PLTs

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs)

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) meet four times over the course of the semester and consist of small teams of teachers who come together over a sustained period of time to deeply explore problems of practice. Participants bring attention, focus, and a willingness to move beyond sharing lessons and ideas to critically examine student work, research, and classroom practice.

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs)

Adapting Chemistry POGIL Activities for Your Classroom

*Science*

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Anna Annina, Denice Gamper, and Sarah Gribbin

+ Please Note: This is a five session PLT. Additionally, Nov 15 is a DOE Elementary School Parent Teacher Conference date.

POGIL is a student-centered instructional approach that is designed to develop discipline specific content mastery and key process skills such as critical thinking, effective communication and teamwork. In this PLT, we will explore how to implement POGIL activities that address the needs of all of our students. We’ll begin by looking at a Flinn Chemistry POGIL activity and experiment with them in our classrooms. We will then explore how to modify or adapt published POGILs to meet the needs of specific student populations, (ie. ENL students, Special Education students, and students with different learning styles and abilities) while ensuring that essential elements of a POGIL activity are maintained.

Algebraic Reasoning Across the K-8 Progression

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Sophie Brady, Sharon Goodman, Leigh Kusinski, and Kady Safar

Mathematics

What does algebraic reasoning look like across a K-8 progression? In this PLT, teachers in grades K-8 will work together to explore big ideas in algebraic thinking including equivalence, generalizing, and the various ways in which variables are used. We will explore ways to deepen student understanding of these mathematical relationships, as well as teachers’ approaches to these topics, in a way that scaffolds student learning over the course of their educational journeys. Through studying relevant research, applying strategies and approaches discussed in the group, and collecting artifacts from our classrooms, we will work together to build a K-8 continuum of algebraic reasoning in order to inform our instructional approaches to these topics in our classrooms.

AP Chemistry: Aligning Practice

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Naoual Eljastimi and Emily Hart

Science

This PLT is designed for AP Chemistry teachers who want to share what they’ve learned from their classrooms and engage in investigating what works for other teachers as well. Each session, different teachers will present short interactive lessons showcasing what they teach and how they teach it. These lessons will include real-life applications, new teaching approaches, student activities and aligned AP Chemistry exam questions. Through these cycles, teachers will investigate, reflect, and imagine how they can incorporate these ideas into their own everyday teaching.

AP/IB Biology: Students Working with Primary Data to Improve Science Skills

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Lola Oyediran and Marisa Wagner

Science

How can we incorporate students working with primary data into our lessons with an eye towards honing our students’ science skills? During the first three sessions of this PLT, teachers will bring in data from primary articles that they wish to use in their classrooms. The team will work together to create short, student-centered classroom activities based on the data in the primary article. Teachers will then take these activities back to their classrooms to use with their students. During the final session, teachers will report back to the team with student work in order to reflect upon the efficacy of each activity. The team will then collaborate to revise and improve each activity accordingly. The goal is that, together, we will create a bank of student-centered, data-driven activities in various content areas, which are aligned with AP/IB/NGSS standards, that can help to drive our lessons.

Assessing Student Learning in the Computer Science Classroom

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Kayleigh Rose and Margaret Tanzosh

Computer Science and Technology

+ Please Note: Teachers will be asked to bring in and share resources of established curricula they find valuable - such as Code.org, Beauty and Joy of Computing, and CS50 - and assist each other in adapting them to the needs of the students.

Are you looking for new ways to assess students’ understanding of the principles of computer science through engaging coding tasks? This PLT is for teachers who are teaching computer science (including, but not limited to, AP Computer Science Principles) that are looking to assess student understanding of key questions such as: What is an algorithm? Why does programming use abstraction? How can we create a simulation? How can I make my code more efficient? Throughout this PLT, teachers will support each other in embedding engaging tasks that enable students to develop a deeper understanding of coding principles as well as allow us to gain insights into how they are thinking. Teachers will also practice appropriate questioning and feedback techniques to help students develop their coding abilities. As a team, we will reflect and give each other feedback on the assessment strategies we are trying out in our classrooms.

Building Algebraic Routines: A Problem Strings Working Group

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Geoffrey Enriquez and Kari Ostrem

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Teachers will each need their own copy of Algebra and Advanced Algebra Problem Strings by Pamela Weber Harris and Kara Imm.

