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Centers and Virtual Manipulatives (K-5 ONLY)

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Centers and Virtual Manipulatives (K-5 ONLY)

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1. Utilize the "Help" button in the upper right corner for Classroom Guides with "How-to" information.

2. Use the "Provide Feedback" Button at the bottom, center of the page or right of lesson plans to share information for quick fixes or suggestions for enhancements!

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I am excited to see... I have questions about...

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I am excited to see... I have questions about...

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Weld North Education is becoming Imagine Learning

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Weld North Education is becoming Imagine Learning. Find out what this means for you and the products you use.

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Question: How can districts share family support videos with families???
Answers: There are several options (in order of recommendation)

1.  Assign the video to students and have families use the student login

What if we don't want to require login?
2.  Share the URL with the subdomain removed (example: ilclassroom.com/lesson_plans/232826)
3.  Share the URL from the district site with Guest Access Enabled - this requires an Admin. (example: district.ilclassroom.com/lesson_plans/232826This only applies to videos that DO NOT have subscription required (those materials require login).

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ONLY USE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR DISTRICT SITE!

https://imagineimdemo.ilclassroom.com/

Login: imagineimdemoteacher@example.com

Password: #Schoolbus16!

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Making IM Centers Work: Joyful Practice, Meaningful Fluency, and Authentic Assessment - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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Making IM Centers Work: Joyful Practice, Meaningful Fluency, and Authentic Assessment - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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By Maureen D. O'Connell "How is it going with your implementation of IM K-5 Math Centers?"
That's my favorite question to ask during professional learning for IM K-5 Math. The response is a pedagogical temperature check about where teachers and grade levels are in their IM journey. Schools that report success using IM Centers are generally satisfied with their implementation. In cases where Centers have not been unpacked and used regularly, I hear teachers say things like, "my students need more practice" or "my students are not as fluent as I'd hoped."

Without a doubt, a key factor in the successful implementation of IM K-5 Math is the frequent use of IM Centers. These Centers, aligned to lesson and unit learning goals, provide joyful, purposeful practice, and benefit both students and teachers.
Centers offer:

the gift of time for students to muck about in the big mathematical ideas of the unit

meaningful contexts for engaging fluency development

opportunities for teachers to observe students in the act of mathing

As my Alaskan colleague Nikki Szajkowski believes, IM Centers offer students "some playfulness with math, and give them some voice and choice."

Teachers are working beyond what seems humanly possible these days. With these overflowing plates in mind, let's talk about how teachers are making IM Centers work so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of using IM Centers. I asked colleagues from across the country to weigh in.

Here are their top tips:
Getting Started

Choose a small number of Centers to get started.
Center Materials

Centers do not need to be fancy to be effective.

Use inexpensive tools to protect and store Center materials.

Center Purpose

Use Centers to gather data about what students know and are able to do.

Use Centers to spread math joy and develop math identity.

Use Centers for joyful practice with major work of the grade and to develop fluency.

Getting Started

Choose a small number of "Power Centers" to get started.

Start small! Be strategic about selecting your first two or three Centers.

Consider using the IM Center Navigation Tool . Which Centers appear in your upcoming unit? Are there Centers that appear in multiple units? I am calling these "Power Centers"-high leverage Centers that can be used again and again to deepen understanding and promote practice. (Of course, once you begin using IM Centers you will realize the power in all of the Centers!)

Center Materials

Centers do not need to be fancy to be effective.

Margaret Betts, Math Coach in Easthampton, MA says, "IM Centers are simple but not simplistic. The math is exciting enough that they don't require fancy graphics."

Centers are intentionally not fancy. As part of its equity stance, IM designed Centers without color, the need for high quality cardstock, or lamination. All games can be played with basic materials: number cubes, game pawns, paper clips. You can keep these materials (one for every two students) stored together for easy daily use.

Download all of the blackline masters for game boards and recording sheets required for your "Power Centers." Make enough copies to have several partners playing the Center at the same time, e.g. enough for three groups to be using the materials.

These photocopies are your Center materials.

Use inexpensive tools to protect and store Center materials

Work smart: don't make things twice! Centers are designed to be used over and over again, deepening learning and fluency. Figure out how you will protect your materials and store them so that they can be used repeatedly.

I used plastic page protectors to store printed Center materials. I labeled them with a permanent marker, for example: "Number Race - 2," with the number indicating the stage.

Then, I stored these sheets in large Zip-lock bags with any materials needed-wipe off markers, dice or counters. I kept the bags in an old milk crate, alphabetically, because I knew they would be used in many units.
Photo c/o Rachel Rundstrom
Rachel Rundstrom's durable folder system (above) is fancier than what I used, but similar in structure.

