highlighting them in lessons.
Here’s a look at our agenda for this session. For each move, we’ll take some time to learn the “whys” and “hows,” and then you’ll have a chance to practice with a sample lesson. Later this afternoon, you’ll practice preparing and delivering one of your own lessons using these moves. Buckle your seatbelts!

8. 1A: “…focuses on the depth of…grade level content standard(s)…”
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Aligned Instruction: Where Are We?
IPG Indicators
1A: “…focuses on the depth of…grade level content standard(s)…”
1B: “…intentionally relates new concepts to students’ prior skills and knowledge.”
1C: “…intentionally targets the aspect(s) of rigor called for by the standard(s)…”
2A: “…makes the mathematics of the lesson explicit by using explanations, representations, and/or examples.”
Speaker Notes:
(2 min)
Say: “In education, it can sometimes seem like good ideas are constantly being recycled and “rebranded.”
It can get confusing—am I learning this for the first time, or have I heard this one before? We don’t want to be part of that problem.
So, full disclosure: the two “moves” we’re going to examine this morning might sound new and unfamiliar, but they’re actually part of an established set of best practices for mathematics instruction.
One place you can see them reflected is SAP’s Instructional Practice Guide—particularly in indicators 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2A.

9. What is a new understanding you’ve gained this week?
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) I. Reflection and Motivation
Partner Share
What is a new understanding you’ve gained this week?
How will it impact your practice at home?
Speaker Notes:
(5 min) The purpose of this question is to (a) get participants active and engaged in the morning, and (b) to help them continue thinking about how they might integrate the lessons from this week into their regular practice back at school. From their responses, you might also get a read on how well the ideas from this week are sinking in.

10. Imagine you’re teaching a lesson tomorrow morning.
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Reflection and Motivation
Partner Share
Imagine you’re teaching a lesson tomorrow morning.
What do you do to prepare between now and then, and why?
(Assume that the lesson is already written.)
Speaker Notes:
(5 min) The purpose of this question is to put participants in a lesson planning frame of mind. Some might have habits that align with good instruction, and some might need to reprioritize their daily preparation (and in some cases, both of these things might be true). After everyone has a chance to share, the main idea is: there are lots of things we do to prepare for a lesson, and we want to make sure we’re taking care of the most important details.

11. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5)
What we do
Why?
“Logistical stuff.” Gather materials, print things out
Pretty non-negotiable! ☺
Do ALL the math. Do the problems, exercises, and activities. Especially the Exit Ticket!
Understand the target of the lesson.
Preempt student misconceptions.
Understand levels of difficulty in problems for differentiation purposes.
Reference the standards addressed. How does the lesson build to what’s described?
Understand the “load-bearing walls.”
What is important?
What isn’t that important?
Consider the students in front of you.
Adapt and add connections as needed.
Meet students where they are.
Some possible responses
Our focus today
Speaker Notes: (2 min)
Most of the preparation activities just mentioned probably fall into one of these categories. Good teachers do the types of things in the top two rows. Even better teachers do the two things we’re focusing on today. Let’s dive into the first one.

12. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) II
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) II. Intro: “Load-Bearing Walls”
1.NBT.C.4
Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
Speaker Notes:
(7 min)
Let’s look at this standard. What would be important to see in the lesson to ensure we are meeting this standard? Consider the specific language of the standard and the targeted aspects of rigor.
Some things to notice: number set (within 100; two-digit number and one-digit number; two-digit number and a multiple of 10); procedural aspect in addition; conceptual aspect in strategies such as place value, properties of operations, and relationship between addition and subtraction. “Understand” and “explain the reasoning used” also evoke conceptual understanding.

13. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) How Does the Lesson Meet the Standard?
EngageNY
Grade 1,
Module 6,
Lesson 18,
Concept Development
Speaker Notes: (10 min)
What about this lesson aligns it to the standard? Give participants a few minutes to think and discuss. They should notice that students are using number bonds, adding tens to tens, adding ones to ones, and making tens. They reason about different strategies and uncover an error.

14. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) What Can Happen in Class?
Speaker Notes: (10 min)
This is the way the lesson played out.
What’s missing? (Give participants a few minutes to think and discuss.
Prompt them to think about why the teacher might have eliminated these sections of lesson.
One reason might be that she/he just didn’t realize which parts were important; another might be that the most important parts of a lesson require the greatest amount of “heavy lifting” from students, so are the hardest to get right.)

15. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Seeing the Load-Bearing Walls
Speaker Notes:
(5 min)
Here’s one possible solution to the problem. What did this teacher do? Participants should quickly see: read the lesson with an eye to what’s most important, and highlighting those in the plan.
What did this person highlight? The numbers involved, having a place value chart set up, asking students to explain different strategies, explicitly relating the answers back to the strategies named in the standards (make a new ten, adding tens to tens and ones to ones).

16. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) The Load-Bearing Walls: Some “Look Fors”
Number sets
1.NBT.C.4
Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two- digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
Representations
Speaker Notes:
(5 min) So what are the types of things we should be looking for in a standard? Here are four ideas—some “look fors” when reading standards.
Number sets: specify an appropriate degree of complexity for problems in a given grade.
Methods: identify specifically how students should approach a problem.
Verbs: give us clues about what students should be doing to develop conceptual understanding.
Representations: another building block of conceptual understanding.
Verb
Methods

17. Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) III. Practice: “Load-Bearing Walls”
Kindergarten
Grade 1
Grade 2
Module 4, Lesson 1
K.OA.A.3
Module 2, Lesson 23
1.OA.C.6
Module 1, Lesson 4
2.OA.B.2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Module 1, Lesson 1
3.OA.A.1
Module 3, Lesson 1
4.OA.A.1
4.OA.A.2
5.NBT.A.1
5.NBT.A.2
Speaker Notes: (30 min)
(8 min) At our grade-level tables, we’re going to practice finding the load-bearing walls in an exemplar lesson. Before we get to the lesson plan itself, though, we need to look at the standards involved. What types of load-bearing walls would you expect to see in lessons for these standards? (Give participants two minutes to read standards and discuss at tables. Take one response from each table.)
Optional time permitting: Create an anchor chart for each standards that lists the load-bearing walls as a way to ensure participant understanding.
(20 min) Okay, now it’s time to take a look at our lessons. (Reveal.) Where do you see the load-bearing walls? Highlight or mark up this lesson in the same way you would if you were delivering it to students. (Give another few minutes for participants to read and discuss. Table leaders will assist.)

18. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Share
Where did you see the ”load-bearing
walls” in these lessons?
Speaker Notes: (7 min)
Take one response from each table.

19. Break (15 min)
Break

20. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) IV
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) IV. Intro: Connections to Prerequisites
1.NBT.C.4
Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
Speaker Notes:
(12 min)
Let’s look at the standard again. What are the prerequisites?
Note: this standard is not in the current Grade 1 content guide, and will require some “sleuthing” (i.e. reading standards and/or using the Coherence Map).

21. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Prerequisites for 1. NBT
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Prerequisites for 1.NBT.C.4
1.NBT.B.2: Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones…
K.NBT.A.1: Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones…
1.OA.C.6: Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten…
K.OA.A.4: For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number, e.g. by using objects or drawings, and record the answer with a drawing or equation.
Speaker Notes: (5 min)
Take ideas and reveal answers. Obviously, there are all kinds of connections within the standards, but these are probably the most notable.

22. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) What Could We Ask Students to Do First?
Speaker Notes: (5 min)
Let’s look at our Grade 1 lesson once more. This problem “dives into” grade-level material without much connection to what students already know. (Those who use EngageNY know that the fluency activities often perform this function, but let’s set that aside for a moment.) What sorts of problems, questions, or activities from Kindergarten could we use to get students thinking along the same lines as 1.NBT.C.4? (Give participants a few minutes to discuss. Listen in and have 1-2 participants share connections to Kindergarten decomposing addition and earlier grade 1 and place value understanding.)
(CLICK) So maybe this lesson begins with a few problems like this, requiring students to decompose into tens and ones, starting with teens and number bond models and then two-digit numbers higher than 19 and using no visual models. Students might then get one or two follow-up questions; for example, “How many do you need to count on from 18 to get to the next ten?” “If you have 24 and you need to make a number bond where one number is 2, what would the other number be?” These are the same types of ideas used in this lesson.

23. Highlight/build in explicit connections to prior learning.
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) V. Practice: Connecting to Prerequisites
Identify the prerequisite standards. Where does your lesson extend from?
Highlight/build in explicit connections to prior learning.
Example: Write a short set of warm-up problems and 2-3 follow-up questions that help students draw connections to what they’ve already learned.
Example: Identify an important opening activity (if already included in the lesson) and write 2-3 follow-up questions.
Speaker Notes
Let’s take another look at the standards and lessons you analyzed earlier.
(8 min) First, what are the prerequisite concepts and skills you could leverage in teaching these standards? (Give participants a few minutes to “sleuth” these standards and discuss.)
(20 min) (Reveal second part of task.) Now let’s turn to the lesson. What problems, questions, or activities could you use to make an important connection to what students already know? (Briefly discuss the examples and possibly take other suggestions from participants. Then give a longer work interval for participants to highlight and add features to lesson plans. Table leaders will assist. The goal is for participants to have a fully developed lesson plan that could be used effectively with students.)
If needed, use the next slide for reference as participants are working.

24. Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2
TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Practice: Connecting to Prerequisites
Kindergarten
Grade 1
Grade 2
K.OA.A.3
Module 4, Lesson 1
1.OA.C.6
Module 2
Lesson 23
2.OA.B.2
Module 1,
Lesson 4
Speaker Notes:
For reference as you’re working, here are the standards and lessons we’re dealing with.

25. Share: Where did you see opportunities for connecting to prerequisites in these lessons?
Speaker Notes: (7 min)
Take one response from each table. Utilize table leaders (and table leader guides) for exemplar responses.

26. SESSION 1 (111M): Rigor– Calibrating Common Core (6 – 8)
BREAK
Lunch

27. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Reference List
Slide
Source
13-15, 22
EngageNY Grade 1, Module 6, Lesson 18 (teacher version) from EngageNY.org of the New York State Education Department is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. 23
EngageNY Grade 2, Module 6, Lesson 6 (teacher version) from EngageNY.org of the New York State Education Department is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

28. TEACHING: THE LOAD-BEARING WALLS (GRADES K-5) Image References