A big challenge for math teachers is to figure out ways to provide access to algebra, and to help students make sense of algebraic skills. “Problem Strings” are a tool to address this issue by providing a systematic approach for students to discover patterns and structures within mathematics through exploring a “String” of mathematical statements. In this PLT, we will discuss how to use Problem Strings as short interventions designed to help students better understand algebraic concepts. Together we will practice, develop and troubleshoot the implementation of “Problem Strings”.

Building Durable Understandings in Pre-Calculus

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Amos Levy and Michael Riccardo

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Nov 28 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

Well-crafted problem sets, where students engage in deep mathematics, are powerful means to impart students with a durable understanding of precalculus concepts. In this PLT, we will work to refine existing problem sets that invite our students to explore complex mathematics while also building a strong basis for future math courses they may take. We will share examples of student work from these problem sets to reflect on student thinking, how these problem sets promote durable understanding, where the sets can be improved, and share unanticipated outcomes and common student misconceptions.

Calculus: Investigating Teaching and Learning

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Lori Bodner and Andrew Wille

Mathematics

Are you a calculus teacher with a desire to improve your calculus pedagogy and share your knowledge of teaching calculus with others? In this PLT, we will focus on how to engage our students by drawing connections between conceptual understanding and algebraic fluency. We will examine pedagogy through sharing classroom activities, investigating pedagogical methods, and creating focused tasks. We will work together to build a more successful classroom by taking a critical look at student work, assessment data, and other artifacts from our own classrooms. We will also share and contribute to a wealth of resources from past and present calculus PLTs. Since our work is centered on both student performance and teacher growth, all PLT participants must be current calculus teachers - both AP and non-AP teachers are welcome.

Climate Change in the Physics and Chemistry Classrooms

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Ross Pinkerton and Gilana Reiss

Science

+ Please Note: This is a five session PLT.

As an interdisciplinary science, climate change belongs to everyone, and thus, no one. Consequently, climate change can remain absent from high school courses, unless teachers actively work to integrate it into the classroom. This PLT is designed for physics and chemistry teachers interested in collaborating to develop lesson plans and lab activities while exploring resources to embed topics of climate change in their courses. The goal is not to develop a separate unit on climate change, but rather to identify and exploit connections that already exist in our curricula. We will work together to identify natural integration points for climate science into our chemistry and physics classes, sharing and developing lessons and activities on these topics, and trying them out in our classrooms. Our final session in the spring will be a time for us to reconnect and share what we’ve tried. Using our students’ work as a model, we will reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what is worth revising for a second attempt.

Complex Instruction: Supporting Equity in the Secondary STEM Classroom

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teacher Erin Ratz and MƒA Early Career Teachers Dwaina Sookhoo and Laura Wang

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

Complex Instruction (CI) is a teaching approach focused on elevating student status in the classroom so that all students can make contributions to the learning that takes place in small collaborative groups. Using excerpts from Elizabeth Cohen’s Designing Groupwork, as well as other resources, participants will explore what useful groupwork means and how to support it in the classroom. Members of the PLT will collaborate to build routines that can shift the way students view themselves in our classrooms, explore strategies for monitoring status shifts, and develop tools for using CI to engage students in group-worthy tasks in which all can grow and shine.

Crafting Case Studies in Physical and Earth Science: A Lens for Teaching

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Jude Julien and Lucy Robins

Science

Many of the world’s most pressing problems require a deep understanding of science - from climate change, to resource allocation, from alternative energy sources to environmental racism. Our job as science teachers is to help our students learn how to apply the daily content of our classes to solve complex problems. However, this is no easy task - students often have a hard time making the connection between what is taught in class to its actual real world application. Teaching through a case study model provides students with an opportunity to apply content knowledge to real world problems by creating a lens through which all content is learned and practiced. In this PLT, we will analyze a current science case study to determine its components and identify the criteria for designing such a study. By the end of this PLT, teachers will have designed a potential case study for their own physical or earth science classroom - including the scientific concepts learned, the problem being solved, the background information, and the final product that students will be producing.

Designing and Incorporating Hands-on Construction-Based Activities in Geometry

Facilitators: MƒA Early Career Teacher Kristen Reetz and MƒA Master Teacher Larisa Yevseenko

Mathematics

In Geometry classrooms, we often teach constructions at the end of the year as a unit that is not connected to other units of study. Additionally, we strive to teach more student-centered and hands-on lessons in order to meet all our students’ needs. The goal of this PLT is to discover the ways we can help our students develop a better conceptual understanding of Geometry by integrating hands-on, construction-based activities throughout our curricula. We will design lessons, teach them, and collect artifacts such as video and student work. Finally, we will come together to share, refine and reflect.