Winnetka, Illinois Grade 5 Teacher Melissa Hilty writes, "We created paper folders with the center name and stage on the outside and put the recording sheets inside. We put the recording sheets into plastic paper protectors so that students could use dry erase markers while playing. That way we didn't waste paper and students didn't have to manage multiple pages from playing the Centers. I have a wall of math manipulatives separated in bins so, when it's a Center day. I pull out the bins for the necessary materials."

Ipswich, MA Kindergarten teacher Jena Woodworth used hanging file folders to anchor her system. Each stage of the Center is labeled in a separate file folder. She makes 4 sets of student materials and color codes them to help students with cleaning up. It represents work up front at the start of each unit, but now she is ready to enjoy these with students for many years.
Photos c/o Jena Woodworth
Veteran grade 2 teacher Susan Speak recommends only introducing one new Center during a Center period, using familiar Centers as the other options. This reduces the time spent giving directions, leaving more time for the mathing in Centers. Susan finds it easy to differentiate during Center time because of the stages provided.

Some schools ask family volunteers to help with copying and assembling.

Math Coach Kelley Nogar reports that teachers in Portland, ME are using everything from plastic storage bags to cloth bins to make their Center life manageable.
Photo c/o Ryan Pickard, Easthampton, MA
Grade 4 teacher Ryan Pickard used recycled containers to create student kits that serve all of the grade's Centers.

Use Centers to gather data about what students know and are able to do

Center time gifts you the opportunity to pull up and listen to students as they play and explain their math thinking. With kindergarten and primary students, these authentic interactions allow the teacher to observe many of the indicators on the checklists (see example below).

Consider having the section checklists available on a clipboard during center time. Confer with students as they engage in the Centers. Observation is a powerful assessment tool.

Teachers in upper grades without designated Center times or days often ask how to make space for them. Some teachers use the remainder of the math block after students complete their brief Section Checkpoint as Center time. Others plan a Center time at another time of day where they have 15 or 20 minutes. Other teachers eliminate a lesson activity and add a Center that supports the lesson learning goal. The important message is to make the time for Centers.

In her 2021 blog on Achieve the Core , Leah Baron writes:

"Only assessing student understanding in written form is like only being able to see one ray of the entire sunset. I learned that seeing other students shine created a domino effect of inspiration for students to shine their own light-one ray, then another, and another creating multiple rays until the sky bursts with radiance and true brilliance. It is a magical experience for the classroom to fill with joy and a brilliant luminosity as students use higher level thinking to illuminate their understanding."

Use Centers to spread Math Joy and to develop Fluency

After you've made and become familiar with your first few Power Centers, introduce them to your students. Be sure to relate Center time to your anchor chart of class mathematical community norms (created in the first unit of the year in each grade of IM K-5 Math) or create a chart that focuses on Centers explicitly.

Revisit your poster regularly, and add student ideas. Ask, "What norms were used in Centers today?" or "How did we work as mathematicians today?"

Save a few minutes to have a synthesis time after Centers. You might highlight the important math discussions that happened during Center time. When students share the ideas they uncover during Centers, you elevate students as doers of math-as authors of important math ideas. You also elevate Centers as a critical part of your math block.
Photo c/o Valerie Effland, K teacher, Springfield (left). MO Photo c/o Maureen O'Connell (right)
You will see smiles and playfulness as students use materials that grow their number sense and enhance fact fluency while deepening understanding of the major work of the grade. You will see students building their math identity as they successfully engage in grade-level mathematics and discourse.

IM K-5 Centers support this magical vision of shared student brilliance, learning with and from each other. With strategic choices and forethought, teachers and students can reap the many benefits of IM Centers.

Capture Numbers
Photo by Andrea Welch

Next Steps

Small steps can lead to big change. Centers offer your students joyful, purposeful opportunities for engaging practice with important skills, fluency and math discourse. They provide teachers a forum for gathering important information about what students know and are able to do.

We'd love to hear about Center use in your IM K-5 classroom. Share your photos and top tips for making and storing Center materials on Twitter #LearnWithIM and on Instagram.

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Making IM Centers Work: Joyful Practice, Meaningful Fluency, and Authentic Assessment - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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By Maureen D. O'Connell "How is it going with your implementation of IM K-5 Math Centers?" That's my favorite question to ask during professional learning for IM K-5 Math. The response is a pedagogical temperature check about where teachers and grade levels are in their IM journey.

