Math Talks and CGI

This year I have been attending training about for math coaches and the focus of the training has been on Math Talks and Number Talks. I have modeled a "Math Talk" in all classrooms at my elementary building. This "new" idea made some people a little hesitant because there have been some many new initiatives these past few years. Luckily, it seemed like the teachers were reassured that they were doing math talks in their classroom already. It is interesting to see how in my short 7 years-ish of teaching how many "new" ideas are just new names for old things that work (ie. Kagan Structures = Cooperative Learning).

Math talks and number talks should be focused around student thinking. Math talks help students talk about how they arrived to a solution and from this discussion teachers can formatively assess students. In addition, MARS tasks were introduced which really help classrooms who are trying to find differentiated materials for math center work time. MARS tasks are naturally differentiated and are once again a great formative assessment tool for teachers.

CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) Problem Solving follows the following 5 steps:
1.) Anticipating (purpose of the lesson)
2.) Monitoring (walk around and see how different students solve the problems)
3.)Reengagement (revisit the problem/concept)
4.) Sequencing (select work to show steps- of DOK)
5.) Connecting (transfer the skill)

Links to support with CGI math instruction:
http://www.heinemann.com/ChildrensMath/
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/mathematics-glossary/Table-1/
http://www.dusd.net/cgi/

Reviewing MARS Tasks and CGI Math with the Staff