Designing Projects with 3D Printers

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teacher Alia Jackson and MƒA Early Career Teacher Edita O’Brien

Computer Science and Technology

Do you have a 3D printer - but you aren’t sure what to do with it? This PLT aims to introduce teachers to the free software available to design 3D models. Teachers will work in groups to create projects where students design and build a multi-piece model, and over the course of the PLT, implement this project with students, with time at the end to reflect on the process. This PLT will be open to teachers with all levels of expertise in 3D printing. The MƒA Makerbot will be available for those that don’t have access to a printer at their school.

Designing Rigorous Earth Science Tasks

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Susan Dimartino and Tara Ware

Science

This PLT is for Earth Science teachers who want to deepen their students’ understandings and create more opportunities for students to explain their thinking through writing. The goal will be for teachers to work together to create end of unit tasks that require students to have a deep knowledge of content and explain that knowledge in writing. The teachers will then analyze Earth Science unit tasks in groups, find the elements that work, and build their own high quality tasks. Together, we will create a bank of tasks teachers can use in their classroom. We hope teachers will leave this PLT with multiple rigorous and engaging earth science end of unit tasks, and begin to backwards plan the student thinking that will lead to student success.

Developing Thought-Provoking Physics Labs

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Daisy Sharaf and Thomas Strasser

Science

Many physics labs are constrained by a lab manual or other cookbook lab preparation. They may not reflect the active and investigative approach necessary to promote the experimental aspects of physics. Physics teachers in this PLT will share and analyze current lab practices, with an eye towards giving more moments for individual students to consider and own the work being done. Together we will discuss ideas to modify current procedures and develop new lab resources that can be used in all our classrooms.

Doing and Implementing Rich Math Tasks in Algebra

Facilitators: MƒA Emeritus Teachers Liz Clark- Garvey and Carl Oliver

Mathematics

Are you ready to delve deeply into the work of supporting students’ mathematical reasoning? Using a research-based model called the Problem Solving Cycle, we will explore a rich math task, design a lesson using the task for students, implement the lesson in classroom, and reflect on both the student thinking and instructional practices that took place during the lesson. Throughout the process, we will be considering the questions we ask as teachers to both better understand student thinking as well as push student thinking forward. As a way to slow down and analyze moments from each lesson. Due to the nature of the collaboration, it will be important that all participants are prepared to teach the particular lesson they designed during the PLT. In this cycle, we will select a task that could be adapted for use in an 8th grade or 9th grade algebra class. For more information, please see: bit.ly/ problemsolvingcycle.

Effectively Using Phenomena to Promote 3D Learning

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Jean Hourihane and JoEllen Schuleman

Science

How can we use phenomena to drive learning and make science more meaningful? This PLT is designed for elementary and middle school science teachers (K-8) who are unfamiliar with or who want to know more about this NGSS innovation within physical science. Our goal is to explore examples, define attributes and recognize the role quality phenomena plays in three-dimensional learning. We will also explore how similar phenomena can be used in multiple grade bands. We will each choose or create a phenomena to match a physical science lesson/unit, and then use that phenomena with our students. We will then share examples of student work, as well as give and receive constructive feedback, using resources aligned to NGSS and the new New York State Science Learning Standards.

Engaging Activities in AP Statistics

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Melanie Battles and Doug Shuman

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Nov 27 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

According to the pioneering statistician John Tukey, “Doing statistics is like doing crosswords except that one cannot know for sure whether one has found the solution.” Many students find this unsettling after the comforting certainty of algebra. Great statistics activities capture students’ imaginations, enlighten them to big ideas, and stoke their curiosity about the more technical aspects of the subject. We will share our most engaging activities with the goal of designing, executing and critiquing them to allow students to master both conceptual and procedural content. Come ready to share, improve, and, with the help of your peers’ collaborations, return to your class with a new set of engaging activities.

Exploring Adolescent Psychology

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Constance Giannakakis and Deborah Schaeffer

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

Join us as we delve into the inner workings of our students’ minds in order to understand their needs, motivations, and development. During each session, we will explore informational texts and articles from the field of psychology, reflect on how they resonate with our experience as secondary school teachers, and develop lesson plans and teaching strategies. In between sessions, we will conduct interviews with our own students and bring these back to the group to process and learn from together. Our goal is to build a community of teachers who want to help each other reflect honestly, strengthen our teaching practice, and develop a deeper understanding of our students so that we can support them through this challenging and transformational time in their lives.