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6-8 Imagine IM in ILC Roadmap/Note-catcher (Force Copy)

6-8 Imagine IM Roadmap (Force Copy)

AGA Roadmap (Force Copy)

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Supporting Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with IM K-5 Math™ - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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Supporting Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with IM K-5 Math™ - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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Amanda Gorman recited her poem, "The Hill We Climb," on Inauguration Day. Her words were not only inspiring, but a piercing call to action. I thought about my work at IM and wondered what a commitment to "all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man" meant in my role. As a lead writer for the IM K-5 Math curriculum, I was dedicated to figuring out how we could infuse culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. Our elementary writing team was committed to providing students with opportunities to see themselves in the curriculum. As I reflect on what we accomplished, I stand tall knowing we were ready to answer Ms. Gorman's call.

The IM K-5 Math curriculum includes support for teachers to implement culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. Crafting the supports was among the most challenging team efforts of my career. We tried many things and failed at some. Our team included educators from a variety of backgrounds, some having had very little or no interaction with students of color. We needed time for learning and self-reflection.

Through a series of book studies, shared readings, courageous weekly conversations, and norming on "saying the thing," we dug below the surface to understand inequities, injustices, and racism in education. It was hard work. These conversations exposed personal pain as some of us relived our own school-based racial traumas. These discussions also offered space for each of us to acknowledge our part in furthering some of these injustices as educators.

Our journey was well worth it. Through this work, we developed a common understanding of and commitment to our purpose: to use the curriculum to address the needs of marginalized students, and, in particular, Black and Brown children.

What is culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy and why do we need it?

As with many educational initiatives, culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy has shown up in many different forms, and there are several definitions. In researching the works of pioneers such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Geneva Gay, Sharroky Hollie, and Zaretta Hammond, one clear commonality is the call on educators to build their cultural knowledge of their students, and to use that knowledge to provide instruction that allows all students to effectively learn and process information.

Build Cultural Knowledge

Understanding that there are cultural differences in the way learners make meaning is the first step. Because our goal at IM is to create "a world where all learners know, use, and enjoy mathematics," we have employed the problem-based approach in our K-12 curricular materials.

Our dominant cultural ways of "doing school" position students as receivers of information. This traditional method of meaning-making, characterized by direct instruction and assessing how well students did what was demonstrated by the teacher, does not work for a huge swath of learners. It is an individualistic approach to learning, which excludes many learners, especially Black and Brown learners who often come from cultures that value collectivism (Hammond, 2015).

The problem-based approach supports learning for all students, whether or not they come from an individualistic or collectivist culture. The collectivist approach to "doing school" positions students as contributors to learning. Teachers engage students' curiosity through questioning, and students use their developing knowledge and that of their peers to engage in collaborative discourse, process new information, and problem-solve. Student knowledge can be assessed by a number of indicators, including student-to-student discourse and their independent use of representations that demonstrate conceptual understanding.

In the problem-based lesson structure used throughout IM K-12 Math, students learn math by doing math. This structure centers inquiry, collaboration, and discourse as ways of meaning-making, all of which fit naturally into the collectivist approach. In a previous blog post, I shared how this structure is aligned to Zaretta Hammond's proposed culturally responsive lesson structure: Ignite, Chunk, Chew, and Review (Hammond, 2015). Throughout an IM lesson in any grade level, students have opportunities to both independently and collaboratively process information and apply their learning. Highlighted below are features of IM's K-12 curriculum materials that support problem-based instruction.

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Supporting Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with IM K-5 Math™ - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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6-8 Imagine IM in ILC Resource Reflection (Force Copy)

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Check out this link for 6-AGA support:
https://illustrativemathematics.blog/2021/02/09/im-6-12-math-grading-and-homework-policies-and-practices/

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By Lizzy Skousen, 6-12 Curriculum Writer, IM Certified® Facilitator

During a problem-based lesson, the teacher does a lot of listening while monitoring student learning. When teachers are introduced to a problem-based lesson structure, they may wonder:

"Do we just hope that students will think about what we want?"

"How will students learn the things they need to know?"

"When do I actually teach?"

"Is this doable with the amount of instruction time I have?"

One answer to all of these questions is a well-executed lesson synthesis.

There is an overall structure to an IM lesson. We begin with inviting students to the mathematics of the day, then dive more deeply into concepts and procedures. After the lesson activities and before the cool-down, there is a lesson synthesis when we consolidate and apply the learning. What does it mean to consolidate the learning of the day?

We need to bring together all of the learning that has happened with individuals and groups and make it explicit for the entire class. During each activity, students generate solution methods and then reflect and discuss how they solved the problems. There may be as many different ideas as there are students. Some students or groups will generate strategies or make connections that align with the learning goals of the lesson, but not every student will. Sometimes they may choose a more familiar but less efficient strategy or struggle to make a specific connection.

