Accelerated Learning in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom

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Presenter Profile

Anthony Purcell

Director of High School and College Math Readiness

Office of Curriculum and Instruction

Office - (405) 522-6575

anthony.purcell@sde.ok.gov

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Agenda

• Determine Differences Between Acceleration and Remediation
• Discuss the Purpose of Formative Assessments
• Use Formative Assessments to Identify Student Needs and Accelerate Learning
• Reflect on Acceleration

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Acceleration vs. Remediation

What is the difference?

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What is Acceleration?

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Why Accelerate Learning?

Remediation

• Goal is for students to catch up to their peers
• Instruction attempts to reteach every missing skill
• Students believe they are in the “slow” class; self-confidence and engagement decrease

Acceleration

• Goal is to learn on time with their peers
• Students apply skills immediately
• Self-confidence and engagement increase

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The Role of Formative Assessment

in Accelerating Learning

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Purpose of Formative Assessments

“Formative assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.”

Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO, 2022)

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Formative Assessment Practices

• Clarifying learning goals and success criteria within a broader progression of learning;
• Eliciting and analyzing evidence of student thinking;
• Engaging in self-assessment and peer feedback;
• Providing actionable feedback; and
• Using evidence and feedback to move learning forward by adjusting learning strategies, goals, or next instructional steps.

(CCSSO, 2022)

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Learning What Our Students KNOW

Giving students the opportunity to:

• Explain their thinking,
• Justify their answers,
• Analyze if their answers are reasonable

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How do we learn what our students know?

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Using Formative Assessments

Accelerate Learning Based on Formative Assessment Data

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What Formatives Reveal

A school group is preparing for a field trip to a museum. There will be 8 times as many students as chaperones on the trip. Which equations represent this scenario?

• 8s = c
• c + 8 = s
• s = 8c
• c = s

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What Formatives Reveal

This probe provides four possible student responses:

• Correct response choice and sound reasoning explanation
• Correct response choice and flawed explanation/no reasoning
• Incorrect response choice and some understanding explanation
• Incorrect response choice and flawed explanation/no reasoning

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Sample Student Responses

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Sample Student Responses

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Sample Student Responses

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Formatives / Probes / Problems

The types of assessments students perform can affect the information we receive. To learn what they really know, try using problems that . . .

• are open-ended
• have multiple strategies
• have multiple answers
• require reasoning, explanations, and justifications

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Student Survey / Self-Assessment

Students produce:

• Self-observations focused on specific aspects related to their standards of success
• Self-judgements to determine how well they met their learning goals.
• Self-reactions about how satisfied they are by the result of their work.

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Approach to Address Unfinished Learning

• Study the focus standards for upcoming instruction.
• Identify critical prerequisite skills and understand students need to access grade level content.

• Determine student understanding of prerequisites based on diagnostic or formative data.
• Consider if gaps exist for the whole class or a small group.

• Whole class needs: plan to build needed scaffolds into upcoming lessons.
• Small group needs: plan differentiated instruction or coordinate to address gaps within intervention periods.

Understand

Diagnose

Take Action

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Take Action: Examples

• Before having students work with variables in equations and inequalities, provide them with opportunities to reason about and interpret relationships among quantities in a variety of contexts.
• Students should be given opportunities to see equivalent equations and inequalities written differently. Provide examples and non-examples of equations and inequalities and have students determine which of them can be used to represent a problem.

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Take Action: Hinge-Point Questions

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Resources

Oklahoma Diagnostic Probes

bit.ly/Oklaprobes

Mathematics Assessment Project

bit.ly/MathShell

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Reflection

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How would today’s formative assessment strategies help you accelerate the student learning process?

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Thank you for coming!

Anthony Purcell: Anthony.Purcell@sde.ok.gov

​

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Formative Assessment Practices Focus

• Eliciting and analyzing evidence of student thinking
• Using evidence and feedback to move learning forward by adjusting learning strategies, goals, or next instructional steps.

(CCSSO, 2022)

​

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Open Problems

Teacher Talk Moves

Student Talk Moves

VNPS

Self-

Assessment

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Role Play

• In groups of three, you will take turns facilitating a task
• One person being the “teacher”, using Teacher Talk Moves
• The others being the “students”, using Student Talk Moves
• After 5 minutes, you will switch roles.
• The next few slides will have two options for the “teacher” to facilitate a discussion.

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Discuss Your Experience

• What did you find helpful about the role play?
• What did you like and what was a challenge?
• How could this help accelerate learning?
• How does this fit into your idea of acceleration versus remediation?

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Student Talk Moves

Math related statements or questions made by students that help them to:

• Link their ideas with others in the classroom community
• Assert their knowledge and share what they KNOW
• Share their reasoning

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Teacher Talk Moves

Refers to discussion strategies teachers can use to:

• Encourage student contribution,
• Engage in listening to each other,
• Engage with the math content,
• Dig deeply into their own reasoning.

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Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (VNPS)

Research shows that vertically visible and easily erasable work areas:

• Increase student thinking and engagement
• Allow for the natural mobility of knowledge to pass between students.
• Allow students freedom to change their thinking.
• Allow students to accelerate each others’ learning.

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