Content Professional Learning

Grades Pre-K – 5  |  onsite or virtual  |  half or full-day session  |  up to 40 participants

How do educators provide a pathway for young learners to develop mathematical ideas and numeracy concepts?  Many mathematical concepts and skills begin with the cluster of activities often referred to as mathematical processes.  In this session, participants will explore five beginning processes that are at the core of early childhood mathematics.  They will participate in activities to engage young children of many different developmental levels as well as investigate children’s symbolic and language development.  This session is most appropriate for preschool and primary grade teachers.

Guiding Questions:

What role do student experiences in mathematics in the early years play in their future success?

How do young students develop concepts and skills in mathematics?

What role do Beginning Processes play in students’ understanding and application of mathematics concepts and skills?

What are the Beginning Processes and what is the best way for teachers to implement the processes with early learners?

Grades K – 5 | onsite or virtual | half or full-day session | up to 40 participants

What are essential skills for teachers to develop mathematical language, especially in students who are also learning English? In this session, participants will explore a developmental sequence of language stages which helps every learner move from everyday language to more formal mathematical language. The session discusses developing classroom culture focused on agency and identity as well as a variety of practical strategies for classroom instruction. This session is appropriate for all elementary educators.

Guiding Questions:

How might student understanding of different levels of language affect their conceptual understanding and success in mathematics?

How might educators best utilize language stages to support student understanding and success in mathematics?

How might language skills and mathematical identity and agency intersect?

How might educators foster an environment that supports mathematical identity and agency?

Grades 3-5  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

How might we extend the strategies useful for mastering basic facts into broader classes of number? What happens when we use this approach with greater whole numbers? With common fractions? With decimals? In this session, participants will briefly review key strategies for mastering addition and subtraction basic facts before extending them to other number classes. The session includes practical examples with a variety of mathematical representations. This session is most appropriate for educators who work with students in grades 3 – 5.

Guiding Questions:

How do we help students understand that the operations do not change, even as students learn about new categories of numbers (e.g., fractions)?

How are strategies for addition and subtraction with larger whole numbers, fractions, and decimals related to strategies for basic facts?

How do we support students in applying the strategies they already know to numbers beyond the basic facts range?

How does deep understanding of these strategies prepare students for success in more advanced mathematics, including algebra?

Grades 4 – 6  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

How might we extend the strategies useful for mastering basic facts into broader classes of number? What happens when we use this approach with greater whole numbers? With common fractions? With decimals? In this session, participants will briefly review key strategies for mastering multiplication and division basic facts before extending them to other number classes. The session includes practical examples with a variety of mathematical representations. This session is most appropriate for educators who work with students in grades 4 – 6.

Guiding Questions:

How do we help students understand that the operations do not change, even as students learn about new categories of numbers (e.g., fractions)?

How are strategies for multiplication and division with larger whole numbers, fractions, and decimals related to strategies for basic facts?

How do we support students in applying the strategies they already know to numbers beyond the basic facts range?

How does deep understanding of these strategies prepare students for success in more advanced mathematics, including algebra?

Grades K – 3  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

How do young children reason about fractions as they explore fair-sharing with friends or family? While we often think of fractions as a challenge for upper elementary students, important foundational ideas are established in the primary grades. In this session, participants will learn about key concepts for early fraction understanding, including a variety of contexts and representations. This session is most appropriate for educators who work with students in Grade K-3.

Guiding Questions:

Why teach fractions in the early grades?

How do teachers best connect fractions to early learners’ real-world experiences?

What representations of fractions support early learners’ conceptual understanding of fractions?

What do early learners need to know and understand about fractions?

Grades K – 3  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

Is a fraction really one number or is it two? A common misconception is that ½ is really two numbers, not a single number. For students to succeed with fractions, they must understand them as an extension of the familiar whole number system. In this session, participants learn about strategies and representations to extend number sense to include fractions. Revisiting counting, comparing, and ordering establishes fractions as numbers and creates a firm foundation for fraction operations. This session is most appropriate for teachers in Grades K-3.

Guiding Questions:

How might educators help students avoid forming misconceptions about fractions?

What is the relationship between whole numbers and fractions?

What representations support students in counting, comparing, and ordering fractions?

What strategies do students utilize in comparing and ordering fractions?

Grades 4 – 6  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

Just as fractions are an extension of the number system, operations with fractions have the same meanings they have with whole numbers even though some procedures are different. In this session, participants explore similarities and differences between whole number and fraction addition and subtraction, recognizing new contexts possible with fractional values and establishing a conceptual foundation for the procedures required to add and subtract. This content is most appropriate for educators in grades 4-6.

Guiding Questions:

What might educators do to help students avoid misconceptions about addition and subtraction with fractions?

What representations support students in adding and subtracting with fractions?

What strategies do students utilize in adding and subtracting with fractions?

How might students apply their understanding of adding and subtracting with whole numbers to adding and subtracting with fractions?

Grades 4 – 6  |  onsite or virtual  |  half-day session  |  up to 40 participants

Just as fractions are an extension of the number system, operations with fractions have the same meanings they have with whole numbers even though some procedures are different. In this session, participants explore similarities and differences between whole number and fraction multiplication and division, recognizing new contexts possible with fractional values and establishing a conceptual foundation for the procedures required to multiply and divide. This content is most appropriate for educators in grades 4-6.

Guiding Questions:

What might educators do to help students avoid misconceptions about multiplication and division with fractions?

What representations support students in multiplication and division with fractions?

What strategies do students utilize in multiplication and division with fractions?

How might students apply their understanding of multiplication and division with whole numbers to adding and subtracting with fractions?