"Do we just hope that students will think about what we want?"

I like to imagine that teaching is a bit like taking my students for a wilderness exploration hike. I want the hikers to explore, see new things, and get to play, but I also don't want them to get lost or wander onto a trail going the wrong direction. As the leader of the hike, I need to start by knowing the area. What are the major landmarks? Where do we start, where do we end, and what are some major pitfalls we need to avoid?

In a lesson, I need to know the same things. What is the purpose of the lesson? Where do I want students to end up? What do I want students to be able to accomplish?

The learning goals and cool-downs are really clear signposts to help answer these questions. The learning goals help the teacher know what students should understand and be able to do, and the cool-down shows how students will demonstrate it. With this information, I can go into each activity with a clear idea of where the lesson is going. During the lesson synthesis, I check in to make sure all students have heard the important takeaways of the lesson so I know they are ready to demonstrate their learning on the cool-down.

"How will students learn the things they need to know?"

When students are exploring mathematical ideas, they are not all going to do it in the same way. On the wilderness hike, some explorers will carefully follow a pre-marked path, while others will try hopping on rocks or logs, and still others may follow an interesting bug. During the lesson, some students will want to use a familiar representation instead of trying a new one, others will skip using a diagram at all, and some may get focused on a different approach. One group of students may already be showing that they can meet the learning goal, while another group is still unsure. This is why it's important to consolidate the learning of the day.

The lesson synthesis gives teachers the opportunity to bring together students' ideas and focus on the learning goals for the lesson. Targeted questions during the lesson synthesis highlight the learning that has already happened during each activity and help make this learning explicit for all of the students in the class.

"When do I actually teach?"

When I have my wilderness explorers hiking with me, I think of myself as a scout leader. We may be exploring and having fun, but there is also an intended direction to travel. With my students, they explore and play with ideas, but there is a mathematical direction in a lesson as well.

The lesson synthesis is a brief but vital component of the lesson where teachers can make sure that students have all heard and seen important vocabulary words, strategies, and connections. In this discussion with the students, the teacher asks targeted questions, and a few students will share their thinking. The teacher may revoice important ideas, highlight strategies that align with the learning goals, and explicitly state an important concept or vocabulary term. Most of the students will be listening during this part of the lesson.

"Is this doable with the amount of instruction time I have?"

Even on the most relaxed hike, there are time limits. If I know that we have to meet back at camp before sundown, I have to plan ahead to make sure that my hikers all get there on time. Since I've already looked ahead at the map, I know about where we should be throughout the day and can set a pace for the hike.

Pacing a lesson can be a challenge. It can seem like there is not enough time in a day to do the synthesis, but the lesson synthesis is critical to student learning. Each lesson synthesis should take about 5 minutes of class time before the cool-down. One way to pace the lesson effectively is to work backwards. Plan for the last 5 minutes of class to be the cool-down, and the 5 minutes before that to be the lesson synthesis. Then look at how much instructional time is left and adjust the pace for the other activities as needed.

Since the lesson synthesis brings together all of the learning that happens in each activity and makes it explicit for the whole class, it's not necessary for every student to have completed every activity perfectly before moving from one activity to the next.

Conclusion

After students complete the cool-down, take a moment to reflect. If most students showed evidence of accomplishing the learning goals, what happened during the lesson synthesis that helped consolidate the learning for all students? If most students struggled with the cool-down, how could the lesson synthesis have gone differently? Connecting the day's lesson synthesis with the cool-down can help you plan ahead for future lessons.

A well-executed lesson synthesis is essential to accomplishing the learning goals of a problem-based lesson. This is the point where teachers make explicit what students should take away from the lesson and give students the necessary preparation for the cool-down. When preparing for a lesson, make sure to plan time for the lesson synthesis and work backwards from there to pace the other learning activities.

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Exploring the Lesson Synthesis: When do I actually teach? - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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By Lizzy Skousen, 6-12 Curriculum Writer, IM Certified® Facilitator During a problem-based lesson, the teacher does a lot of listening while monitoring student learning. When teachers are introduced to a problem-based lesson structure, they may wonder: "Do we just hope that students will think about what we want?"

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IM Resource Hub: https://illustrativemathematics.org/resource-hub/

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Please let us know how we did! PD Survey✍

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Please let us know how we did! PD Survey✍

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Weld North Education is becoming Imagine Learning

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Weld North Education is becoming Imagine Learning. Find out what this means for you and the products you use.