Read the summary that outlines what a typical lesson is like in Illustrative Math. Then select one of the lessons to watch. The lesson plans are also linked below in case you want to reference them as you are watching the lesson.
- Summary of a Typical Lesson
- Sample Lesson Videos:
- Corresponding Lesson Plans:
Consider
- What is rolling around in your head about this lesson design?
- What caused you to pause and think?
- What math experiences from your own classroom came to mind as you were watching and reading?
Respond and Interact
Please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
Please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
I noticed mathematical language routines are clearly embedded in the lesson plan. I teach first grade and am one of the EL cluster teachers this year. It has been important to me to grow my practice in supporting my EL students' learning this year. I learned about the routines "Collect and Display" and "3 Reads" in Part 5. Both "Compare and Connect" and "Discussion Supports" are listed as ideal routines for this lesson. I am wondering where MLR descriptors might be found within IM? I will dive back into the videos in session 5 to learn about these other two MLR suggested for k-5. I also liked the teacher notes on the side of the lesson plan as long as I remember how to display them. Alana asked two questions that I loved. These were each noted in the lesson plan. In the warm up synthesis she asked, "say what ___ said in different words." In the cutting and comparison activity she asked, "did you notice something different from what they noticed." Each of these questions enables students to think more deeply about math. I am wondering about the practice problems. Are these meant to be sent home for homework?
ReplyDeleteI like how the lesson plan has the vocabulary embedded in the lesson and it is very apparent that this is something that has been explicitly taught. The lesson format is easy to follow, with times for pacing and the activities are all laid out. Highlighting the purpose for the warm-ups and activities. The lesson synthesis helps keep the focus on the lesson and helps guide the mathematical closing of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI chose to watch the grade 1 lesson, and it was impressive. I liked the warm-up. We practice counting by 10s and 100s for a warm-up, but I have not written the numbers down like the teacher did in the video. I really liked how it gave the kids the opportunity to notice the pattern, and that it helped them figure out how to count by 10s backwards.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the opportunity to use a real-world example of something round, while also teaching students a little bit about a food that may be unfamiliar (i.e. roti).
One thing that made me pause and think was that the "teaching" really does come at the end; that the kids are guided in their exploration with activities and well-timed, open-ended questions. At this point, we have learned that this is what the new math curriculum is all about, but to see it in action is quite exciting because it really appears to be an enriching learning experience for the students.
Another "pause and think" moment was looking over the lesson plan and comparing it to what I watched in the video. The lesson plan shows that the lesson is about 60 minutes to implement, but the video was 35 minutes. I'm not sure what to make of that.
I have been trying to be more intentional about leaving time for students to notice and discuss the "why". The discussions, I believe, have really enhanced overall understanding of the math concepts we've been working on.
I truly am excited about what this new program will produce for the kids!
I watched the first-grade video for comparing halves and fourths. I noticed the warm-up lasted a full 9 minutes. It was counting by 10’s beginning from 6 going forward and backward. I hope I can stay true to managing just a short warm-up. I am not sure how skip counting relates to fractions but I’m sure they don’t always have a parallel to the lesson. For each activity, comparing halves and fourths, students were in partnerships. I noticed that there was a lot of student pairs working together and then the teacher would call the class back together so students could share what they learned. There was a lot of movement by students. My thoughts always go right to classroom management. I noticed the teacher had a couple signals to gain the full class attention so she could let various students synthesize what they learned. It was evident that her class was used to working in pairs and then being brought back to focus as a whole group to share what they’d learned. A reflection on using our new flat screens…I realized I’ll need to learn to toggle between the document camera and my new flat screen to project the lesson. Oh, my…so much is new but so exciting at the same time.
ReplyDeleteHi Michele. I completely agree with you about your thoughts on the classroom management. As soon as possible in the Fall, I will be getting the kids used to the "turn and talk" format. It's so useful across all of the content areas. :)
DeleteI watched the 1st grade lesson. The warm up was a little lengthy but I liked how the teacher recorded the counting by 10's. The lesson design was easy to follow with clear purpose. The deliberate questioning allowed students to think deeper and explain their thinking. I noticed the management and expectation piece was clearly set and helped the lesson to flow. I currently use a lot of partner work with turn-and-talk. The partner work will take deliberate, consistent teaching in Kindergarten. I am excited about the pre-made presentation slides!
