The Five Practices in Practice [Middle School]: Successfully Orchestrating Mathematics Discussions in Your Middle School Classroom / Edition 1

by Margaret (Peg) S. Smith, Miriam Gamoran Sherin

Overview

Take a deep dive into the five practices for facilitating productive mathematical discussions

Enhance your fluency in the five practices—anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting—to bring powerful discussions of mathematical concepts to life in your middle school classroom. This book unpacks the five practices for deeper understanding and empowers you to use each practice effectively.

• Video excerpts vividly illustrate the five practices in action in real middle school classrooms
• Key questions help you set learning goals, identify high-level tasks, and jumpstart discussion
• Prompts guide you to be prepared for and overcome common challenges

Includes planning templates, sample lesson plans and completed monitoring tools, and mathematical tasks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544321189
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	03/21/2019
Series:	Corwin Mathematics Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	202,486
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Margaret (Peg) Smith is a Professor Emerita at University of Pittsburgh. Over the past three decades she has been developing research-based materials for use in the professional development of mathematics teachers. She has coauthored several books including Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Discussions (with Mary Kay Stein), the middle and high school versions of the Taking Action series (with Melissa Boston, Fredrick Dillon, Stephen Miller, and Lynn Raith), and The 5 Practices in Practice: Successfully Orchestrating Mathematics Discussion in Your Classroom series (with Victoria Bill, Miriam Gameron Sherin, and Michael Steele). In 2006 she received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award given annually to honor outstanding faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2009 she received the award for Excellence in Teaching in Mathematics Teacher Education from AMTE. In April 2019 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NCTM.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface
Chapter 1 – Introduction
The Five Practices in Practice: An Overview
Purpose and Content
Classroom Video Context
Meet the Teachers
Using this Book
Norms for Video Viewing
Getting Started!
Chapter 2 – Setting Goals and Selecting Tasks
Part 1 – Unpacking the Practice: Setting Goals and Selecting Tasks
Part 2 – Challenges Teachers Face: Setting Goals and Selecting Tasks
Conclusion
Chapter 3 – Anticipating Student Responses
Part 1 – Unpacking the Practice: Anticipating Student Responses
Part 2 – Challenges Teachers Face: Anticipating Student Responses
Conclusion
Chapter 4 – Monitoring Student Work
Part 1 – Unpacking the Practice: Monitoring Student Work
Part 2 – Challenges Teachers Face: Monitoring Student Work
Conclusion
Chapter 5 – Selecting and Sequencing Student Solutions
Part 1 – Unpacking the Practice: Selecting and Sequencing Student Solutions
Part 2 – Challenges Teachers Face: Selecting and Sequencing Student Solutions
Conclusion
Chapter 6 – Connecting Student Solutions
Part 1 – Unpacking the Practice: Connecting Student Solutions
Part 2 – Challenges Teachers Face: Connecting Student Responses
Conclusion
Chapter 7 – Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Why Use the Five Practices Model
Getting Started with the Five Practices
Plan Lessons Collaboratively
Observe and Debrief Lessons
Reflect on Your Lesson
Video Clubs
Organize a Book Study
Explore Additional Resources
Conclusion
Appendix A – Web-based Resources for Tasks and Lesson Plans
Appendix B – Monitoring Chart
Appendix C – Mrs. Mossotti’s Monitoring Chart
Appendix D – Hold All Students Accountable
Appendix E – Lesson Planning Template
Index

Editorial Reviews

Every middle school math teacher needs to understand the practices in this book and know how to use them effectively in the classroom. Use of these practices will empower middle school students to understand mathematics and feel like they can do math!

Lois A. Williams

Middle school teachers looking to implement the five practices in their classrooms will find this book to be a practical guide for planning and executing meaningful and impactful discourse in their mathematics instruction. This book will help all teachers to more deeply understand the practices framework while taking the ideas to the next level to ensure students develop mathematical understanding beyond routine procedures.

Linda M. Gojak

Smith and Sherin have hit a home run with this book. Research has shown the importance of effective discussion in the mathematics classroom. This book provides the structure and practices to implement discussion as well as classroom scenarios and illustrations to bring those practices to light. It is a must read for any middle school teacher and those who work with middle school teachers. Student understanding of math will be improved through the implementation of the ideas in this book.

