Unit Unpacking

Teachers were given the opportunity to meet with me throughout the year to unpack upcoming math units.  Teachers appreciated this time and we plan to continue this practice next year.

Having this time with teachers to unpack the math unit has been wonderful.  I took the iReady Unpacking a Unit page and put it into a Google Doc to make it fillable.  I must say, after doing the Curriculum Analysis project for the class, I want to adjust and add a bit more into the unpacking unit days into the future, specifically looking at hands-on activities, how to increase the cognitive demand, and suggesting teachers use the Math in Action week as well as the performance task each unit offers.   I found that while facilitating these unit unpacking days, teachers did look at me for guidance and I did feel like a mathematics teacher leader.  Teachers were very appreciative of the time we had together to do this task and all acknowledged this was helpful to prepare themselves to teach the unit as well as when they were in the unit as they reflected on the document. 

Working together with teachers as we unpacked the math units allowed us to explore the trajectory of the learning standards, exploring the sequence of the lessons, (II.c.i), and determined and planned if the sessions provided enough/too much and adapted lessons as needed, (II.c.iv).  We connected the learning goals and mathematical ideas to previous and future standards, (II.c.iii).  I would like to make time for grade bands, (K/1, 2/3, and 4/5 or K-2 and 3-5), to work together to discuss trajectories across grade levels and eventually do some vertical alignment within standards, mathematical concepts, strategies taught, norming assessments, etc. I believe this would help us to look at our students as a whole rather than in just the grade we teach and allow us to find where our instruction is weak and what we each can do adjust our program to address gaps, (II.c.v).