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Please add any questions or comments you still have after this session.

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How will these resources support you in planning to teach? What unit resources make learning fun?

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How will these resources support you in planning to teach? What unit resources make learning fun?

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What two words describe these resources? How would these resources make learning fun?

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What two words describe these resources? How would these resources make learning fun?

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How will these resources support you in planning to teach? What unit resources make learning fun?

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How will these resources support you in planning to teach? What unit resources make learning fun?

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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: #Cookout14! (August 1st)

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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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K-5 Imagine IM in the ILC Note-Catcher & 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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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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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.

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

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The opportunity to learn without knowing you're learning and feel that you are an integral part of the process rather than a receiver only.

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manipulatives, songs, movement

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stories, games, movement, hands on

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Collaboration and group work

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Students actively engaged.

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That students are actively engaged from the initial academic presentation/problem. Then guidance from the teacher will needed to the ultimate learning objective.

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Productive struggle in the beginning to promote their own ideas.

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There is no beginning explicit instruction in problem-based learning.

Problem-based learning allows for teachers to better meet the need of their students by analyzing what students need before providing guided instruction.

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Teacher will provide a problem that the students will think about. Then come together and gather ideas. Then guide them to the understanding of the concept.

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Independent practice is the students opportunity to demonstrate content knowledge, during this time the teacher can monitor and determine which students/topics needs to be retaught

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I like that the students will have the freedom to make errors and then be encouraged to rethink, apply, and problem solve.

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That students are actively engaged from the initial academic presentation/problem. Then guidance from the teacher will needed to the ultimate learning objective.

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I am excited to see lots of resources

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I like the videos for teacher concerning the instruction of the math standards. Very teacher friendly and engaging.

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I notice that there are checkpoints throughout each lesson for the students

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I like that the digital option where you can have student task cards included into lessons.

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Supportive and engaging.

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Hands-on and engaging!

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It is beneficial to see the end of unit assessment to know what is important in the unit.

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I was excited to see so many resources for kindergarten.

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t appears to be user friendly.  In the 3-5 pacing guide it looks like number of days to number of lessons offers some room for reinforcement or makeup.

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using manipulatives

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hands on- manipulatives

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Engaging

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there's productive collaboration.

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taking time to laugh

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Playing games and with songs.

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sharing, projects, hands on, manipulatives

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Gradual release is what we've been using for the last several years.

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The students responsibility is at the beginning of the lesson vs the teacher modeling

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Students are given time to explore and try out their own strategies to solve problems.

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Students have the opportunity to think, struggle, and solve. Promotes self confidence.

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Problem-based learning provides students with the opportunity to interpret problems on their own.

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I noticed that there are many ways to conduct formative assessments on student progress for each lesson. Love that!

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Entertaining and Collaborative.

These resources make learning fun by providing students with a way to learn through play.

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Focused and fun

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Quick access to the manipulatives-time saving for sure

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Quick access to the manipulatives-time saving for sure

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They build upon one another throughout the grade levels.

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very engaging and a good way for 1st graders to practice

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very engaging and a good way for 1st graders to practice

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Will we be provided with hands on manipulatives in addition to the virtual ones?

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Will we be provided with hands on manipulatives in addition to the virtual ones?

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So far things seem well organized and easy to find.

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Love that the assessments are digital. Can you remind me how to access the data after they take the assessment?

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Love that the assessments are digital. Can you remind me how to access the data after they take the assessment?

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These resources will support my planning by setting a clear pace and progression on how and when topics should be taught/assessed.

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consistency

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exploration time for students

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I notice that we are able to assign each lesson. Do you recommend that or should the teacher simply project?

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I notice that we are able to assign each lesson. Do you recommend that or should the teacher simply project?

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It will help take the guessing out of how/what to plan during my planning time.

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When math is engaging and students are engaging in collaborative work.

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Problem Based Learning will provide students the opportunity to explore and have engage prior to directed instruction.