MTBoS Blogging Initiative - Better Questions

Boy...when I look at the prompt for this blog post my mind goes in so many different directions. I wrote this post in which I discussed trying to use "quality questioning" in my classroom. I was not really talking about questions to put on an assignment, quiz, or test. I was thinking about questions used to do the following:

• guide students to think deeper during discussions
• guide a struggling student toward understanding a concept 
• scaffold and access prior knowledge
• defend and/or explain answers or reasoning

The prompt seemed to be more along the lines of writing questions for assignments or quizzes. I happened to attend a PD today on Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) in which we discussed asking more level 2 and 3 questions when we assess our students. Of the 4 levels of questioning we were told that the ACT and the ASPIRE assessments have very few questions that are level 1 (basic recall or computation) and the majority of questions are levels 2-3 (harder stuff...HAHA!). Anyway, the majority of textbooks are filled with level 1 questions but not many that are levels 2 and 3. 

For those of you who want to know here is a VERY brief description of Webb's DOK:

Level 1 - Recall and Reproduction - "Right there" questions where you can look it up in a book or follow steps from an example
Level 2 - Skills and Concepts - "think and search" questions where you have to put information together or categorize - these may be open to using different approaches and explanations are often required
Level 3 - Strategic Thinking and Reasoning - More than one way to approach and more than one possible answer - non-routine problems are often used here - often asked to state and support with evidence
Level 4 - Extended Thinking - Extended thinking that takes more time - possible products would be films, plays, research reports (with multiple sources), video games, documentaries, newspaper articles, etc...

(source: A Guide for Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge with Common Core Standards by Karin Hess, E.D - copyright 2013 Common Core Institute)

We were given some strategies on things to do in order to use our textbooks and resources that we have and take the questioning up a notch. One example of moving into the Level 2 questioning is to ask for "non-examples." We often ask our students to give an example of a _________ but they can demonstrate an even greater understanding of concepts if they can also give a non-example.

I had the pleasure of using two non-routine tasks with my algebra classes this week. Both of the tasks seemed impossible at first but when we continued to work toward the solutions we found that there were ways to arrive at a solution.

The first task was the Shuttling Around Problem of the Week #13 in my IMP Meaningful Math Algebra book. It is actually a puzzle where you really have to get out manipulatives to work through it. On the day we introduced the problem only one student found a solution. It took him a while but he finally videoed it so that he could email it to me as part of his POW write-up. The funny thing is that even though I stood there and watched in order to verify that he had a valid solution...I could not do it myself. So, today I allowed another class some time to work on the task and I was going to sit down and figure it out myself so they would see that it was possible...but I couldn't. I called down to the classroom where the guy who found the solution was and he came to my class and showed us the solution again. After watching him do it I had several students go back and work to figure it out themselves...he and I went around the room trying to help and I FINALLY got to where I could do it. The task asks them to investigate other problems too so we weren't taking away all of their fun. It was a great way to end the week! The coolest part of this is that the student who really excelled is not an A/B student. He is rarely ever one who aces a quiz or test. He has an incredible work ethic and tries to do every thing that I ask of him. It was so rewarding for him to have an opportunity to shine!!

The other task was A Mini-POW About Mini-Camel again from our text. One of the great things about our text is the "key questions" in the teacher resources which helps you have ways to guide the students. In this one all I had to say was, "Who says you have to go straight there?" and I had students to begin to find possible solutions. I even had multiple students to go to the board to try to prove to everyone else that their answer was correct. (Here is a link to my Instagram where I posted a video of them.)

I had one student ask me why we had to do these types of problems and I told him that it is important for him to realize that just because something seems impossible at first glance it does not mean that a solution can not be found. I even told them that I may be helping to save their future marriages (haha!) because they may think one day that the only solution is to give up but remember that one time in algebra class they kept on trying and working at a task that seemed impossible only to find that there was a solution!! I know that is goofy but I got some giggles and I do hope that these problem solving skills stick with them after they leave my class.

I love that I have these tasks included in our textbooks! I wrote my last MTBoS blog about how my textbooks are my favorite tool that I use in my classroom here.