Exploring Mathematical Models through Japanese Lesson Study

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Emma Biramian and Kimberly Elicker

Mathematics

+ Please Note: This PLT will require an inter-visitation at a participant’s school, the date of which will be determined once the PLT is underway.

When are mathematical models useful to explore complex mathematical ideas? When might they break down? In this PLT, we will investigate a variety of mathematical models and design a lesson to address a common student misconception. We will then refine our lesson using the Jugyō Kenkyū process where we will observe the lesson, reflect on student understanding, and revise the lesson based on our findings.

Facilitating Student-Designed Case Studies in Life Science

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Jeffrey Horenstein, Deame Hua, and Susie Kang

Science

+ Please Note: Nov 28 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

Case studies can be powerful tools for students to engage with and learn about various real world topics, ranging from diseases to environmental issues that impact us everyday. Often times, the work of creating and engaging in a case study is done through the teacher. While this is already an engaging learning model, we want to push the envelope and have students research, design, and implement their own case studies to be experienced by their peers. This cultivates interdisciplinary, multiple modality thinking and increases ownership and expertise in the material. This PLT is for middle school and high school life science teachers who want more student driven learning in the classroom, and want to collaboratively investigate methods for doing so.

Facilitating the Transition to the New Science Standards in Your Middle School

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Kelli Buck and Sarah Slack

Science

+ Please Note: Nov 15 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

As middle school science teaching in New York City transitions to the NGSS-based learning standards, MƒA teachers will likely be called on to act as leaders in their school communities. This PLT is geared towards teachers who have formal or informal leadership roles, as well as teachers who have an interest in exploring the standards themselves and are inspired to begin making changes in their own practice and want to identify effective strategies to support others in the transition. We will have the chance to explore the shifts in the standards according to the Scope and Sequence and examine guidance provided by the Department of Education to implement these standards. We will discuss ideas to facilitate effective roll out within our own classrooms and buildings and will anticipate potential challenges and brainstorm creative solutions for implementation. Teachers will walk away with action steps and materials to facilitate effective transition.

Formative Assessment in Mathematics Classrooms

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Elizabeth Fiorella and Mathew Sullivan

Mathematics

Have you ever designed a great lesson you were really proud of and then things didn’t go as planned? A student raised an intriguing idea, a misconception was illuminated, a new solution was found. In this PLT, teachers will choose a Formative Assessment Lesson developed at the Shell Center for the Math Assessment Resource Service (MARS) which are designed to formatively assess students’ understanding of important ideas and can be used as a supplement to existing curriculum. After selecting a lesson, we will develop lesson plans and implement them in our classrooms. In follow up sessions, we will use artifacts such as video of student thinking and student work to reflect on our students’ understanding and the implementation of the task. Based on our reflections about how the lesson went we will discuss possible next steps and changes we might make to the lesson. Was there anything that did not work well? How did students respond? What changes will enhance the experience for our students?

Hack the Helix (HtH) is a community of biology teachers who are interested in discussing and implementing biotechnology labs in the science classroom. The staging area of the BwB lab can also be used by teachers to prepare agar plates, solutions, and sterile consumables that they can bring back to the classroom. During this PLT, teachers will work to brainstorm and refine different lab-based tasks by using the BwB lab space to test-drive and improve them before they’re tried in the classroom. The group may also choose to “hack” a protocol, devising low-cost methods of obtaining reagents and developing DIY lab methods from lab protocols, and also find ways to include students in the “biohacking” mindset. After experiencing the tasks with students, teachers will then bring back their observations and share how it went.

Infusing Social Justice in Highschool Math and Science Classrooms

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Sage Forbes- Gray, Jennifer Parker, and Jay Pirani-Mellstrom

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

How might we meaningfully integrate social justice issues and practices into our STEM classrooms? This PLT will offer an opportunity for teachers to explore how social justice can be woven into project-based learning and into Common Core and NGSS aligned curricula. We will have the opportunity to share projects, lessons, and classroom practices that support this endeavor. Additionally, we will design and test ideas in our classrooms, and then share student outcomes in small groups. Together, we will continue to build a substantial toolkit of projects, tasks, and strategies to support the infusion of social justice into our curricula.

Increasingly, research is showing that higher-order thinking about mathematics focused on visual representations increases engagement, achievement and equity. Moving beyond presenting students with visual models and interpreting them, the goal of this PLT is to become better at asking students to develop their own visual representations of the mathematics presented. Our time will focus on reading current research then collaborating to develop, analyze and improve multiple opportunities for students to create visual representations of mathematics across all levels.

