Elementary Mathematics
TUSD educators of mathematics support students in learning how to deliberately increase opportunities at higher DOK levels and facilitate self regulation through multi-directional interactions (including justification, reasoning, convincing) in order to balance conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and problem solving so that each student adjusts and deepens his/her mathematical understanding. Education stakeholders use student evidence to have discussions around students’ mathematical understanding in order to justify instructional strategies that deepened and adjust existing practices.
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe ways in which developing student practitioners of the discipline of mathematics increasingly ought to engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle and high school years.
Depth of Knowledge
Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a way to think about content complexity, not content difficulty. The framework is used to identify the amount of rigor for an assessment question and tasks given in the classroom. Karen Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix at the right outlines curricular examples at each of the four levels of DOK.
DOK Karen Hess.pdfCalifornia Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP)
Students take the CAASPP Test in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.
Cognitively Guided Instruction
All elementary TUSD teachers are trained in the CGI pedagogy.
Guiding Principles of Cognitively Guided Instruction:
Young children have a rich informal knowledge of mathematics that can serve as a basis for developing understanding of mathematics.
Mathematics instruction should be based on what children understand about mathematics.
When teachers understand a research-based framework for children’s thinking, they can make instructional decisions about what and how to teach that expand children’s knowledge about mathematics.
Common Components of a CGI Classroom
Problem solving is the focus of instruction; teachers pose a variety of problems.
Children decide how they should solve each problem using sense-making strategies.
Children communicate to their teachers and peers how they are thinking about and solving problems.
Teachers seek to understand children’s thinking and problem-solving strategies and use that knowledge to plan instruction.