Solving for Why

Virtual Book Study Meeting Outline

Facilitator notes:
Participants are given a hard copy of expectations, schedule and the credit form when they are given the book.
Padlet: Padlet houses these things for all participants-
●Credit Form
●Schedule
●Try-On Google Doc
●Zoom Link
●Meeting expectations and protocol
●Study guide link:
Facilitator will track:
●Attendance
●Who is “trying-on” what for each chapter
(Trying-on means that participants are trying something out with their students or in their practice that they learned or thought about while reading a chapter)

Outline for Virtual Meetings:

Chapter / Initial (15 Min) / Question for Break Out Rooms (20 min) / Summarize (15 min) / Wrap Up (10 min)
Week 1
Intro and Chp 1 / Participants introduce themselves. / Understanding Why Students Struggle
Who is a Struggling Math Learner?
●What makes math meaningful to you? Why do you do it? How could you make the mathematics you teach more meaningful to your students?
●What are your ideas about why students in your class struggle? How might these be related to their past experiences? To cognitive challenges? To the math instruction they’ve received? / Have each breakout room share their overall take-aways, aha’s or important thoughts / ●Participants will “Try-on” something from the chapter.
●“Take a minute to silently think about what you want to work on until our next meeting.”
●Participants share out what they will “try-on” between meetings.
Chp 2 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with student evidence / Understanding Why Students Struggle
Three Frames for Understanding Student Thinking
●What connections can you make between the algorithms that students at your grade level learn and the development of strategies to support them?
●How do you prepare for the specific needs of the learners in our classroom What content do you find most difficult for students to understand? How do you use models, strategies, and algorithms to help students learn concepts?
Week 2
Chp 3 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with evidence / Understanding Why Students Struggle
Developing Theories for Why a Learner May Be Struggling
●What do you think of the assertion that student thinking always has some underlying logic to it?
●In your own experience with learning mathematics, how are your proficiency and confidence related? What do these two facets of understanding tell you about your own conceptual knowledge? / Have each breakout room share their overall take-aways, aha’s or important thoughts / ●Participants will “Try-on” something from the chapter.
●“Take a minute to silently think about what you want to work on until our next meeting.”
●Participants share out what they will “try-on” between meetings.
Week 3
Chp 4 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with evidence / Three Assessment Strategies to Identify Why Students Struggle Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) Assessments
●Why might a CRA assessment be worth conducting in your classroom? How might you and your students benefit from this assessment?
●Which of the CRA approaches appeals most to you? Why? How might you implement your first CRA?
●What obstacles might hinder your implementation of a CRA assessment? How might you address them? / Have each breakout room share their overall take-aways, aha’s or important thoughts / ●Participants will “Try-on” something from the chapter.
●“Take a minute to silently think about what you want to work on until our next meeting.”
●Participants share out what they will “try-on” between meetings.
Week 4
Chp 5 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with evidence / Three Assessment Strategies to Identify Why Students Struggle
Collaborative Study
●What student study groups already exist at your school that might provide the basis for a Collaborative Study team? Who might need to e on that team who is not already? / Have each breakout room share their overall take-aways, aha’s or important thoughts / ●Participants will “Try-on” something from the chapter.
●“Take a minute to silently think about what you want to work on until our next meeting.”
●Participants share out what they will “try-on” between meetings.
Chp 6 / Three Assessment Strategies to Identify Why Students Struggle
Student Interviews
●What aspects of the Student INterview process seem most interesting to you? What might you be able to learn from it? What seems daunting about the process?
●When does questioning go from “probing thinking” to “teaching through questioning?” How do you know when you’ve crossed from inquiry to instruction?
Week 5
Chp 7 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with evidence / Supporting Students Who Struggle
Supporting Learners Who Struggle with Memory Challenges, ADD, and Affective Difficulties (Math Anxiety)
●Why is it so important to build connections between math concepts?
●What are new technique you’ve found for supporting learners with memory difficulties? Attention challenges? Math anxiety? / Have each breakout room share their overall take-aways, aha’s or important thoughts / ●Participants will “Try-on” something from the chapter.
●“Take a minute to silently think about what you want to work on until our next meeting.”
●Participants share out what they will “try-on” between meetings.
Week 6
Chp 8 / Share out about Try-On’s and how they went with evidence / Supporting Students Who Struggle
A Main Lesson-Menu Lesson Plan Structure to Support All Students
●What advantages can you see to using the main lesson-menu format for a lesson? Challenges?
●How do you promote student-student communication about important mathematical ideas in your classroom? What ideas in this chapter might help you do more of this? / ●Set goals for adjusting your instructional practice; invite a peer to hold you accountable for following through. Gather student assessment data to determine if your new strategies are promoting achievement.