Investigations Blog
The Power of Discussion Forums for Online Professional Development
My colleague, Arusha Hollister, and I facilitate the Implementing Investigations 3 (II3) online course. Working with Arusha and the many teachers, math coaches, and administrators who have participated in the course has been a truly meaningful learning experience for me—one that has pushed my thinking about how to best support professional development experiences online, particularly through the use of discussion forums. The II3 course discussion forum, which essentially functions as an online...
read moreWhat Does It Mean to Go Deeper?
Over the past year I have had a number of opportunities to work with teachers who have been using Investigations for many years but are new to Investigations 3. Keith’s blog about “the size of the chairs” and respecting “the knowledge and experiences brought to the learning situation” struck a chord with me. It doesn’t matter the age of the learners, my beliefs about how people learn best is the same. I am, however, thinking a lot about the best way to facilitate professional development with...
read more“The Size of the Chairs”
As hard as it is to believe, it’s already that time of year again—summer is here. Some of you have already finished the school year and are in vacation mode. Others of you, particularly our friends in the Northeast (making up for all those snow days) are likely counting down the final days! Summer provides all types of opportunities—time to decompress, maybe take a vacation near a beach or in the mountains, or spend time with family and friends. It’s also a time for more concentrated...
read moreWhen the Math Is What’s Exciting
I’ve been really lucky to spend time in a grade 1 classroom this spring, as they tackle the final number unit of the year. 1U7 is the culmination of students’ work with addition, subtraction, and place value. Building on the work of the earlier number units, it introduces some big, important ideas, many of which are new to the 3rd edition of grade 1. These are first graders who had the 3rd edition in Kindergarten and now have a self-proclaimed lover of math, who is teaching the 3rd edition for...
read more“This is Only Getting Better!…And Harder!”
Who knew a deck of +10/-10 cards could be so exciting? A group of 25 first graders, that’s who. As their teacher, Karla, introduced them to Plus or Minus 10, she explained that they would need numeral cards (10-90), cubes (assembled in sticks of ten), and a new deck of cards. When she displayed the +10/-10 cards, the students, many of them on their knees, some literally bouncing up and down and clapping, were clearly excited. Oooo… Whoa… Plus ten… Minus ten. I hear two students exclaim This is...
read moreThe Hard Work of Counting by Groups, Part 2
Last week, I wrote about some first graders’ work on problems about how many fingers were on 4 or 8 hands. This week, I want to share an interaction I had with one child, as the class’s work turned to thinking about groups of 10. Students were working on two types of problems about cubes, organized in towers of 10. · Given the number of towers of 10, how many cubes? · Given the total number of cubes, how many towers of 10? When I joined Nik, he had already solved problem 1, about a...
read moreThe Hard Work of Counting by Groups
The other day I visited a class that was at the very beginning of How Many Tens? How Many Ones?, the final unit of the grade 1 sequence on Addition, Subtraction and the Number System. The class began with a conversation in which they modeled, recorded, and discussed the previous day’s work, about the number of hands on different numbers of people, organized as a table. The teacher then explained that today they were going to be thinking about fingers instead of hands. With minimal...
read moreReflections on NCSM, Part 2
Eight of our staff traveled to DC to attend the NCSM conference at the end of April. Below are four staff members’ reflections on a Session that stood out to them. (Also see Part 1.) Karen: “Teachers First. Everything Else Follows.” by Tracy Zager In this session, honoring the 50th anniversary of NCSM, Tracy Zager began by describing some of the important history of mathematics education, highlighting how, across the decades, classroom teachers were part of each new effort because it was they...
read moreReflections on NCSM, Part 1
Eight of our staff traveled to DC to attend the NCSM conference at the end of April. Below are four staff members’ reflections on a Session that stood out to them. Four more to follow next week. Keith: “Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Number Talks” by Ruth Parker Ruth was my mentor when I was teaching 5th grade, and then a Math Coach, in the Clark County School District. Any time I get the opportunity to hear her speak, I take it, and she never disappoints. Ruth and her colleague,...
read moreDeveloping Mathematical Language is Hard Work
Using language to effectively communicate one’s mathematical thinking is an important skill—one that is a focus of Math Practice 6: Attend to Precision. Many of us know firsthand that clearly articulating mathematical ideas is challenging work, and that when students use ambiguous, imprecise terms in their explanations, their language can actually get in the way of understanding. Developing precise language is key if we want to students to engage in rich, collaborative discussions in which...
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