ReplyDeleteThank you ALL for your thoughtful reflections and the enthusiasm that you have shared with each other. I know how busy you all are so I am especially grateful that you made some space to take this course. 🧡 I hope you feel more prepared and optimistic about our implementation in the fall.
ReplyDeleteI watched the 3rd grade, Unit 7 lesson. Students were sorting shapes based on a category that was created by the partnerships during the lesson. The outline of the lesson makes sense to me, but I did pause and wonder if students will have enough opportunity for practice. i know that this curriculum is very different from what we are currently using, but it does make me pause and wonder if there is more to it than the exploration of the content. Just a thought/wonder... I am excited to explore this curriculum next year and know that this will provide me with the opportunity to grow, teach and learn in a different way. I am excited for the new learning and am grateful that I know that we will have support from our team leaders as well as Renae as we dive in!
ReplyDeleteTotally! I am excited and nervous, but I really feel like the support is there and a lot of it is going to be just getting out there and trying it:)
DeleteSome things I was thinking about: The design focuses on developing a strong conceptual foundation in mathematics. It encourages students to explore and understand mathematical concepts rather than relying solely on rote memorization or procedural algorithms.Illustrative Math places a significant emphasis on using visual models and representations to help students make connections and understand abstract mathematical ideas. This approach supports students in building a visual understanding of mathematical concepts.The curriculum incorporates problem-solving activities that require critical thinking and reasoning skills. Students are encouraged to explore different problem-solving strategies and justify their solutions, fostering a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.The design strives to connect mathematics to real-world contexts, helping students see the relevance and application of mathematical concepts in their daily lives. This approach can enhance students' engagement and understanding by providing meaningful contexts for learning. I'm currently using the fractions unit because my kids did so poorly on the Unit 7 assessment for Math Expressions. They love it, and I like how it's more engaging as well.
ReplyDeleteI watched the first-grade lesson. I appreciated how the teacher kept the pace quick. She made it look easy, but I know how much preplanning and teaching of student routines and norms it takes to achieve that! I am sure there is time built into the beginning of the program to teach and practice these skills and routines! This lesson had a lot of stopping and starting, working and then sharing, which I know can also be difficult for some students. I love seeing all the time she had to confer with students. The classroom management aspect of a new program is always fascinating to me, and I am always seeking to better my classroom management skills so students can focus on the learning!
ReplyDeleteI watched the 4th grade symmetry lesson and compared it to how I did my pilot lessons in the 5th grade volume unit. My biggest struggle was pacing at times, although I did got better as time went on. I worried about taking time to chart the student's thinking like she did, as I felt I would not be able to finish in my hour (before specials) if I did. But, it reinforced to me that this work is important and that we collect our thinking as a reference of learning at the time and for future lessons. There is a lot more discussion involved and less problems to complete. There is more partner and group work, which promotes use of vocabulary, concept development and sharing of ideas. I like the cool downs each day as it gave me glimpse into their understanding of the lesson. I was able to do some reteaching with students each morning as a result of this information, if needed. I'm looking forward to fully embracing this math journey next year!
ReplyDeleteI am also looking forward to digging into the new curriculum. I am glad that there is lots of group talk and more student lead exploration. I am concerned about the timing and getting everything done but I am confident I can figure it out. We also have great support from our early implementers to help us with tips.
