In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating its 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Establish Mathematics Goals to Focus Learning.” This is defined as follows:

Effective teaching of mathematics establishes clear goals for the mathematics that students are learning, situates goals within learning progressions, and uses the goals to guide instructional decisions.

In today’s conversation, our hosts unpack the key components of this principle. First, they discuss how learning goals, focused on important mathematical understandings, differ from procedural, process goals, which may include skills and procedures that are not directly connected to the underlying mathematical concepts. Next, the discussion turns to situating goals within a learning progression, which helps teachers stay focused on what is relevant to their grade level or course, and provides a venue for students to be active in their progress toward learning. Finally, effective mathematics goals guide instructional decisions, helping educators know which tangents to explore and which are distractions from the intended learning. We hope you enjoy the conversation, and that it extends your thinking on mathematics goals for learning.

Additional referenced content includes:

· NCTM’s Principles to Actions

· NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12

· NCTM’s myNCTM forums (membership required).

· How learning goals serve as a guide – NCTM Teaching Children Mathematics blog post

· Rachel Harrington’s appearance on the Math Learning Center podcast/blog discussing mathematical goals

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking.”

In Principles to Actions, NCTM describes this teaching practice in this way:

Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.

This meaty description provides the fodder for today’s conversation. Our hosts consider what is meant by “effective teaching,” “assessing progress,” and “adjusting instruction continually,” and tie these ideas back to the important work of classroom educators.

Additional referenced content includes:

· NCTM’s Principles to Actions

· NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12

· Want more ideas for eliciting student thinking in your classroom? Check these out:

o Descriptors of teacher and student behaviors for this practice

o Thoughts and linked resources from the Colorado Department of Education

o A classroom observation tool focused on this practice from the Minnesota Department of Education

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Use and connect mathematical representations.” Our hosts describe the five representations outlined in Principles to Actions, which include visual, symbolic, verbal, contextual, and physical descriptions of mathematics, but emphasize that the representations are not meant to be a check list to be covered during instruction. Rather, the different representations provide a framework for explore important mathematical concepts through different lenses, allowing students to build and deepen their understanding as they consider these ways of engaging.

In addition to deep understanding, teachers’ attending to different representations will allow different students in the class to be elevated, as their unique strengths and preferences will have the opportunity to come out and be showcased.

Additional referenced content includes:

· NCTM’s Principles to Actions

· NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12

· Making Connections Explicit​ (NCTM requires subscription)

· Supporting Understanding Using Representations​ (NCTM requires subscription)

· Three Ways to Enhance Tasks for Multilingual Learners​ (NCTM requires subscription)

· Interpreting Distance-Time Graphs – lesson referred to in this episode

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.