PreK-12 Case Studies

Creating "Thinking Classrooms"

Manchester Public Schools (PreK-12)

In order to support students’ mathematical identities, Manchester Public Schools is working to implement Peter Liljedahl’s book called Building Thinking Classrooms. Teachers work to implement tasks like the hourglass problem that help promote higher-order thinking. They use visibly random groups to remove social barriers and promote knowledge mobility and vertical, non-permanent writing surfaces in order to reduce the risk of trying something and take away the sense of anonymity. This will also hopefully get them to think more because they are taught to value the thinking itself and not just the answer. Manchester is also implementing classes like Statistics and Data Science to create other equitable pathways so that students are not just taking classes that lead up to calculus. Manchester is working to use units from the YouCubed curriculum to provide students with a strong sense of agency so that they can become the creators of mathematics. It will also help students explore careers in STEM-related fields. 

For more information, contact Josh Steffenson, Director of Teaching and Learning, STEAM Grades 5-12 at jsteffenson@mpspride.org