2016 MTBoS Blogging Initiative - Why?

I am excited to be joining the MTBoS Blogging Initiative this year. I started blogging about a year and a half ago. I was teaching a problem-based curriculum for the first time and wanted to record my "teaching transformation." I really started blogging for myself - so that I could look back at how the lessons went and use my reflections for future years when lesson planning. I feel like viewing blogging as a tool for me instead of being concerned about how my writings are being taken by others was THE BEST PART. However, Shelley Montgomery, the instructional partner at our school, encouraged me to go ahead and share my blog posts on Twitter. Through conversations I had with her I began to realize that even if one other person could benefit or be encouraged by my writings that it was worth it. Tracy Saltz...whether you realized it or not...you were that one person. We met on Twitter because you were also teaching the IMP Meaningful Math curriculum for the first time. Since then I have met a few others at workshops or via comments on my blog or Twitter that have enjoyed reading my posts. It is an encouragement to think that I have contributed in a way that was helpful to other teachers. I have learned so much by reading the tweets and blogs of other teachers and I did want to contribute instead of just being a "user."

So...why should you consider joining this blogging initiative? I think that blogging helps me to reflect on my teaching practices and organize my thoughts for lesson planning. An added bonus is for you to share your thoughts with other teachers so that they can learn from you and/or be blessed to learn that they are not the only ones that have similar struggles. I think that everyone benefits whether from the collaboration/encouragement of other teachers OR the benefits of reflective writing.

AMSTI/IAT training Day 1

Lately I have not been a "person of many words." HAHA! I guess sometimes we hit a busy season and there are some things that have to be "cut" from our daily routine. So far this school year the part that has been cut out of mine has been taking time to blog and reflect. I really enjoy doing it and intend to continue...at some point.

The pilot that was started at Etowah High School last year has expanded through a partnership between AMSTI and It's About Time. This past week we had 2 days of professional development. Again, I have never seen a textbook company invest in the teachers who used their books in this way. They are truly committed to teaching teachers the best way to teach with their curriculum. Thank you to AMSTI and It's About Time for this opportunity.

One of my favorite conversations on day 1 was about "prizing the doubt." Michael Reitemeyer was the presenter for our algebra training and he had a course with a professor named Mandy Jansen who had told them that one "scholarly disposition" is to prize the doubt (Here is Michael's blog about this topic). Below I am going to paste the notes I took during that discussion.

Prize the doubt - to be comfortable with uncertainty, embrace and welcome times of uncertainty, not having everything figured out all the time, people go through "early foreclosure" just to feel certain again 

*assume that I think you are all smart 

*an alternative way to engage is to wonder...or posing thoughtful questions 

*get excited about having things in progress

I am proud to say that I spent the entire year last year dealing with the doubt and uncertainty of teaching a new curriculum (IMP Meaningful Math) that was very different than anything I had ever done before. I truly believed the research and the testimonies of other teachers but it really felt so strange and different. I can relate to the "early foreclosure" part because I remember the first few times I tried teaching my students in groups I thought it wasn't for me. I kind of thought that teachers at other schools with different types of students might be able to teach that way but it just wouldn't work in my classroom. Thankfully...in the 2013-2014 school year I had already spent the year determined to make groups work in my classroom so the transition into teaching using the IMP curriculum (2014-2015) was not quite as hard. Since I trusted the curriculum I was willing to just have the attitude that I was going to do the best I could because I believed it was best for my students. As time went on I was less nervous and really enjoyed teaching with the curriculum. After spending the day with veteran IMP teachers/trainers and other incredible math teachers throughout the state of Alabama I feel like I have so much more growing to do. I just have to take a deep breath and remember I can not completely change my teaching practices in a year. But I will "prize the doubt," remember that I am smart, and get excited about the things I have in progress!!

Other things that stood out to me during our Day 1 training are listed below:

• Wonderment wall/board - when students have good questions write them down and display them in class...then as you have ways throughout your lessons/units that you can address the question you have a visual reminder
• I need a document camera!
• Sometimes when you have a student to "share out" it would be good to sit in the desk that they vacated to have a visual cue that they are leading the learning at that moment
• Give students space to ask questions and have "divergent thinking" - the questions may not be mathematical all the time but they own the math more when they have invested
• According to Michael the #1 quality of a good teacher - listening....compassion would listen, flexibility comes from listening, connecting comes from listening 

Lastly, I was honored to be included on the panel for a brief question and answer session at the end of the day. Brian Lawler facilitated the discussion and afterwards we talked a few minutes. One of the questions during the discussion had to do with pacing and how much time to spend on the units. He said that Sherry Fraser (one of the authors of the curriculum) told them in a training one time that if the pacing guide says to spend 20 days that you should stop that unit after 20 days even if you are not done - which is mind-boggling but I intend to follow her advice! I told Brian that I took forever teaching Overland Trail last year. He said, "I know. I was following your blog and felt sorry for you students. I thought that they would never get to California!" HAHA! 