Kevin Dykema

Peg Smith has done it again. Building on her previous work with Mary Kay Stein (2018), Smith and coauthor Miriam Sherin have taken the next step in supporting teachers to engage students in rich mathematics discussions. Filled with examples and insights, both in print and on video, this book allows teachers to ‘see it in action,’ make sense, and reflect on the challenges, and it provides support and guidance to implement the five practices in their own instruction. Perfect for teachers, teacher leaders, coaches, or others who support teachers in their instructional practices, this book literally connects theory to practice and provides honest and thoughtful reflections and guidance to work towards our ultimate goals—students’ mathematics learning and agency.

Cynthia H. Callard

This book is so incredibly practical and grounded in the hands-on implementation of the five practices! It takes the ideas of the earlier book, which focused more on the “what” of each practice, and looks closer at the when, why, and how that is so important for teachers in their planning. In each chapter, I found myself nodding in agreement as the authors described challenges in using the five practices and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities to reflect on the practices in relation to my own planning and teaching.

Kristin Gray

I love the practical applications from the middle school classrooms and I love the suggestions for addressing challenging components of each practice. It helped me to more deeply understand the five practices and gave me great questions to ask myself and reflect upon in my classroom. It’s a must read to take your teaching to the next level!

Jennifer Outzs

This is a powerful and readable guide to shifting our middle school mathematics instruction toward maximizing our students' learning. But it's the clarity and familiarity of the challenges we all face when trying to implement these five practices - and the practicality and detail of the guidance provided in each chapter to address these challenges - that set this book apart and make it so useful for professional growth.

Steve Leinwand

This book is packed with practical guidance, support, and actual footage of what it looks like to enact ambitious teaching through these practices. If there’s a teacher or leader out there wondering how to ensure their classroom embraces ambitious teaching that is empowering and equitable, this is your guide. Read it. Practice it. Make it yours. There just isn’t anything else out there pushing us to think and act as strategically in our math classrooms like this does.

Levi J. Patrick

At Illustrative Mathematics we were looking for a framework that would enable us to embed in our curriculum ambitious but achievable goals for teacher practice. The five practices was the perfect fit: a memorable, learnable set of principles that could be used by novice and veteran teachers alike to get their students thinking and sharing their reasoning.

Bill Mc Callum

This books takes 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions to the next level as readers experience what these practices look like in real mathematics classrooms in grades 6-8. Readers will engage in analysis of videos and student work as they deepen their understanding of the five practices. The authors specifically address the challenges one might face in implementing the classrooms by providing recommendations and concrete examples to avoid these challenges.

Cathy Martin

Bring coherence and focus to your class discussions, empower students and assist them in making mathematical connections of substance—Smith and Sherin clarify, exemplify, and profoundly articulate how teachers can bring the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions to life. Each of the practices is unpacked for clarity, exemplified with classroom video and vignettes and the most significant challenges with implementation are shared and discussed. This is a must read for classroom teachers with immediate impact and steps for improvement provided.

Travis L. Lemon

The authors insightfully anticipate teachers’ challenges and have designed a creative tool to support teacher learning. Their book is filled with highly practical reflective questions all tied to the five practices, enabling teachers to think for themselves. The result is a book that empowers middle level teachers to determine the best ways to advance their own professional development to improve students’ mathematical lives.

Ruth M. Heaton

This book is a comprehensive, ready-to-use, professional development plan inside a book’s covers! Its components include student work, classroom video, features addressing challenges teachers face, as well as providing reflective opportunities to pause and consider. This amazing, must-have resource will truly engage middle school mathematics teachers in ‘doing’ The 5 Practices.

Francis (Skip) Fennell

At Illustrative Mathematics we were looking for a framework that would enable us to embed in our curriculum ambitious but achievable goals for teacher practice. The five practices was the perfect fit: a memorable, learnable set of principles that could be used by novice and veteran teachers alike to get their students thinking and sharing their reasoning.

Bill McCallum