DeleteI watched the first grade lesson. I had so many things rolling around in my mind. One was organization and structure of her class to support the lesson and student learning. Students having access to sharing their thinking with the doc cam and using the microphone so the class could clearly hear the student. The teacher-student callbacks after each activity cut time and she used different ones. A board near the Activboard to allow for quick writing (tricky with our new flat panel). I will keep all of this in mind as I re-organize my room for next year. There was lots of active engagement compared to our current curriculum! Love that! Students didn't seem bored - hands on, partner work, and time to engage in conversations. The teacher-student conversation allowed for clarification for students, an opportunity to deepen or correct thinking and informative assessment. I am concerned about time. I noticed she was transparent about time limits with her students and set a timer which I will definitely need to do as I begin the IM journey. :)
ReplyDeleteI watched the third grade and fourth grade lessons. Then I started to dig a little deeper into the other lesson plan on the web site. I tried the warm up exercise, on the fourth grade lesson with the mental math addition. My kids loved it. They love talking about how they group the numbers to solve. I have also tried several of the centers for fractions. I think they have really increased my student’s confidence and understanding of ordering fractions, and comparing fractions. I am glad that the curriculum provides a slide deck to help move through the lesson and activities. But my favorite part of the curriculum is the encouragement of student conversations. I think it is very empowering for students to feel they are making a contribution. It really strengthens student understanding when they are explaining and sharing with a partner. Just like when we write things down there is a better chance of remembering the content, as students form sentences and then hear their voice as they explain or discuss, there is a greater chance of a deeper understanding.
ReplyDeleteI watched the 1st grade lesson. I noticed right away how engaged the students were! The engagement was high through the entire lesson and the amount of student talk was impressive. The high level of content specific language students are using makes it apparent that the there have been strong language routines embedded through the year. I also am very impressed by the amount of partner work the students engaged in and how effective the partnerships were. I am looking forward to starting this curriculum next year! I definitely have work to do in regards to increasing student talk and establishing effective partnerships and I am looking forward to how this curriculum will help me with both of those instructional practices!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the opportunity to watch a full first grade lesson in action. It made me very excited for the implementation of this curriculum and I think it's going to to make math concepts really come to life and feel more exciting for students. Having the slides available to guide each lesson is really helpful and I like that it provides a constant visual for both the teacher and the students. It also helps to keep the lesson moving forward especially when the curriculum is new and lessons are less familiar. Something that has continued to come to mind with this format is that it is face paced and that teaching transitions and practicing them in the beginning of the year will be so important so that a full lesson can be covered. The students in the video were very experienced with these routines and it was neat to see them move through the different parts of the lesson so smoothly. Lastly, watching this full lesson really showed the role of the teacher as a facilitator and that asking questions and providing gentle guidance is really enough throughout these activities to activate student learning. Having just taught these concepts in our first grade unit, it was fun to watch and compare our current curriculum to the new one. Very excited for the growth that will take place for not only students but educators in math next year!
ReplyDeletei watched the 4th grade lesson plan and something that is sticking out to me is the amount of time she dedicated to the warm-up. In teaching the 5th grade volume unit I often felt as if I was spending too much time on the warm-up but this reassured me that it is so beneficial! I loved hearing different strategies and how she validated those strategies for her students. Something else that stuck out to me was the instructional routine of "Stronger and Clearer". It was great to see students sharing with many others with the purpose of making their response and understanding more clear. It reminds me of the saying, "When you think you're done, you've jut begun". Having students see the value of developing their conceptual understanding is so important, especially as I think of the students that I have that are early finishers and like to rush through just to get the "right" answer.
ReplyDeleteI watched the first grade lesson example, and immediately noticed that the routines are already part of the lesson. I really enjoyed how she paced her lesson so that the kids were not doing one thing for too long. They were highly engaged and she was able to roam around and check in with them as they worked. I am so excited to teach this next school year!
ReplyDeleteI watched the first grade lesson. My first thought and last was "fun!" This was very engaging and I felt like she paced it well for learners who already understood the concepts to buy in. I am amazed at the amount of student talk and sharing and how easily the students use math vocabulary. I am not sure how the counting by 10's help with the fractions and shapes work except perhaps looking at patterns. I feel like the warm up was quite long. It is very helpful to see the lesson pacing and I wish she could be my teacher!
