by NCTM President J. Michael Shaughnessy
NCTM Summing Up, September 2010 

I wish you all the best as we start this new school year and greet our new crop of students. As teachers, teacher educators, supervisors, publishers, parents, and administrators, let’s not forget that though we are working in challenging times, teaching mathematics to kids is still the absolute best job in the world. We are challenged, but we are also blessed. We are performing vital work in a vibrant profession. In this message, as evidence of that fact, I share updates on two areas of NCTM’s support for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, and on the Council’s ongoing initiative to promote reasoning and sense making in mathematics.

NCTM Mobilizes CCSS Interpretation and Implementation Support 

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for mathematics and language arts were released this past June. Since then, 37 states have decided to adopt and implement the new standards over the next several years. Some states are planning to phase them in over a period of years, while others plan to implement large portions of them at one time. The interpretation and implementation of the CCSS pose many challenges for all stakeholders in the mathematics education of our students. Teachers, teacher leaders, supervisors, state leaders of curriculum and instruction, teacher educators, researchers in mathematics education, and of course, families and caregivers—all of us—will need to work together to implement the CCSS successfully. To provide support to teachers, schools, districts, and states, NCTM has mobilized three new task forces charged with creating various support materials and recommending some next steps for the Council to take as the CCSS proceeds.

First, members of the NCTM Board of Directors are creating a set of short PowerPoint presentations for use by teachers, teacher leaders, and supervisors to provide needed information about the Common Core Standards. An overview presentation on CCSS is already available to NCTM members and is posted on the NCTM Web site. Subsequent presentations that are specific to grade levels will be posted in the coming weeks alongside this overview presentation about CCSS.

Second, an NCTM task force has been drafting a document that connects NCTM’s major curriculum and standards publications to the CCSS. NCTM’s previous work—especially inPrinciples and Standards for School Mathematics, Curriculum Focal Points, and Focus in High School Mathematics, but in other materials as well—can provide support for teachers, schools, and districts as they implement the CCSS. A working draft, currently titled A Guide to Interpretation and Implementation of the Common Core Standards, is undergoing review and will be available to members in electronic form in early fall, also to be posted on the NCTM Web site.

Finally, NCTM has joined three other mathematics education organizations—the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), and the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM)—to form a task force charged with formulating recommendations for ongoing CCSS related action by our organizations. The report from this joint task force, along with their recommendations, will be sent to the Board of Directors of the four organizations in the next several weeks.

As you can see, the Council has been very proactive this summer in launching new work to support our members as the Common Core Standards are implemented. Keep an eye on the NCTM Web site, and this newsletter, as more CCSS support resources appear.

NCTM Continues to Promote Its Focus on Reasoning and Sense Making in Mathematics

In my first President’s Message in the May issue of Summing Up, I shared information about NCTM’s ongoing initiative to implement the vision of mathematics teaching and learning as laid out in Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making. In mid September, NCTM will publish the third book in the Focus in High School Mathematics series—Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making in Geometry—to accompany the companion volumes already published on algebra and statistics and probability. Two other books are under development, one ensuring that all high school students have opportunities to participate in reasoning and sense making every day in their classrooms, and another on the importance of integrating technology as we promote reasoning and sense making. 

These are great new resources from NCTM. However, as we all know, just having good written materials is not enough to change the way that mathematics is taught—particularly at the secondary level. It is not the case that “if you write it, they will come.” We have to live, eat, breathe, and sleep reasoning and sense making. We have to provide examples for classroom teachers that show real teachers and students engaged in reasoning and sense making. We have to provide opportunities for communities of teachers to engage in thinking about how they themselves can incorporate more opportunities for students to reason and share their thinking in everyday classroom work. As outlined in my May message, this ongoing effort to promote student reasoning has been progressing on three fronts.

First, a preliminary set of Reasoning and Sense Making tasks has been under development and will soon be posted on the NCTM Web site for download and use by NCTM members. Accompanying the tasks are suggestions for classroom implementation and discussion, including ideas about how and where to elicit student thinking and sharing, possible follow-up assessment activities, and how the task connects to both the Mathematical Practices in the Common Core State Standards and the NCTM Process Standards. NCTM plans to expand this task bank over the next several years and to include samples of students’ work, responses, and reasoning along with the tasks. In addition to a bank of reasoning and sense making tasks, NCTM has developed a PowerPoint presentation on reasoning and sense making and Presenter Guidelines that are posted on the NCTM Web site. This presentation is available for download by all NCTM members. It is intended to provide teachers, teacher educators, and supervisors with information to share with varied audiences. The presentation includes both general information about the reasoning and sense making initiative, as well as some specific examples of tasks that can be used by members as they talk with other teachers and administrators, and families and the business community.

Second, our work on the creation and compiling of reasoning and sense making video clips has been proceeding. NCTM plans to have some video examples of secondary students engaged in reasoning and sense making available early next year. The video clips will be accompanied by clusters of support materials, including discussion and reflection materials as well as student work.

Third, plans continue for a special conference next summer on “Reasoning and Sense Making in Secondary Classrooms.” We anticipate that this conference will be held in early August 2011. Dates and location of this special NCTM conference will be revealed soon, so stay tuned! This conference will provide a unique opportunity for teachers, teacher leaders, teacher educators, and leaders of professional development to gather, to actively participate in work sessions on mathematical reasoning and sense making, to listen to some of NCTM’s best motivational speakers on implementation strategies, and to have a discussion about video clips of students engaged in reasoning and sense making.

An initial set of reasoning and sense making resources (including materials addressing a range of audiences) is available at  www.nctm.org/hsfocus, and much more will be added in the coming months as our work progresses.