2018 MidSchoolMath National Conference

You’ve heard it: “use more pictures and words” or “organize your work better.” Ugh! 
Tired of hearing the same feedback suggestions that just did not make a difference in improving learning, we set out to develop an approach to peer-to-peer feedback that would revolutionize our math classroom. We knew that in order for our students to give better feedback, they needed to truly appreciate WHY they were giving it, and HOW to make it meaningful. 
From this journey evolved, “Helping Hands.” We'll share the success criteria that has been co-created with students for a math task and model how weak feedback can be kicked up out of the stratosphere with thoughtful choices in language and reflective mathematical thinking. We'll demonstrate to implement this practice with your students, and, using videos, testimonials and maybe even a live Q&A with our students in Toronto, you'll hear first-hand how it is having a positive impact on our students!  can have a positive impact on their learning!  

This session is now FULL! However, ample space is available in the encore of this Master Class at 11:30 am on Saturday!  

Have you ever wanted some quick temperature checks to use in your classroom to assess how your students are progressing in what you are teaching other than think-pair-share and thumbs up/thumbs down?
Join us in the fast-paced session as we learn 30+ techniques for quickly checking where your students are in their learning. Many of the FACTs you will participate in as a student, while some will be described with examples. All of the FACTs can be immediately implemented as soon as you return to your classroom. Come join in and learn your FACTs!

Do you feel like lesson planning leaves you caught in balancing game, trying to juggle student engagement, student comprehension, covering content and preparing for standardized assessments?


Join Featured Presenter Jacqueline Johnson for this this high intensity work session that is sure to DELIVER! Jacqueline will walk you through her process to support planning curriculum in a way that targets shifting the heavy lift from the teacher to the learners in your classroom. You'll walk away from this facilitated collaborative planning session with a math lesson for your students and ideas you can use to create more lessons that engage students, support deeper learning - and prepare your students for the PARCC and other standardized assessments. 


This session is being offered twice; please only sign up for one of the two sessions.   

When analyzing student work, what do you look for? What patterns can you find? How do your findings guide your feedback and future instruction?
 
In this session, you'll work in small group professional learning communities (PLCs) to learn from student work. Each participant needs to bring a classroom set of student work to share with their small groups.  We will analyze the level of alignment the work has to the objectives and do an error analysis to find patterns in student understanding.  Finally, we'll consider next steps in instruction and assessment. You'll leave with new ideas and new understandings of how to use feedback and assessment to better support your students. 


Note: Plan to bring examples of student work with you to this session for analysis. 

Do you feel like lesson planning leaves you caught in balancing game, trying to juggle student engagement, student comprehension, covering content and preparing for standardized assessments?


Join Featured Presenter Jacqueline Johnson for this this high intensity work session that is sure to DELIVER! Jacqueline will walk you through her process to support planning curriculum in a way that targets shifting the heavy lift from the teacher to the learners in your classroom. You'll walk away from this facilitated collaborative planning session with a math lesson for your students and ideas you can use to create more lessons that engage students, support deeper learning - and prepare your students for the PARCC and other standardized assessments. 


This session is being offered twice; please only sign up for one of the two sessions.   

How do we give English language learners access to rich problems and stories in our math classrooms? How can we decrease frustration and increase engagement and participation?


In this session, you'll participate in a short problem-solving lesson in Spanish to experience sheltering and scaffolding strategies that will support English language learners in the CCSS and Mathematical Practices. You'll explore how to to set up contextualized problems/ stories so that English language learners have enough background to go deeper and truly get to the active problem-solving. You will also gain insights into how to deliver timely and effective feedback in ways that students can understand it and use it to support their learning. You'll leave with concrete strategies and instructional moves to give English language learners access to the projects, Three Act Tasks and story problems that you are already using in your classroom, along with insights into ways you can provide more effective feedback and supports. 


Note: This session is appropriate for teachers who have zero to an intermediate level of Spanish; while a short lesson will be in Spanish, the reflection and share outs will be in English, so participants can fully participate in the professional dialogue. Strategies presented will be applicable for English language learners who speak a variety of languages, not just Spanish.

Have you ever wanted some quick temperature checks to use in your classroom to assess how your students are progressing in what you are teaching other than think-pair-share and thumbs up/thumbs down?
Join us in the fast-paced session as we learn 30+ techniques for quickly checking where your students are in their learning. Many of the FACTs you will participate in as a student, while some will be described with examples. All of the FACTs can be immediately implemented as soon as you return to your classroom. Come join in and learn your FACTs!

This session is offered twice - please sign up for only one of the two sessions.

The drawings, diagrams, and doodles found on student work can all provide valuable insight into student thought processes - and help you identify where they struggle.

In this Master Class, we'll explore the protocols outlined in Making Sense of Student Work. You'll learn how teachers can collaboratively unpack students’ problem solving strategies to understand student ideas and the logic behind them.  You can then look at misconceptions to help identify the learning gaps and leverage opportunities for improvement, modifications and next steps.  This process is a valuable window into student thinking.