Reflect after you have planned a task for your THINKING classroom:
Give it a try! Plan a lesson that includes some of the strategies you have learned in this book. What will you include that will provide your students with a rich math experience in your thinking classroom?
Consider the following questions:
- What strategies did you include?
- What are you anticipating?
- How might you need to spontaneously differentiate?
- HOW DID IT GO? 🤠
Respond and Interact
After planning and facilitating a lesson for your THINKING classroom, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
This book has really pushed me to refresh my thinking. It is cool because I'm doing this book study w/the six shift book study and I like how both require a "shift" of typical thinking or misunderstandings---I like it. I definitely feel our comfort levels need to be rocked every now and then to stay current in our field. As mentioned a few weeks back, I really worked hard to defront my room. It made sense. Students have 1-1 devices, the flat panel is on wheels, I have tables, there's no need to have a static front...so that was my first strategy. I also do my best to have them standing more often, still awkward, but we are working through it. Defronting the room also opened up several vertical surfaces.
ReplyDeleteI used one of the activities from our lesson as a thinking task- It was a new concept and I was curious what would happen- so basically, I was able to get through the first half of p. 281. Groups were formed randomly and groups worked on the vertical surfaces. I always anticipate someone "taking" over, and of course it happened- so I did have to give gentle reminders about the expectations of engagement. Whether it was students hanging out or completely monopolizing the process. So, I wonder what the healthy balance of modeling how to collaborate would look like in a thinking classroom. I'm still figuring out how to get students to mobilize their learning- that part still seems a bit weak. I need to reread that practice. As far as spontaneously differentiating, for some groups- I facilitated the entire activity and others I had to slow down a few students, so maybe I could have switched the groups randomly, but not...after I noticed the groupings- I don't know!
One practice, I am going to spend time on is helping students work on is the where they are and where they are going. This will be great as we begin a new unit. I am hoping it will keep them vested in their learning as we learn new concepts. I wish I had learned about sharing a continuum of learning w/students prior to our fractions unit. I think it would have been encouraging. As I was grading our test, I kept thinking there has to be a better way to show measure students mastery. I don't know what it is!
I just love you, Mila. 🤍 Your willingness to say it like it is...your heart for kids...your ability to see the good...your contagious optimism. What lucky lil' mathematicians to get to learn with you.
DeleteI'm excited to try implementing the group test strategy for my students for their quiz next week. The book emphasizes the power of collaboration and the benefits of having students work together to solve problems. I believe that allowing my students to collaborate together on this quiz will encourage them to engage in productive mathematical discussions and help to reinforce their learning.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am feeling a bit nervous about giving students the freedom to pick their own partner for this quiz. I anticipate that the higher-scoring students will naturally gravitate toward working together (or alone), which will leave my lower-scoring students paired together. I want to ensure that all students have the opportunity to engage in meaningful collaboration, and I worry that some might struggle without the support of a stronger partner.
To address these concerns, I plan to set clear expectations for collaboration. I'll emphasize that each student must actively engage in solving the problems and encourage students to pair with peers they don't usually work with to mix up skill levels. I will also monitor the groups closely to make sure the discussions stay on track. By setting a structured, yet flexible approach, I hope to create an environment where they are able to learn from each other, while still maintaining a sense of personal accountability. We will see how it goes!
I am curious how the group test strategy went? Were your predications accurate? That's great to carry on the collaboration aspect into the assessement. I always feel so bad about how we test elementary age kids. It just doesn't make sense to me sometimes. The discussions are such an integral part of learning at this stage why stop them during assessments!
DeleteIt would be cool to tie in the tech aspect and maybe record some of the conversations w/screencastify or some other platform-
DeleteBrianne - yay YOU for thinking ahead about all the complexities! You know your kids and you want the best for them. They are lucky to have you! I like Mila's idea about possibly recording some of the conversations.
DeleteThroughout this book study, I have been trying things along the way. From “de-fronting” the classroom, to getting more variety in table groups, to random partners, to VNP workspaces, to being intentional in when and how we group, to practicing better questioning, and reworking the title of “homework”. This is the first time I’ve felt that a book study was truly impactful and had things to try/apply into my teaching right now.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I had my students get in the habit of writing a note to their future-self. This has been a great way to wrap up our math learning each day! Students then use their notes on their warm-up problem the following day. We’ve gotten better at “how to take notes” so that the process isn’t time-consuming, and we’ve also learned how to decide WHAT to take notes on. It’s been a powerful learning tool and I’m excited to use it across all subjects!
I’m excited to continue to take risks and try things out. This book has evolved my teaching practice and I’ve been able to implement learning in all subject areas – how versatile! Thanks, Renae!
Reading this made my whole week, Taylor. 💙 Life long learners inspire me...you're one of them.
DeleteFinally getting around to finishing up this book study and to be perfectly honest I'm still a work in progress! But this book came at the perfect time as last year I re-entered the classroom after being gone for 15 years. I needed to readjust my thinking and strategies when teaching and this book has given me the push and confidence I needed!
ReplyDeleteI've taken so many of the strategies in this book and implemented them as I read each chapter. Starting with de-fronting the classroom which has been SO fun! My kids enjoy it as do I! It adds a variety to our days and makes the room feel more inviting in a way. As some have stated above, just by doing this- it has opened up more vertical surfaces and physical room to stand for cooperative/group learning and work. I LOVE it! Also, I have worked random groupings all throughout the day which my students really seem to be enjoying (sometimes more than others...lol) but I'm finding this to be a great tool to add variety of thinking to different tasks.
One area that I am continuing to work on is my questioning strategies....finding some of these habits really hard to break within myself but I am making progress and will continue to focus on that!! I've enjoyed this experience so much and plan to purchase the book for me to actually use as a reference because I've liked using it that way as well! Thanks so much Renae!!
Wow Lindsey...I smiled as I read this. 💙 So many good take-aways in your reflections. I'm grateful that you have found success with many strategies from the book. I'm sure that the math buzz in your room is contagious.
DeleteI planned an ILC lesson for 3 digit addition and subtractions. One of the activities has students work in groups to solve a situation problem. These are two step problems that include operations they have worked with before but they are asked to include their thinking while they solve this.
ReplyDeleteFor this set up, I put big post it papers around the room so that students could work on vertical surfaces and I made the groups truly random by pulling sticks blind and letting the students support each other.
There were 5 situations and 8 groups so several of the problems were repeated, thus creating opportunity for possible group support rather than teacher support.
I asked students to each use a different color marker when working and quickly shouted out "tell your partner your ideas and they can write it" This was too random and did not happen. Students wrote their own ideas, but there were indeed two or three colors on the papers.
After the time was up I asked students to gather by posters and notice strategies used. We ended up seeing strategies used in different ways with varying success. Students also noticed their own mistakes and called them out on the spot while we were talking as a group. Moving around the class to view the posters was engaging, I think and only a few wandered off(at the edges).
Overall I thought the teamwork, vertical surfaces, and active synthesis discussion was positive. I had a hard time working to NOT answer stop thinking questions. I literally had to stand in a corner and listen and watch from afar. It was hard.
I am excited to get the WIPE boards and use them with students in the classroom.
Thank you for the opportunity.
It IS hard to resist that urge to jump in and "help", Hayley. Sometimes I catch myself answering questions before they are even asked. 🤦🏼♀️ Be less helpful...be less helpful...I have to chant that in my mind sometimes. lol. I'm sure that there was a great math buzz in your room when your class was working in those groups around the room. Thanks for making the time to learn with us in this book study. I am thankful for you!
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