Our Math Leadership Team met to work together on balancing and maximizing the various resources we are using to provide students with instruction that is aligned with the Common Core Math Standards. Teacher and school leaders explored everyone’s definition of best practices to teach to the common core standards in a math workshop. These practices were outlined as follows:
- Reading and writing opportunities within math
- Opportunities for small group instruction and differentiation
- Authentic problems and opportunities for inquiry
- Games that promote conceptual understanding
- Manipulatives used to promote conceptual understanding
- Visual representations presented
- Math vocabulary integrated into authentic tasks (common math language)
- Teaching new topics moving from conceptual to procedural
- Practice that supports fluency
- Persevering through challenging tasks
- Opportunities to apply skills learned to non-traditional tasks
We developed a greater understanding of the expectations for math at each grade level and planned for team work at each school and how to share this work with our colleagues. Teachers also shared their expectations for units of study by grade level and posted questions and ideas on large chart paper during a chalk-talk activity.
