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Professional Development

KEEN EYE WORKSHOPS

Developing a Keen Eye for the Essence of the Mathematics in a Lesson: Translating Teacher Learning into Student Learning

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About This Program

All teachers of mathematics need support to learn to teach mathematics more ambitiously with greater attention to core mathematical practices (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSM], 2010; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000). Ambitious teaching emphasizes the development of significant conceptual understandings and responds to student thinking (Lampert, Beasley, Ghousseini, Kazemi, & Franke, 2010).

Keen Eye Coaching Workshop Series

Smyrna School District K-12 Mathematics Specialists Phil Wandless reflects out loud about how he prioritizes making time for engaging in content-focused lesson study cycles with the teachers in his schools.

Promoting More Ambitious Mathematics Teaching

Keen Eye workshops are purposefully designed to help instructional leaders develop the skills and knowledge to support their teachers in achieving more ambitious mathematics teaching by maximizing the impact of their pre and post-lesson video analysis conversations.

As part of the professional learning, teacher leaders, coaches, connectors, and mathematics specialists will explore the essential elements of high quality conceptually-focused mathematics teaching that translate into more ambitious teaching by experiencing “keen eye” learning cycles. Workshop participants will:

  • Engage with colleagues in mathematically intense conversations around standards-aligned target lessons.
  • Go beyond the nuts and bolts of lesson planning by sharpening the focus of pre and post-lesson discussions as a means of preparing to teach.
  • Prepare to teach a target lesson by unpacking the learning goals and anticipating critical moments of the lesson.
  • Make informed mathematical predictions about how students will engage in the key ideas of the lesson.
  • Analyze student thinking with attention to when key moments to advance mathematical thinking about the learning goal occur during the lesson.

Evidence suggests that teachers can be taught to analyze teaching in ways that change both the way they think about and implement mathematics instruction (Borko, Jacobs, Eiteljorg, & Pittman, 2008; Magagnosc & Feighan, 2017, 2018; Santagata & Bray, 2016; Sun & van Es, 2015). But the path teachers follow as they acquire this competency and translate their learning in support of deeper student understanding has yet to be unpacked and explained.