Join us for a week-long Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML) that explores the complexity of teaching and investigates and challenges what it means to use skillful teaching to disrupt patterns of injustice. Together we’ll unpack instructional decisions, examine mathematics content, and interrogate issues of equity in classrooms, as we explore the following question:
Each day, participants will observe elementary students working on mathematics in a live, two-hour class. Participants are part of the planning for the lesson with the teacher team, which includes Deborah Loewenberg Ball, and other participants. After debriefing the lesson, participants choose an afternoon workshop to go deeper in connecting their learning to their particular contexts.
How can we leverage the first few weeks of school to set the stage for learning for the year? As a teacher, you work to get to know your new students, to determine what they already know and can do, and to introduce and establish norms and routines for discourse and work. This session will provide you with an opportunity to consider:
You will leave the session with practical considerations to guide your planning and strategies for building a productive, inclusive mathematics community in your own classroom in the first few weeks of school.
How can coaches keep content and teaching practice at the center of their work with teachers? How can you design and deliver your coaching cycles in ways that are most likely to impact teaching and learning? As a coach, you know that this is difficult work. This session will provide you with:
You will leave the session with strategies and tools you can use immediately in your coaching practice. While we will focus specifically on mathematics, the work is applicable across content areas and grade levels.
As educators, we have an obligation to ensure all students, regardless of ability, have access to education. How do we address both conscious and unconscious bias related to ableist practices and beliefs? How do we ensure that the support we provide for students does not create barriers for their future success? How can we provide support for students by presuming competence? In this session, we will engage in a series of instructional analyses and discussions to interrogate our own views and practices surrounding the support of exceptional students or students with significant lagging skills. This session will provide you with an opportunity to consider:
You will leave this session with refined ways of thinking about supports for students in your own context.
Learn methods for observing and giving feedback on particular high-leverage practices, including strategies and protocols for productive dialogue around teaching practice, with a particular focus on issues of equity and access. Together, we will practice elements of the work including:
You will leave the session with strategies that you can use as you work with teachers in your own setting. While the content focus is mathematics, the elements of this work are applicable across content areas and grade levels.
Secondary students have had years of mathematics experiences that impact their understanding and identity as they enter our classes. How can we leverage what students have learned and how they learn to help them build connections across their mathematics knowledge base? In combination with observation of the elementary mathematics classroom, we will examine mathematical connections between core elementary level concepts, algorithms, and representations and secondary mathematics.
You will:
You will leave the session with ways to support students to make connections and see the relationship between elementary and secondary mathematics.
How can teachers support children to share their mathematical thinking? What teaching practices enable all students to participate equitably in mathematics discourse? How can teachers encourage students to build a collective understanding of mathematics content? These and other questions related to productive student talk will be explored through observation and analysis of the laboratory classes. In addition, we will practice elements of the work ourselves to prepare you to apply key strategies and practices in your own classroom, including the following:
You will leave the session with strategies you can use inside and outside of discussions and having practiced this work with colleagues. While the content focus is mathematics, the elements of supporting discourse are applicable across content areas.
You will spend a large portion each day co-planning, observing, and discussing the teaching of elementary students. The remainder of each day will be spent in an interactive facilitated learning session.
A laptop or tablet is required to access digital resources. No other supplies are required.
Anyone interested in education, education advocacy, or exploring the close study of teaching practice is welcome to attend the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory, including teachers, teacher educators, education leaders, policymakers, and researchers.
TeachingWorks reserves the right to cancel in-person, virtual, or hybrid training or workshops before the start. TeachingWorks staff will notify participants of cancellation via e-mail. Participants will be eligible for a full refund of their registration fee. TeachingWorks will not be held responsible for any expenses incurred due to the cancellation of an event, training, or workshop.
For a full refund (100%), participants must submit a written request to cancel or withdraw 30 days prior to the first day of the event (in-person or virtual). Fifty percent (50%) will be refunded for requests received 15 days prior. No refunds will be issued for requests received within seven (7) business days of the first day of the event or failure to submit the required documentation required for participation.
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