ReplyDeleteI watched the third-grade lesson on attributes of triangles and quadrilaterals. It was fun to watch as I just taught this lesson last week. I loved how the kids got to work with shapes and discover their similarities and differences without a bunch a definitions and modeling. Kids truly notice the things that we want and expect them to notice. The video made me laugh because at one point one of the kids has sorted the shapes into “normal” and “not normal.” This exact thing happened in my classroom too. I had to ask the students what that meant. I was impressed by the teacher and how she did a pretty good job getting around to all the groups. This can be challenging during the activities as it is easy to get sucked into helping or probing a few groups and not getting around to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI watched the third grade lesson as well. I teach K-3 math in the resource room, but will be pushing in with my third graders in the fall. I was struck by the math language used by the third graders in the video...my learners almost all struggle with working memory, expressive/receptive language, or verbal comprehension, so teaching them that "times" and "multiplication" are the same thing has taken quite a bit of time and creativity. And they still need reminders! I was in awe at third graders throwing around words like "expressions" and "products" and "quadrilaterals". Scaffolding language will definitely be important when pushing into general education! I really liked how clear and predictable the lesson format was. In looking at the written lesson plan, I appreciate the specific ideas for access points for students with disabilities and how it explains what the scaffold supports (in this case, visual/spatial processing). Of course this one scaffold doesn't cover all the disabilities that we see, so it will definitely be a journey to figure out how best to support my resource students. However, I am really excited to see the curriculum in action since I get to push in to our third grade math lead's classroom!
ReplyDeleteI watched the 3rd grade unit 7 lesson. The video was helpful for me to see the timing pieces of the lesson, and what the students and teacher were doing. The lesson structure makes sense, and I liked how the class does a synthesis after each activity and at the end of the lesson. With all the activities with partners and individually, I am wondering if and when there will be time to pull small groups for needed instruction. I am hoping that as the year progresses and my students and I get used to the routine, I will find a time to pull small groups. I also noticed when I was teaching some of the lessons that certain vocabulary was not taught until a later lesson. So, I am going to have to be careful when I introduce certain vocabulary that will go with a unit. It seems that in IM it is intentionally planned out about where it is introduced.
ReplyDeleteWith the increase in ELL learnings, I really like how vocabulary is embedded into the lesson. Vocabulary is very beneficial to our ELL learners and has purpose for ALL learnings. I also like how there seems to be a very structured routine that gets set up and follows through the entire curriculum. I feel this will take time to master next year as we begin to implement and I can see it being very meaningful in the years to come after having the time to work with the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteThis was awesome to watch! I really enjoyed hearing the questions, the pacing and the repeated important phrases. I also noticed how she had really good routines set in place. I also liked seeing her interact with kids and how she did it. I think this is going to take practice but it was really good to see! I also liked how she rephrased the way certain kiddos said things but then also wrote exactly what they said. The pacing seemed natural and I really hope that is what it will seem like, I felt like I was rushing when I tried my lessons out. I also liked seeing her do the lessons in front of the kiddos instead of ONLY having the slideshow up. But she uses both and it seems like she is able to do it pretty easily. I really liked how she simply but clearly explained the activity for sorting. With that being said she reinforced the ways to work in a group and strategies to best work with that partner. I really think relooking at lessons like this would be helpful throughout next year!
ReplyDeleteI watched the 3rd grade lesson the attributes of a triangle. Super impressed by her classroom and the way the students engaged with the lesson and each task. It always feels good when your students start to use the academic language that they hear daily from you and your instruction, and in this lesson her students were very naturally using that specific academic language that was present throughout their unit. I know that pacing is going to be a personal challenge, but watching her use the slides and the script allowed to visualize keeping a good pace. I will teaching 3 lessons next week and this made me a bit more confident.
ReplyDeleteWatching the video gave me a lot more confidence that the lessons can be done in one sitting from the warm-up to completion. I have been a bit nervous about it would all get completed. I like how the vocabulary is broken down in the math lesson since I will have ELL next year and am looking for how to implement that in every core content subject. Student's were highly engaged in every moment of the lesson - that will definitely be a goal area to run my math lessons that smoothly and effectively. While I was watching the engagement, even the students who weren't talking were watching intently. I was wondering how that would play out. In my class now when we do a group problem there are naturally those students who 'take over' and those that stand back and let them. It is a push to get those students who are not risk takers involved in the process of group problem work. I know some of them know how to do the work they just aren't confident and then there are those that don't know and how stand back. What I am finding now is that they aren't very engaged so I have to prompt a lot. It was interesting to watch that there wasn't a lot of that in the 3rd grade video I watched. I am excited about this math as I feel it will be an overall engaging math learning opportunity for all students.
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