Show me how to teach it differently!

I remember walking into our Instructional Partner's office a few years ago because of my frustration with my algebra classes. My failure rate was climbing and I was teaching algebra just like I always had - and it had worked well in the past! I remember asking her if she knew of a different way to teach algebra. That year I taught the "repeater" Algebra IA class in the Spring and I chose to teach the majority of the class using the sample units we had received at the ACT Quality Core workshop. That was the first time that I had seen a math teacher model some strategic teaching strategies that I had seen in some ARI workshops. I was often frustrated thinking that the strategies worked for other content areas but the majority of them just didn't fit in the math classroom. That Summer I attended my first AMSTI training and decided (although I wasn't completely sold out on all the activities yet) to make the commitment to put my students in groups and keep them in groups for the entire school year. I hated it at first but once I adjusted I doubt that I ever go back!

That next school year I looked for and used several station activities and review activities. I also came across some inquiry/discovery-based activities that I loved. I was constantly scouring the Internet for resources and making copies for my classes. My student engagement improved in that school year. The following Summer I attended year 2 of AMSTI training and the light bulbs started going off. I realized that the "AMSTI activities" were the type of activities that I had been looking for on the Internet. I had always thought of them as activities to do AFTER I had taught the concepts and I didn't think I had time for that. A phrase that one of the trainers kept saying to me was , "Quit thinking like a math teacher. Your students wouldn't do that!"

Through these experiences I have come to realize that for the majority of my teaching career I have taught all my students as if they were all good math students who were going to pursue educational goals that involved upper level math classes. I do have a few students who fit that description...but the majority of them don't. However, I was teaching them all the way I preferred to be taught...but the majority of my students aren't like me. They don't love math and math does not come easy to them.

Fast forward a few months to my implementation of the IMP Meaningful Math Algebra curriculum...almost everything I teach is tied to a context. I am finding that even my students who are not great at math will interact more with the activities because the context makes the problems more accessible to them. They might not be able to just see a "naked math" problem and figure it out but when they have a storyline surrounding it they have a context that helps them to make sense of the math. So now I not only have a curriculum that is discovery/inquiry based- I have a curriculum that also presents the algebra concepts within a context. It may have taken me a few years to find the resources/ways to teach it differently, but I have definitely found it. Now...I just have to learn how to teach using them. I am working on that!

I appreciate all of the people who have helped me to transform my teaching. I don't want to try to name them for fear of leaving someone out.

Reflections after 4 months of IMP Meaningful Math

I am totally sold on the idea that anyone who is purchasing math textbooks should take a hard look at the IMP curriculum - whether your district uses the integrated or the traditional approach. I feel like using this curriculum has made me become a better teacher. I know that I am doing more with my students than I have ever done before.

When I first started working through the book (and I still feel like I am a newbie for sure!) I tried to be so literal. It is recommended for you to go through the curriculum without supplementing (especially the first time through). Because I have not been through the book before I had moments where I was unsure whether or not I should introduce a concept - especially technical vocabulary or formulas - because I didn't want to mess up a future lesson where the students would have the opportunity to approach problems with a more intuitive, context-driven method. For instance, in Overland Trail when students are asked to write the rules for the graphs I had several students (even after being introduced to slope-intercept form) who used a table and worked the pattern back to the point where x=0 in order to find the y-intercept or starting point. Teaching them this curriculum has shown me what it really means to allow students to use different approaches for solving problems. I do not think I understood what that meant prior to teaching this curriculum. I allowed students to "approach" solving equations from different ways - if they wanted to solve an equation by getting the variable on the right side instead of the left I allowed them to do that. HAHA! I have now seen what different approaches look like in a classroom. I truly have some students using formulas, others using tables or graphs, and others writing a paragraph which just explains how they reasoned through the problem. What an education I have had!