Making with Meaning: Bridging Engineering Design with Content

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Paul Kehoe and Mallory Womer

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

We all love the classic egg drop experiment or dream of having a makerspace, but it might not fit with the content we have to teach and our limited resources. How can we maximize these design challenges to engage students in authentic STEM learning experiences that simultaneously develop key soft skills such as resilience and collaboration? This PLT is for anyone who teaches math, science or technology and is looking to incorporate engineering design challenges into their practice. Teachers in this PLT will engage in design thinking, analyze their own curricula for opportunities to include meaningful design challenges, try them out in their classrooms, reflect on the challenges and the student work produced, and will hopefully leave the PLT with a passion for teaching engineering!

The Mathematics of Gerrymandering: Gerry Rig Your Classroom!

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Kate Belin, Courtney Ferrell, and David Price

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Nov 27 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

In this PLT, we will dive into the mathematics of gerrymandering and develop curriculum and tasks addressing these issues, specifically exploring concepts of compactness, fairness, partisan symmetry and the efficiency gap. We will then carry out these instructional ideas and curriculum in our classrooms and school communities and reflect upon their implementation within the PLT. Additionally, we will discuss prioritizing competing interests, historical and legal contexts, and consider potential cross-curricular connections.

Performance Based Assessment Tasks (PBATs) in Mathematics Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Shana Henry, Abby Kirchman, and Athena Leonardo

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Nov 27 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

What mathematical thinking is central in your PBAT? How can we support students in developing deep understanding of the mathematics as they work towards completing a PBAT? This PLT is for mathematics teachers who currently teach in Consortium schools and/or teachers who want to incorporate performance based assessment tasks as a central component in their classrooms. Our work will be guided by the Consortium Math PBAT Rubric and supplementary Consortium texts. We will collaborate around best practices, resources, and ideas for implementation of PBATs. Over the course of the semester, we will revise our PBATs and reflect on the implementation of them through analyzing our student work.

PLT Facilitation: Developing your Skills as Leaders

Facilitator: Alan Cheng and MƒA Staff

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

+ Please Note: This course is open to teachers who are currently facilitating PLTs at MƒA, or who will be facilitating a PLT in the spring semester.

Facilitation plays an important role in supporting the learning of teaching communities and in ensuring equity and access for all students. In this PLT, teacher-leaders will deepen their knowledge of processes and protocols for building learning communities within their MƒA PLTs. We will explore responsive facilitation and will build a toolkit to increase voice, manage group dynamics and receive guided feedback about creating and customizing protocols that we can experiment with in our PLTs.

Alan Cheng is a former MƒA fellow and co-facilitator of the MƒA School Leader Fellowship. In July he facilitated the popular MfA Summer Think Deep Dive, “Why Do Meetings Suck?”. Alan was recently appointed as a deputy superintendent after serving as the Principal of City-As-School High School for may years. In his free time, he is pursuing his doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership at Teachers College.

Productive Classwork in Algebra II: “Working Hard at Work Worth Doing”

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Lauren Friedman and Brooke Sossin

Mathematics

How often have you searched in vain for Algebra II classwork that is simultaneously meaningful, engaging, and rigorous? In this PLT, our goal is to dust off our current materials and revise them for higher engagement and cognitive demand. Focusing on one topic per session, we will collaboratively revise teacher-contributed materials to better facilitate students’ exploration and understanding of essential Algebra II concepts. We will reflect on our implementation of these resources, along with observations of student work or student experience.

Putting the ‘A’ in STEAM

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Sara Heymont and Lauren Schulman

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

Injecting the arts into math and science courses engages students in creative problem solving and critical thinking. In this PLT we will share and collaborate on ways to incorporate art and creativity into the science, math, and engineering courses that we teach. We will explore how artistic creativity can be merged with STEM disciplines to encourage students to discover a wider range of applications of the content and develop as innovative individuals. Teachers will share examples from their classes, spend time in small groups developing lessons that utilize various artistic media, and share and reflect on the experience of trying out these STEAMy lessons in their classrooms.

Racially Relevant Pedagogy

Facilitators: MƒA Fellow Veronica Cameron and MƒA Master Teacher Samantha Tulloch

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

Regardless of the schools in which we teach, race plays an important and often unexamined role in the classroom. Whether or not we ‘look like’ our students and our colleagues, race impacts communication and thus learning in our classrooms and school communities. In this PLT, we will create a space in which we can openly discuss the manifestations of racism and power in all levels of our school communities - in ur classrooms, in the lives of our students, and within ourselves. We will also explore the effects of racism and power on our teaching of mathematics and science.

