So, I have so many things to put on for us to consider as part of our math plan. But I have been so on fire about these Problems of the Month that I want someone else to be hit by the sparks as well.
This is a video where that shows how the Cambrian School District is growing and making innovative developments in leaps and bounds. Here is information from their own website:
The PoM (Problem of the Month) program is just one aspect of their initiative to support teachers, students, parents, and the community.
OK, to not be drab, boring, and drag on, with the famous words of Inugo Montoya let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
The basic idea is that a school wide task is chosen with multiple entry and exit points. It will focus on a specific problem solving strategy. (Or a particular aspect of the Standards of Mathematical Practice from the Common Core State Standards.) The task is begun when Kindergarten students and 1st grade students meet in teams and are asked to collaborate on the topic at hand. They are of course prepared by the teachers to participate and engage in the task, given time to prepare and then present to the group. Then the same group of 1st grade students become mentors and move to become partners with a group of 2nd graders. They go through the problem solving cycle again where the only difference is that the 1st grade students teach the older kids what they learned from the Kindergarten kids. Then they solve and present. This process is done iteratively throughout the day until the 5th graders become mentors to the 6th grade students. They teach them the collective knowledge of the day that has been accumulated from younger children though exploration and problem solving. They then engage in the task at hand.
Watch the video. It is amazing. The website has 30+ tasks prepared from all of the strands of mathematics. The 11 minute video alone convinced me that this would be an excellent choice to support math learning at Esperanza Elementary. Here's the website and the video. Then for those that wish to see more can see my comments below or read the pdf documents that the district uses to gain support for the PoM's.
THE RATIONALE BEHIND THE PROBLEM OF THE MONTH
This is a video where that shows how the Cambrian School District is growing and making innovative developments in leaps and bounds. Here is information from their own website:
"This initiative grew out of the Noyce Foundation's Silicon Valley
Mathematics Initiative. SVMI is based on high performance expectations,
ongoing professional development, examining student work, and improved
math instruction. The initiative includes a formative and summative
performance assessment system, pedagogical content coaching, and
leadership training and networks. Coaches in SVMI learn strategies of
re-engagement with students around mathematics assessments, and
demonstration lessons on re-engagement are featured here."
The PoM (Problem of the Month) program is just one aspect of their initiative to support teachers, students, parents, and the community.
OK, to not be drab, boring, and drag on, with the famous words of Inugo Montoya let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
The basic idea is that a school wide task is chosen with multiple entry and exit points. It will focus on a specific problem solving strategy. (Or a particular aspect of the Standards of Mathematical Practice from the Common Core State Standards.) The task is begun when Kindergarten students and 1st grade students meet in teams and are asked to collaborate on the topic at hand. They are of course prepared by the teachers to participate and engage in the task, given time to prepare and then present to the group. Then the same group of 1st grade students become mentors and move to become partners with a group of 2nd graders. They go through the problem solving cycle again where the only difference is that the 1st grade students teach the older kids what they learned from the Kindergarten kids. Then they solve and present. This process is done iteratively throughout the day until the 5th graders become mentors to the 6th grade students. They teach them the collective knowledge of the day that has been accumulated from younger children though exploration and problem solving. They then engage in the task at hand.
Watch the video. It is amazing. The website has 30+ tasks prepared from all of the strands of mathematics. The 11 minute video alone convinced me that this would be an excellent choice to support math learning at Esperanza Elementary. Here's the website and the video. Then for those that wish to see more can see my comments below or read the pdf documents that the district uses to gain support for the PoM's.
THE RATIONALE BEHIND THE PROBLEM OF THE MONTH
- In real life when you have a real problem you often do not know where to start. This provides an opportunity for students to experience this real world push.
- Kathy Seely, author of Faster Isn't Smarter and ex President of the UCTM (Utah Council of Teachers of Mathematics), explains that teachers should give students opportunities of "constructive struggling" where they give students engaging, yet challenging problems.
- "One of the most important lessons we can learn from other countries is that sometimes mathematics is hard, and sometimes we have to struggle to figure things out, especially with problems that are complex. When we introduce complexity in the problems we ask students to solve and challenge them beyond what they can do, we give them the opportunity to struggle a bit - an opportunity that many students never experience in mathematics from elementary school to high school."
- Cambrige District affirms that challenging students with non-routine problems and modeling perseverance is the best way to create problem solvers and give students power in their mathematical thinking.
- The tasks are designed with age level appropriate entry points where K and 1st grade can generally solve level A problems, 2nd - 4th grade can solve up to level B, 4th - 5th can solve up to level C, 5th and 6th level D, and 7th and 8th level D. But teachers who engage in the process with the students are encouraged to never put a top level to their learning and encourage them to extend what they have discovered by offering them new levels and challenges.
- This program demands support of administrators to support the process.
- The program informs and involves parents.
- It supports learning through open ended tasks and encourages the development of the 8 Mathematical Practice Standards.
- It provides points of data through rubrics that support teachers in carefully monitoring the learning of their students. The data can be used to inform teachers about their Tier I instruction as well as help them determine which students to assign to their Tier II groups. It is great data to discuss at collaborative meetings in grade level teams or vertical teams.
- It encourages a school and community wide focus on mathematics and problem solving.
- It encourages vertical teaming and open discussions among staff about the process of mathematics, which models and strategies to highlight, how to tie the instruction to the core, and so on and so on.
- It provides a window into the ways that individual students think about mathematics because the process is more important than the answer.
- It is a great way to learn to orchestrate discussions in the classroom as taught by the NCTM (National Council for Teaching of Mathematics) where teachers carefully plan what to anticipate the work students will do, monitor and chart students' in real-time work on a task, and then purposefully select and sequence which ideas should be shared by students, and help students to make connections between differing approaches looking at the underlying mathematics.
