RME at CAMT - June 24-26

Looking for a good conference this summer? Come join us at CAMT - the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching in Houston on June 24-26. CAMT is an annual Texas conference for K-12 mathematics teachers. The conference is sponsored jointly by the Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

If you have never heard of the CAMT Conference, visit their website to learn more.

We have several members of our team presenting this summer. Come join us at one of the following sessions!

ESTAR and MSTAR: Supporting RtI in Texas, Wednesday, 10:00: This session will inform teachers about ESTAR (Elementary School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready) and MSTAR (Middle School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready), a TEA initiative that is available at no cost to all Texas public school districts. ESTAR and MSTAR support grades 2 to 8 by improving overall mathematics instruction and impacting student achievement.

Interpreting MSTAR Universal Screener Reports, Wednesday, 1:00: Universal screening is a step in the RtI process to identify students who may be at risk for success in mathematics. This session will provide a brief overview of the MSTAR (Middle School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready) Universal Screener and describe how to interpret the results.

Interpreting ESTAR Universal Screener Reports, Thursday, 10:00: Universal screening is a step in the RtI process to identify students who may be at risk for success in mathematics. This session will provide a brief overview of the ESTAR (Elementary School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready) Universal Screener and describe how to interpret the results.

The Anatomy of High-Quality Multiple Choice Assessment Items, Thursday at 1:00 and Friday at 8:30: In this session, participants will learn the different purposes for giving students assessment items, how to develop high-quality items that adhere to best practices in assessment development, how items can be crafted to target increasingly sophisticated levels of understanding, and how to use data obtained from multiple-choice items to inform instruction.

Interpreting MSTAR Diagnostic Assessment Reports, Friday, 8:30: In the RtI process, diagnostic assessments are given to students in order to determine what areas and specific misconceptions a student might hold. This session will provide a brief overview of the MSTAR (Middle School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready) Diagnostic Assessment and describe how to interpret the results.

Interpreting ESTAR Diagnostic Assessment Reports, Friday, 10:00: In the RtI process, diagnostic assessments are given to students in order to determine what areas and specific misconceptions a student might hold. This session will provide a brief overview of the ESTAR (Elementary School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready) Diagnostic Assessment and describe how to interpret the results.

RtI Guidance at Your Fingertips, Friday, 10:00:This session will inform teachers and administrators about an ongoing initiative by the Texas Education Agency to support educators’ understanding of Response to Intervention (RtI). The RtI iOS project delivers best practices in RtI through a mobile application and complementary website.

RME Conference Morning Breakout Summaries

Our RME Conference was held at the end of February. Below are summaries of the morning breakout sessions.

Morning Breakout 1 – Solving Word Problems Using Schemas

Presented by Dr. Sarah Powell and facilitated by Cassandra Hatfield

In this session, Dr. Sarah Powell, presented problem solving strategies teachers can use to help
elementary students organize their thinking when approaching word problems. Dr. Powell emphasized the importance of teaching students to recognize schemas, specifically additive and multiplicative problem types. The example word problems used in Dr. Powell’s presentation highlight the importance of teachers moving beyond problem solving strategies that place emphasis on the identification of “key words”, and suggested students should instead focus on understanding the context and meaning of the language used in word problems. Dr. Powell also suggested students should have a strategic plan for solving word problems that is used regardless of the problem type. In order to ensure all students are familiar with the same problem solving processes, Dr. Powell suggests educators adopt a problem solving strategy for their entire school.

• Students need an “attack strategy” anytime they solve a word problem. Regardless of the problem type, students should know what process they will use to solve a given word problem. Many attack strategies involve reading the word problem, paraphrasing the question, developing a hypothesis, using a diagram or equation to represent a process, estimating or computing an answer, and checking your work. These strategies could be considered an algorithm for solving a word problem. Examples include R.I.D.G.E.S., S.T.A.R., D.R.A.W., S.I.G.N.S., and S.O.L.V.E.
• Students should not be encouraged to identify “key words” as a strategy for solving word problems. Students should understand the context and meaning of all language within a word problem.
• When using strategies, it is important to help students identify the three problem types for addition/subtraction (additive schemas) and four problem types for multiplication/division (multiplicative schemas). Additive schemas include part-part whole, difference, and change (join/separate). Multiplicative schemas include

Morning Breakout 2 – Mathematical Problem Solving in Real World Situations

Presented by Dr. Candace Walkington and facilitated by Megan Hancock

At the 2015 RME conference, Dr. Walkington spoke about personalization matters! Specifically in mathematics, it is important that students feel personally connected to what they are studying. This is central to helping some students feel more comfortable and be more successful. Personalization means that instruction is tailored to the specific interests of different learners and problems are introduced using different topics that can be implemented efficiently through technology systems. Students have rich engagement with their interest areas. It is important that instructors incorporate students’ passions into what they are learning.