Reality Pedagogy Book Club

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Sharon Collins, Scott Gallagher, Sharine Stevenson

Inquiry Practice and Leadership

+ Please Note: Teachers will each need their own copy of the book, and will be asked to read sections of the text before and between PLT sessions.

How might we “unleash the brilliance” of our students? Dr. Chris Emdin has ideas about this, and in this PLT we will continue the work we began in Spring 2018, applying practices from his book, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too! to increase engagement for all students, particularly young men of color. Returning teachers will share their experiences trying out Emdin’s recommended strategies including: Cogens, Coteaching (with students), Cosmopolitanism, and integrating Context and Content. New teachers will be introduced to these practices through in-depth discussion of the text and artifacts from returning members. All teachers will engage in honest, thoughtful, and actionable discussion of how to take these practices back to our schools (not just our classrooms) and hold each other accountable for transforming our practice.

Routines for All Learners in the Living Environment Classroom

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Suzette Nelson, Arlene Ramos, and Ellie Williamson

It is a challenge to cover the content of the Living Environment with our students, and it is tempting to settle for our students just grasping enough of the topics of the curriculum to do well on the exam. But how do we push all our students to deepen and extend their learning? The goal of this PLT is to work collaboratively to share and/or create routines that support learning by all students and to embed them in our classrooms. Particular attention will be spent on routines that not only attend to students who are struggling in our classes, but also enrichment and extension for other students as well. We will refer to Rhonda Bondie’s ALL-ED work as a resource initially, then work to apply them in our own classrooms.

Scientists and Mathematicians Like Me: Teaching Racially Expansive Histories

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Jae Berlin and Nasriah Morrison

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

We all want our students to see themselves as scientists and mathematicians. More generally, we want them to see themselves reflected in our curricula. In this PLT, we will work toward these goals by (1) examining several historical anthologies centering on the accomplishments of mathematicians and scientists of color (including members of our local communities), giving particular emphasis to works related to our own classroom content; and (2) developing tools and strategies for meaningfully and consistently integrating these histories into our respective classes. Through this work, we aim to challenge our own internalized stereotypes (as well as our students) while simultaneously building deeper understandings of how our identities contribute to and expand our masteries of STEM content.

STEM and Equity Book Club

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Wendy Menard, Alex Moyer, and Najla Purdy

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

+ Please Note: Teachers will each need their own copy of the book, and will be asked to read sections of the text before and between PLT sessions.

How might we create equitable spaces in our classrooms? We will be using the book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond to examine this question. Hammond’s book includes a review of existing brain science, specific techniques which can be implemented in classrooms, as well as structures for action and reflection. We will use discussion protocols to examine our own pedagogical practices and student work while simultaneously connecting Hammond’s research directly to our own classrooms. The goal is to improve the ways in which we equitably engage our culturally and linguistically diverse students, and Hammond’s book is an excellent tool to support this endeavor.

Supporting Productive Struggle in STEM

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Chaya Baras, Jessica Quenzer, and Marina Webb

Inquiry, Practice & Leadership

The best learning happens when teachers step back and let students grapple with a problem and reach an understanding through mistakes, redirection, and self-guided revision. This PLT will explore how we can help students engage - and stay engaged - in problems that they don’t think they can solve at first glance. How do we help students offer each other constructive feedback, engage in student-centered dialogue, and allow students to reflect on their own thinking process, rather than focus on the answers? How do we stand back, stay quiet, and let students work? Please join if you are interested in not only discussing strategies to help students productively struggle but also engage with productive struggle from the perspective of a learner.

Vertical Progressions in K-12 Math Practices

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Marisa Bolson and Elizabeth Simonen

Mathematics

+ Please Note: Nov 28 is a DOE Middle School Parent Teacher Conference date.

In this PLT, K-12 mathematics teachers will explore the vertical progression of the mathematical practice standard of making sense of problems and persevering in solving them. Together, we will work through and break down various K-12 tasks to identify mathematical skills and thinking habits in all grades and how they build on each other. We will discuss, develop and test tools to help students navigate making sense of problems by both supporting struggling students and challenging students who show proficiency. Additionally, we will consider how to use the principles of a growth mindset to encourage students’ perseverance through mathematical content, build positive self-perception and foster a student-centered, problem-solving culture in our classrooms.