Designing Plans for Using the 5 Practices

Overview

In the OUR 6-8/IM 6-12 Math Curriculum, lessons are designed for students to make meaning for themselves through a carefully sequenced series of activities. As the facilitator of this learning process, the teacher has the complex task of pulling out key ideas generated by students and linking them for the class to ensure that all students achieve the learning goals of a lesson. The OUR 6-8/IM 6-12 curriculum authors embedded Smith and Stein’s “5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions” in lesson materials to support teachers with this facilitation. The 5 Practices (Anticipate, Monitor, Select, Sequence, Connect) provide teachers with a framework for intentionally soliciting student thinking and organizing specific student ideas in a discussion that supports all students in the class to develop their conceptual understanding. 

Audience

This workshop is designed for educators who have already had a structured opportunity to explore the basics of the OUR 6-8/IM 6-12 Math curriculum design and have begun teaching with the curriculum materials. Teachers must be familiar with the day-to-day experience of the curriculum in order to benefit from “going deeper” into this kind of exploration. Those who are currently implementing the curriculum materials will get the most out of this experience. 

Specifications

• 6 hours 
• Up to 30 participants per BL coach
• Participants will need a computer with Internet access
• This is a workshop that can provide value to educators at various stages of implementation and at any point during the school year

Outcome

I create an environment that supports students to collaborate and communicate about their math thinking.

Learning Experience

Define

• Define the 5 Practices (Anticipate, Monitor, Select, Sequence, Connect) and examine them in the context of an OUR Math activity from both a student and a teacher perspective
• Consider how the 5 Practiced framework can help teachers balance their efforts to elicit and build from student mathematical thinking with the goal of guiding all students towards the specific learning purpose of a given task

Explore

• Explore the process of planning an OUR 6-8/IM 6-12 Math curriculum activity using the 5 Practices framework, alternating between working independently, in small groups, and as a large group

Build

• Build a plan for using the 5 Practices to plan an OUR Math activity that they will be teaching
• Reflect on the planning details necessary to bring the 5 Practices to life for their students