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Grading in Math:
Grading for accuracy, motivation, and making your life easier
As teachers, we thoughtfully plan and teach lessons so our students will understand math deeply. We see evidence of our hard work paying off as students build the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in math. For these reasons, it can be incredibly frustrating when we see a disconnect between our classroom observations of what students know and can do and their performance (and grades) on assessments.
In this workshop, we will reflect on our grading practices so we can answer the questions, “What do we want our grades to do?” and “How can we grade to meet this goal?” We will explore effective practical grading tools that have been used by FUHSD math teachers for years. These tools will help us learn how we can grade in ways that not only accurately represent what our students know and can do, but also motivate students to keep persevering in our classes while making the work of grading easier for us as teachers. This workshop builds on the work PLC teams have done to clarify the essential learnings for their course as informed by the FUHSD Essential and Important Skills and will help teachers on PLC teams grade with greater precision.
Who: All Gen Ed and SAI math teachers. We highly encourage teachers to attend with a colleague from their team or department.
When: This workshop will be offered over the course of two half-days. Teachers may choose to attend in August before the start of the school year or in Spring 2024.
August: Monday, August 14 and Tuesday, August 15, 9 am-1 pm
Spring: Wednesday, May 1, 9 am - 3:05 pm
Grading in Math Outcomes:
An understanding of grading practices that align with teachers’ goals for grading
Practical grading tools to help teachers grade with greater accuracy and precision
Practical grading tools that motivate students to keep trying and make grading easier
Building Thinking Classrooms Book Club
After spending fifteen years in math classrooms, math education researcher Peter Liljedahl has become an expert in how students behave in math classrooms. He knows the savvy ways in which students can engage in “non-thinking” behavior, which includes rote memorization and repetitive calculations, but also behaviors like “mimicking,” which make it look like a student is learning when they are, in fact, not learning at all. In Building Thinking Classrooms, Liljedahl offers 14 research-based teaching practices for enhancing learning in the math classroom.
This professional learning opportunity is intended to build upon two previous Math PD offerings: the Math Discourse PD and the Productive Math Struggle PD. The purpose of the Building Thinking Classrooms Book Club is to provide teachers with the opportunity to discuss key ideas from the book, which will help them learn practical tools and moves they can use to create a classroom environment in which students learn math deeply. The monthly book club sessions will also provide teachers with a support system as they apply their learning in the classroom.
Who: All Gen Ed and SAI math teachers
When: Four half-day sessions, lunch provided
Thursday, September 14, 1:45-3:50 pm
Wednesday, October 11, 1-3:05 pm
Thursday, November 16, 1:45-3:50 pm
Wednesday, December 12, 1-3:05 pm
Building Thinking Classrooms Book Club Outcomes:
An understanding of high-leverage teaching practices* to move toward a thinking classroom
Experiments in the classroom via “mini” action research projects
*The teaching practices we will focus on are:
● How we form groups in a thinking classroom
● How we answer questions in a thinking classroom
● What homework looks like in a thinking classroom
● How students take notes in a thinking classroom
Statistics Design Workshops
Since 2020, Math Department Leads and site representatives have shared input on the needs and goals of math teachers at their sites, which shaped the Statistics and Probability PD offered during the last two school years. Almost all FUHSD Gen Ed and SAI math teachers of foundational math courses attended this PD, which equipped them with content knowledge and ready-made sample lessons they could use to teach the Common Core statistics and probability standards.
The purpose of the Statistics Design Workshops is to meet the current needs of Gen Ed and SAI math teachers, which include:
Deeper understanding of statistics and probability content
Skills adapting current instructional materials to meet students’ needs
Skills designing instructional materials at both the task level and unit level
Skills with assessment design
Our cross-site PD facilitation team will tailor the workshop to the specific needs of teachers and PLC teams at each site.
Who: All Gen Ed and SAI math teachers and PLC teams for all math courses
When: TBD based on the needs of the team/site
Statistics Design Workshop Outcomes:
Deeper understanding of statistics and probability content
Understanding of statistics and probability content in high level tasks and assessments
2023-24 Math PD Plan.pdfPage updated
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