8th grade Math Guide

Mathematics Best Practices ***Observers should be able to see at least one BUT NOT ALL practices going on in the classroom, at any given time. Math Classroom Specifc Best Practices What it looks like in the math classroom

Support productive struggle in learning mathematics: teacher consistently provides students with opportunities and supports to engage in productive struggle as they work through mathematical problems Elicit and use evidence of student thinking: teacher uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually to support and extend learning. Establish mathematics goals to focus learning: teacher establishes clear goals for the mathematics that students are learning and use goals to guide instructional decisions. Implement tasks* that promote reasoning and problem solving: teacher engages students in solving and discussing tasks* that promote mathematical reasoning and problem solving. Use and connect mathematical representations: teacher engages students in making connections to deepen understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures to use as tools for problem solving. Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse: teacher facilitates discourse among students to build shared understanding of mathematical ideas by analyzing and comparing student approaches and arguments. Pose purposeful questions: teacher uses purposeful questions to assess and advance students’ reasoning about important mathematical ideas and relationships. Build procedural fuency from conceptual understanding: teacher builds procedural fuency with grade level math skills through the use of appropriate contextual situations.

Teacher gives students time to struggle with tasks*, and asks questions that scaffold students’ thinking without stepping in to do the work for them; praising students for their efforts in working through the problem and not giving up. Teacher uses OTRs to gather evidence of student understanding at strategic points during instruction to make in-the-moment decisions on how to respond to students with questions. Teacher then provides prompts that probe, scaffold, and extend student thinking. Teacher discusses and refers to the mathematical purpose and goal of lesson during instruction to ensure students understand how the current work contributes to their learning. Teacher poses tasks* on a regular basis and supports students in exploring them by asking probing questions without taking over student thinking. Teacher uses different forms of mathematical representations (graphs, pictures, equations, expressions etc…) to help students understand concepts and supports students in using different representations when problem solving. Teacher engages students in sharing of mathematical ideas and reasoning by facilitating discourse among students that involves having them explain and defend their approaches. Teacher advances student understanding by asking intentional (pre-planned) questions that make the mathematics more visible and accessible for student discussion. Teacher asks students to explain why the procedures they are using works to solve particular problems and connects their strategies and methods to more effcient procedures as appropriate.

Mathematical Teaching Practices (What the teacher does)**