Personalization interventions should seek to include depth, grain size, ownership, and richness. Depth means to make deep meaningful connections to the ways students’ use quantitative reasoning. Grain size refers to knowing the interests of individual learners. Ownership allows students to control the connections made to their interests. Lastly, richness means to balance rich problem solving with explicit connections to abstractions afterwards. If instructors can implement these important personalization interventions in their mathematics teaching, students will feel more connected to their learning and likely be more successful as well.

• The TEKS Process Standards should be interpreted through real-world situations. Students should be introduced to a topic they can relate to, then, the specific mathematics topics should be brought in after they have a firm understanding of the context.
• Studies show that students learn best from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. The teacher teaches the content using concrete scenarios and then moves to abstract thinking after the students understand the math content.
• When mathematics is connected to students’ interests, they can gain a better understanding of the content being taught. Students with little exposure to algebra can reason about and write a linear function in the context of their interests without realizing they are using algebra. This peaks their interest, then the teacher can follow up with the concrete mathematics topics.

Morning Breakout 3 – Fostering Small-Group, Student-to-Student Discourse: Discoveries from a Practitioner Action Research Project

Presented by Dr. Sarah Quebec Fuentes and facilitated by Becky Brown

This session focused on the use of small group peer discussions to increase student understanding with an emphasis on communication. Three of the math process standards include communication, quality communication with reasoning, explaining, and justifying. By asking the students to communicate, you are effectively changing the way they approach mathematics. When you put kids into a group they will communicate but the communication is not always of quality. The teacher’s role is to facilitate the discussion, not to set a rubric or tell them exactly what to do. Students gain process help through their peer interaction, which aids their problem solving abilities by increasing their adaptive qualities. This type of meaningful communication is achieved
through the Action Research Cycle: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.

• You can improve student communication in your own classrooms in three phases. Stage 1 is to evaluate student communication and just get them to communication. Stage 2 is to evaluate group communication. Which point on the action cycle is this group? Stage 3 is to evaluate your communication. Are you effectively facilitating meaningful discussion? Lastly Stage 4 is to try a customized intervention.
• There is no blanket intervention strategy because each team interacts differently and operates in different phases of the action cycle.
• This practice can be scaled to an entire math department as long as it is scaled down and adjusted for the time needs of the professional.

CAMT is Coming Up!

By Savannah Hill, RME Professional Development Coordinator

Looking for a good conference this summer? Come join us at CAMT - the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching in Fort Worth on July 21 - 23. CAMT is an annual Texas conference for K-12 mathematics teachers. The conference is sponsored jointly by the Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

If you have never heard of the CAMT Conference, here is a little bit about them from their website:

The CAMT program consists of approximately 750 sessions, ranging from 90 minutes to three hours. The workshops and sessions consist of mathematics content and pedagogy appropriate for K-12 mathematics teachers. Outstanding speakers from all over the state and nation submit proposals to present sessions, and a program committee selects sessions most appropriate for the conference. Also, a large number of presenters are invited from all over the country to present featured sessions. Most session presenters are outstanding, practicing mathematics teachers, who present ideas for teaching that they have found effective in their classrooms. Many sessions involve hands-on learning activities that teachers can use in the classroom to address various topics in the mathematics curriculum. Effective use of manipulative materials in the classroom is an important component of the conference, and a number of sessions regarding manipulative use occur at each conference. Use of technology in classroom instruction is also an important component of the CAMT conference.

We have several members of our team presenting this summer. Come join us at one of the following sessions!

