2016 Foxborough Summer Institute

This fast-paced, example-laden presentation will discuss and model a range of classroom-tested strategies and practices for raising the quality of our instruction and student learning (grades 6-12).

Implementing the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice can seem like a daunting task. Teachers have many questions -- What does it look like when students are using the practices? How do I build them into an already packed curriculum? What about students who struggle in math, how do I ensure that all of my students develop the practices? This session will address those questions, offering a viable approach to placing the math practices at the center of math learning and doing for all students (grades K-12).

There is math all around us, especially in the movies. In this workshop teachers will learn about which movies can enhance their math class. Topics include probability, series & sequences, quadratics, trigonometry, fractals, cryptography, and volume. We will watch some clips and do the math involved (grades 7-12).

One of the most frequent statements students make after reading a math word problem is “I don’t get it!”. One reason for this is that students read the problem like they would read any other piece of writing. It turns out that reading in math is different. Instead of reading to understand context, characters and conflict, mathematicians read for quantities and uncover relationships between those quantities to solve problems. In this session, participants will not only learn what makes reading in math difficult and what to pay attention to when reading a word problem, they will learn a powerful instructional routine, called the Three Reads, they can use to teach their students to read like mathematicians. This session is especially relevant for those SPED and ELL educators supporting student learning in math (grades PreK-12).

In this session, participants will engage in activities which will shift their mindset from American mathematical procedures and practices to one of a more multicultural outlook. They will grapple with a variety of mathematical representations thereby placing themselves in the mind of the learner. By embracing other mathematical representations, we can then understand the needs of our learners further and differentiate our instruction accordingly. After reviewing several differences in mathematics education throughout the world, we will then explore strategies that the presenter has found helpful in moving students towards language proficiency while harnessing their mathematics backgrounds to move towards computational fluency.
Participants will leave with several strategies to utilize in the mathematics classroom as well as a newfound respect for math in other countries. We will also share an intake assessment which will allow teachers to further educate themselves as to their students’ mathematical history (grades PreK-12).

In this workshop, teachers will be shown matching activities and puzzles that help students see the connections in math. Students will match equations, graphs, table of values and graph analysis for a variety of Algebraic topics (linear, quadratic, cubic, …)
For geometry there are activities where students match a vocabulary word, definition and a diagram (grades 7-12).

In this session, participants will engage in activities which will shift their mindset from American mathematical procedures and practices to one of a more multicultural outlook. They will grapple with a variety of mathematical representations thereby placing themselves in the mind of the learner. By embracing other mathematical representations, we can then understand the needs of our learners further and differentiate our instruction accordingly. After reviewing several differences in mathematics education throughout the world, we will then explore strategies that the presenter has found helpful in moving students towards language proficiency while harnessing their mathematics backgrounds to move towards computational fluency (grades PreK-12).

Participants will leave with several strategies to utilize in the mathematics classroom as well as a newfound respect for math in other countries. We will also share an intake assessment which will allow teachers to further educate themselves as to their students’ mathematical history.

One of the most frequent statements students make after reading a math word problem is “I don’t get it!”. One reason for this is that students read the problem like they would read any other piece of writing. It turns out that reading in math is different. Instead of reading to understand context, characters and conflict, mathematicians read for quantities and uncover relationships between those quantities to solve problems. In this session, participants will not only learn what makes reading in math difficult and what to pay attention to when reading a word problem, they will learn a powerful instructional routine, called the Three Reads, they can use to teach their students to read like mathematicians. This session is especially relevant for those SPED and ELL educators supporting student learning in math (grades K-12).