Another thing I am realizing is that BALANCE is a key. There are going to be times that we need to stop and give notes in which we make the connections to the "naked math" (my AMSTI buddy Melanie Griffis calls it that!) like they will see on state exams or the ACT. I can remember when Jim Delawder made the comment in our training session that what we will do with the curriculum is so much harder than the way they are tested. Now that I have taught it a little while I totally understand his comment. However, if the students don't make the connections between the IMP-style problems and the standardized test style problems then their math ability will not be reflected in their test scores or future math courses. I also remember Jim telling us in our training that he usually pulls sample questions to practice with the students to show them how questions covering those concepts will appear on standardized tests. We just want to create a system that works for us. Sonya New (my often-mentioned algebra teaching buddy) and I have a goal of identifying places in the curriculum where we take a pause and teach the "naked math" version and practice the standardized-test version.

                    


Lately I have been thinking about how I have always found the need to find materials to supplement the textbook we were using. The difference now is that it is so much easier to find some practice worksheets instead of trying to find or create activities that build concepts around a context. Most of the textbooks I have used in the past were mainly a collection of "naked math" worksheets with a few application problems that were stand alone. In the past I rarely ever assigned those application problems. My students seemed to struggle with the basic problems so I rarely ever went to the "next step." Now that I am teaching with the problem-based curriculum that teaches everything within a context things are so different. The students engage with the problems because of the context.

I am going to publish this post because...I just am. However, I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head that I would like to express but I am at a loss right now. I may add more later:)

IMP Training Day 2 - Confirming my AHA moment

Today we went through more of Overland Trail and part of The Pit and the Pendulum and the experience going through the units as a students were great! Having Jim Delawder there sharing his experiences with the curriculum provided invaluable knowledge. I loved being able to "pepper" him with questions about how to approach the lessons with our students. He also offered some practical advice on dealing with students working in groups. Ideas like using a folder for each group in which they put their papers that need to be turned in so that you have 7 people turning in work instead of 28. He also put the "group roles" on a piece of paper in their group folder. There would be times that he would tell the students that they could change roles as long as they wrote them down and put them in the folder. Materials, scribe, presenter, and questioner....??  Well, I may be emailing Jim and asking 1 more question. I have never been good at assigning group roles and sticking with them.

One of the things I enjoyed most today were some of the conversations we had bouncing ideas off of other math teachers. I have just recently come to the realization that for YEARS I have been teaching my students like I want to be taught. I was that student that loved math and just wanted you to show me an example so I could do my work. The problem is that the majority of students don't learn math the way I did. Sadly, the majority of students do not consider math their favorite subject. There are students that are just not going to "buy in" to learning math if they can not see how the math can be applied. Also, since math teachers have "math brains" it is very difficult for us to relate to students who do not. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn as a new teacher was that all of my students are not like me. What I mean by that is that they do not all do their homework or give their best. (They also didn't grow up in Mayberry...which is my joke for admitting that I grew up in an awesome home with no worries to speak of.) Anyway...my new realization is that I have to change the way I teach to reach the majority of my students instead of the minority. The IMP Meaningful Math program is providing me with the tools to reach ALL students. My "math brains" can soar and find deeper meanings while my struggling students will have a context in which to operate which will hopefully help them to connect with the math.

IMP PD - Day 1

I can honestly say that a "textbook company" has never given us such meaningful and useful professional development before. It's About Time does not only provide you with a textbook that meets all the algebra standards and literacy standards in the course of study; they provide you with teacher PD that would benefit any algebra teachers because best teaching practices are modeled by the trainer. Jim Delawder is such an incredible, experienced teacher. He is very patient with all of our questions and very passionate and knowledgeable of IMP math.

Takeaways from today:

• Divide the work and if there are more problems than there are groups you can have every group do the "leftover" problems
• When I did Creating Families I could have used playing cards to group students by numbers and then regrouped them using the suits. For instance, I was a 2 of clubs. Originally all the 2s were grouped together. When we did creating families we were told that the clubs were doing the nonfamily. Then we regrouped by the type of family (or suit). That way the students all got to work with someone else who was creating the same type of family.
• Ask a struggling student to just attempt to draw you a picture.
• We can trust the curriculum...we can trust the curriculum...we can trust the curriculum.
• Around the Horn POW is confusing and you will need manipulatives to model the situation!

I know that I learned so much more than what is listed above...I am just so tired right now I can't remember! It was very cool for Tom Laster to be visiting with us today also. He even took part in the PD. It is contagious to be around someone who is so passionate about STEM education. He has so many stories and examples of successful implementation of IMP. 

And...by the way. The state of Alabama (and its math and science teachers) have been taking our AMSTI program for granted. The PD we receive at AMSTI is so similar to the PD provided today by It's About Time. WOW!