Professional Development Opportunity - Added 1/17/19
Original post October 2018
This past summer, our school district bought a copy of this book for every K-5 math teacher in every one of our elementary schools. It was a BIG investment that we believe will pay big dividends in enhanced instruction and a boost in student performance. As I write this entry today, we are only on Day 22 of school and my copy of the book already has a dozen or more Post-It notes sticking out of the pages. If you haven't "gotten the pages dirty" in your copy, I'd love to take you on the grand tour of this terrific teacher resource that will fast become your "go to" resource for planning your instructional lessons.
- I begin by looking at our county's Instructional Organizer to see which Standards are covered in the current instructional Module. I make a few decisions about the order in which I want to present the Standards. Then I focus my attention on the Standards that will be addressed within the lesson I am planning (remember, Learning-Focused lessons focus on one or two Standards that span 2-4 days. So when I am planning, I must think about a series of connected activities that lead to an understanding of the Standard(s) and help students to answer the Essential Question of the lesson - I am not thinking about just tomorrow's instruction).
- The next thing I do is use the Common Core Mathematics Companion book to read more about the Standard(s) for which I am planning because my own understanding of the Standard is a key ingredient to a successful lesson. This book is a great resource that gives an explanation of what the Standard means in terms of classroom instruction - in plain English with everything I need to know about the Standard on just one or two pages! On those pages, I always find a nice bullet list of the teacher and student actions and a brief section that describes common misconceptions and errors that students make when working with this Standard (this is perhaps my favorite part of the Common Core Companion book).
- Once I fully understand WHAT I will be teaching, I then dive into the Math in Practice book to see HOW I can teach the Standard. Why do I love this book so much? Well, besides the content being spot-on for instructional planning, it is organized in a way that is easy to read without cramming too much on a page or making me wade through unnecessary text to find exactly what I need to effectively plan a lesson. The Math in Practice book makes use of photos, graphics, side notes, and text features (like color and italics) to indicate what the teacher should say and do during the instructional lesson.
Check out these comments from your CCPS colleagues –
Okay, grab your copy of Math in Practice and let's Explore....
⚀ Table of Contents - You may notice that the Table of Contents is not organized by Common Core domain names and it will, of course, not run page-by-page with our pacing and instructional organization of the Standards, so just look for the topic among each of the modules listed in the Math in Practice book.
⚁ Introduction Pages - Be sure to browse the introduction pages where you will find information about the book, an explanation of the icons used, information about formative assessments and vocabulary development, and, best of all, a key code that will provide you with access to many wonderful online resources that are referenced in the book.
⚂ About the Math - Each Module (chapter) begins with a section entitled "About the Math". This section offers an overview of the topic and the key ideas of the Module to get your head wrapped around the topic before you dive in.
⚃ Ideas for Instruction and Assessment - "This section presents lesson ideas, practice tasks, and assessment options. You will not find scripted lessons in this book, since lesson planning should be specific to your students' needs and abilities. What you will find are lesson ideas to get you thinking about what to teach and ways to teach it" (quoted from page 6 Math in Practice). You're going to love this section of the book because this is where you will find specific lesson ideas. Written in blue are prompts to guide you in what to do and then written in italicized font are specific question prompts that you can ask to guide your students during each activity.
⚄ Side Notes & Graphics - Be sure not to miss the side notes found on most pages. These side notes offer invaluable information on how to differentiate the activity, alternate methods of presenting the information, key vocabulary that should be developed, links to electronic resources, common misconceptions and errors to watch for, and tips for effective and efficient instruction. It's a really thick spiral-bound book, but it is not overburdened by text; instead, the essential text that it contains is supported by photos, student work samples, ideas for anchor charts, and a wide array of other colorful graphics that simply bring the whole book together as an invaluable resource for planning mathematics instruction.
⚅ Teaching in 2018! - This book has a copyright of @2016 and was written by educators (several of them are from Maryland!). What does that mean to us? Well, the activities and ideas in the book are not only in line with the educational shift of building conceptual understanding, but it also means that the book is in line with the high standards and rigor that we expect here in the state of Maryland.
