Continuing the Journey: Mathematics Learning 2021 and Beyond
Presented by
Trena Wilkerson
, Joleigh Honey
and Mona Toncheff
Moving forward into the 2021–2022 school year seems like a daunting task. Supporting mathematics students and teachers involves rethinking our priorities and resources given all the disruptions and challenges associated with last school year.
How do we attend to perceived potential learning and opportunity gaps? How do we foster social and emotional well-being and cultivate a safe learning environment? How can we best understand and value the varied learning each of our students has experienced during the past school year?
“Continuing the Journey: Mathematics Learning 2021 and Beyond”provides leaders and teachers considerations, questions, and potential solutions to address challenges revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Continuing the Journey” addresses three key areas that have implications for equitable access to high-quality mathematics teaching and learning: (1) a focus on grade-level content; (2) instruction through equitable, effective teaching practices; and (3) planning for advocacy.
“Continuing the Journey: Mathematics Learning 2021 and Beyond”will be released by the end of July and is the combined effort of the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), NCSM: Leadership in Mathematics Education (NCSM), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
Join us to learn more, share, and continue and sustain our journeys.
<p>As we head back to our classrooms, let’s agree that our back-to-in-person learning goal should go beyond back to business as usual. We can use our collaborative and creative thinking for the benefit of students across the school. How can we get our mathematics instruction to not just bounce back but to jump forward in ways that serve each and every student? This coming school year is the perfect time to embark on a more cohesive and collaborative approach to mathematics learning. We suggest that you start with a mathematics whole-school agreement (MWSA), which is a structure for targeting students’ strengths and learning needs and moving them forward through deep and meaningful mathematics instruction. The MWSA is consistent, coherent, systemic, and systematic.
</p>
<p>
Never has it been more important to align mathematics instruction across grades or courses rather than repeating or mismatching mathematics instruction from one class to the next. When students experience consistent messaging and see familiar concepts, tools, and strategies, they move gracefully into more sophisticated ideas and reinforce topics that need a boost. Mathematics then becomes logical and easy to follow rather than a constantly shifting set of mysterious and sometimes disconnected tricks and tips.
</p>
<p>
An MWSA at its core is an act of ensuring equity in mathematics education. What we found through the experience of the pandemic is how urgently we must provide accessible and equitable learning opportunities for all students. Although our system always revealed evidence of inequities, the pandemic intensified the identification of these differences while pointing to other disparities. Now is the time to mend and renovate.
</p>
<p>
The MWSA challenges the ideas of parents and caregivers who want a child placed with a particular teacher or who try to navigate around certain instructors. The MSWA promotes cohesion, consistency, and agreement within a grade level and through the grades, ensuring that all teachers of mathematics are on the same page, so to speak. Schools can use the MWSA to create effective use of language, representations, generalizations, and mathematics notation commonplace in all classrooms.
</p>
<p>
Join us to learn more how this can be the transformational story of your school!
</p>