• Engaging Models and Activities to Support Fraction Instruction - Monday, July 21, 10:00 - 11:00 and 11:30 - 12:30, CC 203A 
• BYOD: RtI at Your Fingertips - Monday, July 21, 10:00 - 11:00, CC 120 
• MSTAR: Understanding the Value of an Assessment Plan - Monday, July 21, 1:00 - 2:00, Omni FW 5 
• PreCal 911: Engaging Activities to Save the Day! - Tuesday, July 22, 10:00 - 11:00, CC 201C 
• Teacher T.O.M. - A Strategy for Reflective Practice - Tuesday, July 22, 11:30 - 12:30 and 1:00 - 2:00 Omni Stockyards 3 
• ESTAR: Understanding the Value of an Assessment Plan - Tuesday, July 22, 1:00 - 2:00, Omni FW 5 
• Implementing the NEW TEKS with Best Practices - Tuesday July 22, 1:00 - 2:00, CC 114 
• Money Management: Developing Appreciation Through Mathematics - Tuesday, July 22, 1:00 - 2:00, CC 204AB 
• Spaghetti & Meatballs and Algebraic Reasoning - Wednesday, July 23, 10:00 - 11:00, Omni Sundance 2 
• ESTAR: Understanding the Value of an Assessment Plan - Wednesday, July 23, 2:30 - 3:30, Omni FW 5

Hope to see you there! 

Conferences to Attend This Summer!

By Toni Buttner, RME Assistant Director

Come Unlock the Mathematical Mind with CAMT next month! 
San Antonio, TX 

CAMT is an annual Texas conference for K-12 mathematics teachers. The conference is sponsored jointly by the Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America. The three-day conference is conducted each summer, on a rotation basis, in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

Great speaker line up including Rachel Cruze, daughter of Dave Ramsey, financial guru, and Dan Meyer, dynamic speaker one of Tech & Learning’s 30 Leaders of the Future.

 Come be inspired and equipped to teach math in a whole new way!

Interdisciplinary Synthesis in Advancing Education Science 
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness - September 26-28, Washington, D.C.

SREE endeavors to advance and disseminate research on the causal effects of education practices and interventions. The Society recognizes and supports research in neuroscience, cognition, learning, and socio-behavioral or meta-cognitive influences, broadly and within specific domains such as mathematics and science.

The theme of the SREE Fall 2013 Conference, Interdisciplinary Synthesis in Advancing Education Science, recognizes the value of incorporating diverse branches of education science, including applying causal methods in challenging field settings to improve opportunities and outcomes for students. The application of cognitive science principles to curriculum design, the implementation of evidence-based standards in mathematics and science programs, and the evolution of education technology from a focus on technical features to an emphasis on how principles of learning may encourage productive uses of technology, provide a few examples of research that would be appropriate for this meeting.

Questions of particular interest include:

• How may research findings in cognitive science and other fields be applied to the design of education interventions? 
• How is research evidence being utilized to improve mathematics and science programs along the developmental continuum, including initiatives for at-risk learners? 
• How may we conceptualize and measure capacities beyond academic achievement that are important to lifelong growth and development? 
• How may technology be employed most effectively to improve education in diverse settings? 
• What is the best means to develop expertise in the art and science of completing experiments in school settings?

Teach. Inspire. Hire. 
2013 U.S. News STEM Solutions National Conference 

This week was the National STEM Solutions Conference, right here in Texas. More than 2,000 leaders and visionaries in business, education and government from around the United States convened in Austin, Texas June 17-19th to advance the agenda for national change in STEM education, policy and workforce development.

Last year myself, and several of my colleagues from SMU, attended this summit and found it to be one-of-a-kind. It’s hallmark of having representatives from business, education and government, is what makes this event effective as it has been noted that all of these entities need to form a partnership to truly bring change in STEM education and careers.

What’s in it for you? Not only were there an incredible slate of speakers, but there were also tailored conference tracks for you to plug into the area that is most representative of your profession. If you are a K-12 teachers or a CEO, there is something for everyone here and you are able to network with like-minded colleagues from across the US.

OK, so it's a bit late to attend this year, but there is always next year in Washington, D.C.! Or you if you want to keep abreast of the latest STEM news, join STEMconnector - be the first to get updates on what is happening in STEM across the nation.

What conference are you attending this summer? Recommend a great resource to your colleagues – leave a comment!