Domain 1: Planning and Preparation

NMTEACCH Domain 1 Element:

1B: Designing Coherent instruction.

Professional Learning Goal:

I will prepare higher order thinking questions to ask during discussion as well as including additional small group discussion and "think pair share" opportunities.

Action Plan:

• Plan and include three to five higher order thinking questions in my weekly lesson plans.
• Use Bloom's taxonomy to develop higher order thinking questions to include in lesson plans.
• Have students answer higher order thinking questions on Class Dojo as an entry task or exit task one or two times each week.
• Use the resources available to generate questions.

Time line:

Higher order thinking questions added to lesson plans beginning week of September 30th.

Begin Class Dojo entry task week of September 30th.

Resources:

• Agile Mind
• Math is Fun Website
• Class Dojo
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Dr. Stone

Outcomes:

Domain 2: Creating an Environment for Learning

NMTEACCH Domain 2 Element:

2C: Establishing a culture for learning.

Professional Learning Goal:

I will group students effectively to enhance learning and mathematical discourse.

Action Plan:

• Regroup students for first team project - monitor which students work well together and which students do not
• create new teams for topic 3 - base teams on math competency, personality, social issues, etc. Monitor the effectiveness of the teams for future grouping.

Time line:

First team project to begin on 09-24-2019

Topic 3 to begin 10-14-2019

Resources:

• Prodigy placement test
• Class Dojo
• Knowledge of students
• Student input
• Q1 Interim test results

Outcomes:

First team project:

Groups were more effective than previous groupings. When students questioned the groups they were placed into, I was able to explain why I had grouped the students in the manner they were grouped. This seemed to decrease the complaining about the grouping. It also required me to think about and justify why I had placed students the way I had. While I will not let them question the groupings every time, answering the questions benefited the students as well as myself.

The one complication arose from a new student starting in my class. I was not sure where to place her, so I had planned to let her stay with the group she had chosen to sit with. However, as I started talking about the team project someone asked if they would be working in the teams, they were already in. I looked around the room as I explained that I had changed the teams a little for the project. I noticed someone in the new girls group shaking her head at me and whispering “please no.” As the group she was in was one that the students had created themselves, I knew she did not want to work on a team with the new girl. I made the last-minute choice to place her in another team. The grouping the new girl was placed in worked well, and she was able to support the team in a variety of ways. I still need to check in with the student who whispered to figure out if there are other issues, I need to be aware of.

New teams for function unit:

I grouped students based on their interim scores and the social behaviors I have previously observed. However, the groups did not work effectively. The students would not work with their newly established groups. Most of the students complained about even having to sit next to the peers in their teams. When I asked the students to talk about anything, they just started at each other. While the groupings helped to decrease the social problems (students talking about subjects unrelated to math and not paying attention), they were not conducive to cooperative learning activities.

*One of the students who was having a difficult time working in the classroom due to social behaviors has recently had a schedule change. During a discussion with the student’s mother, I found that he was having the same problem in at least three other classes. In each case the student he engaged in social behaviors with was the same student he was having issues with talking to in my room. Before the discussion with mom, I had mandated separation of the two students. They were not to even be on the same side of the classroom because they could not work. As three other teachers were having the same problem with these two students, mom elected to have his schedule changed. Not having him in class changed the dynamic in the classroom considerably.

Domain 3: Teaching for Learning

NMTEACCH Domain 3 Element:

3C: Engaging students in learning.

Professional Learning Goal:

I will pace my lessons effectively to allow time for mathematical discourse and student discussion.

Action Plan:

• Plan for at least one small group discussion per day in lesson plan - include higher order thinking questions for teams to discuss.
• Plan for how I will chunk each lesson with times in lesson plan.
• Reflect on how this went every week.
• Revise lesson plans as needed based on reflection from previous weeks.

Time line:

Begin including these elements in my lesson plan week of 09-29

Reflect each Friday about how chunking and discussion went

Resources:

• Stop watch on Class Dojo
• Agile Mind
• Stop watch on phone.

Outcomes:

The first couple weeks I was consistent in the inclusion of discussion questions and times in my lesson plans, but I found that I was very inconsistent in the delivery of those questions. Somedays I would not present the questions at all, somedays I would present the questions with inadequate time for discussion, and other days I would include both the questions and time to answer them.

The start of the function’s unit – Regrouping the students was detrimental to the quality of discussion in the classroom, regardless of the time provided for such discussion. The students will not talk or interact in their new teams. When I ask them to discuss an element of the lesson, they just stare at me like my head has fallen off my body and rolled across the floor. Not only were they unwilling to work together, they were less willing to work at all.

Week 2 functions unit – I have changed up the teams again in an effort to find the right group dynamic that will facilitate productive discussion. My students are now grouped in pairs within larger teams. This arrangement has had a profound effect on the discussions in the classroom. The students willingly engage in discussion without having to be forced to do so. This will help me focus on asking the right questions.