Margaret (Peg) Smith, University of Pittsburgh

Effective Teaching Practices: The Key to Supporting Students' Learning of Ambitious Standards

The recent Principles to Actions document from NCTM (2014) describes a core set of effective teaching practices that are essential for promoting deep learning of mathematics. This session will focus on describing these eight practices, discussing how they impact student learning, and engaging participants in a discussion of how best to help teachers learn and refine them.

We will look back over the experiences of the institute as you consider next steps for the coming school year. Let's think together about how you can process what you've learned and put it all into practice in rich classrooms focused on every student becoming a mathematical thinker.

2b or Not 2b: Misconceptions in Algebraic Reasoning

Barbara Dougherty, University of Missouri-Columbia

Students are often able to solve simple linear equations but have significant misconceptions about the roles that a variable can assume. This keynote will share some student misconceptions and describe ways to support stronger understanding for more sophisticated uses of variable. Instructional techniques will be included in the discussion.

Dylan Wiliam, Institute of Education, University of London

As every math teacher knows, students do not learn what we teach. That is why assessment is a key process in effective education—it is only through assessment that we can establish what has been learned. This keynote will present the five key strategies of classroom formative assessment, coupled with a number of techniques for classroom use.

Writing and Mathematical Thinking: Grade-Level Strategies to Support Development of the Mathematical Practices

David Pugalee, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Students are increasingly asked to write as part of their mathematics experience. Writing in mathematics sustains the development of reasoning, communication, and connections while developing metacognitive thinking. Writing in mathematics supports both deep understanding of content and students' effective development of the mathematical practices. This session will highlight a plan for creating and implementing an effective mathematical writing program. Information will bridge the divide between language and mathematics instruction with user-friendly connections to theory and the standards, and ready-to-implement strategies for the classroom. Writing strategies tested in the mathematics classroom will be used to demonstrate support of the eight mathematical practices, thereby highlighting writing as a tool to develop these essential mathematical habits of mind.