ROUNDING UP: SEASON 5 | EPISODE 1

Classroom boards have traditionally been a space that belongs to the teacher, even as technology changes. What would it look like to rethink our relationship with the board, repositioning it as a shared space for teachers and students alike?

In part 1 of this two-part series, Mike sits down with Dr. Tutita Casa and Katherine Mack from the University of Connecticut to talk about ways teachers can establish norms and develop practices that make the board a shared space that reflects students' reasoning.

BIOGRAPHIES

Tutita Casa is an associate professor of elementary mathematics education at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Her work is aimed at supporting teachers to empower students to grapple with the mathematics and engage with the discipline in ways similar to how mathematicians go about their work.

Katherine Mack is a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut. She examines how elementary teachers can facilitate mathematical discourse by repositioning the instructional board as a space that centers student reasoning and makes it visible.

RESOURCES

Listen to Tutita's last appearance on the podcast.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Introduction • Rethinking the Classroom Board
00:43 - Making the Board Student-Centered
03:40 - Shifting Classroom Norms
08:31 - Capturing Student Reasoning
11:35 - Helping Students Follow the Math Story
14:19 - Using Color & Space for Clarity
18:57 - Adapting Board Work in the Moment
22:14 - Connecting Spoken Language to Written Math
24:51 - Wrapping Up • Part 2 Coming Soon

TRANSCRIPT

Click here for a full episode transcript.

Rounding Up returns next week for its fifth season, examining even more ideas, concepts, and practices that shape teaching and learning in elementary mathematics classrooms. This season, we invite our listeners to engage with us by leaving a comment on our website, mathlearningcenter.org/podcast. We look forward to hearing from you!

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Wallus: Rounding Up returns for Season 5 next Thursday, September 3rd, with brand-new episodes. We'll examine ideas, concepts, and practices that shape teaching and learning in elementary mathematics classrooms. I'm your host, Mike Wallus, the vice president of educator support at The Math Learning Center, the organization behind the Bridges in Mathematics curriculum for early childhood learners all the way through fifth grade.

This season, we'll chat with experts in classroom infrastructure—

Tutita Casa: We're trying to take those unspoken norms that the board is a space that traditionally is led by the teacher, commanded by the teacher, too often didactically, and how can we open up that space to reflect what our students are thinking?

Mike: Content—

Patrick Sullivan: I felt like my teaching improved exponentially when I just started listening to my students. And I'm like, "Oh, they don't really understand that the way I thought they would." And OK, so now I can modify and I can latch on to what they're telling me as opposed to just me thinking, "Oh, this is what's going to be best."

Mike: Math identity and classroom culture—

Fawnda Norman: Math is about making connections and communicating with each other. It's not just about solving the problem and getting the right answer. And so, if we can get students to communicate with each other, they're gonna learn that they are all mathematicians and we can all do this.

Mike: Identifying critical moments in the classroom—

Jamila Riser: Where's this moment in the lesson where the students have potentially the greatest, most visible opportunities to make the key connections that they had identified in the lesson to reach that goal?

Mike: And a whole lot more.

Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast app so you don't miss an episode, or head over to mathlearningcenter.org/podcast, where you can share your thoughts and experiences relating to each episode with us.

Rounding Up is brought to you by The Math Learning Center and the Maier Math Foundation, dedicated to inspiring and enabling all individuals to discover their mathematical confidence and ability.

ROUNDING UP: SEASON 4 | EPISODE 24

Learning to record students' mathematical thinking might best be described as "on-the-job training" with a great deal of trial and error and a lot of practice.

In this rereleased episode from Season 1, Nicole Garcia from the University of Michigan talks about the practice of recording student thinking and offers insight on this challenging but crucial practice.

BIOGRAPHY

Nicole Garcia is an experienced mathematics teacher, professional developer, and teacher educator focused on practice-based approaches to teacher learning. In her work as the associate director of TeachingWorks at the University of Michigan, she supports teachers, coaches, administrators, and teacher educators to ensure that all students have access to strong instruction.

RESOURCES

"Recording Student Thinking in a Mathematics Discussion" journal article

Inside Mathematics website

TRANSCRIPT

Click here for a full episode transcript.