Reflections on Conferring

Conferring is purposeful helping aimed at developing students' capacity for learning. Conferring is more than merely providing information. I think of it like this: 

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day (helping)

Teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime (conferring)

I taught a lesson about conferring recently with my pre-service mathematics teachers. Here's what we did, how it went, what I'll change for next time, and what we learned.

QTP: Rich tasks are for everyone

Overheard: The modified "rich version" of the task would have been too difficult for some students, so we gave them the original worksheet and one teacher took those students aside to work on it together. 

But... If the rich version of the task is "better" for learning, why shouldn't the struggling students work on it too?

QTP = Quick Thought Post

Advice for Getting Started with SBG

One of our teacher ed grads emailed one of my colleagues in search of SBG resources for a pre-algebra course he's developing for next year. He wrote:

When I had you for ____, you graded our assessments using a form of standards based grading. I remember receiving a paper back that listed what standards I had mastered and which ones I still needed to work on. I have wanted to try using a standards based grading system ever since I saw it in your classroom. Would you have any resources that you would be willing to share with me?

My colleague replied with several tips and resources, including Matt Townsley's growing list of scholarly articles SBG. He also Cc'd me, and while I was drafting my own response I realized it might be better to write it as a blog post. So here it is, for what it's worth: my list of suggestions and resources for getting started with SBG in the math classroom.

MIA2017 - Do you have a growth mindset?

We share how the math teachers in our hall
empowered kids by focusing on growth mindset.
(Based in part on Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets)

Our presentation was part of GVSU's
2017 Math in Action Conference
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017

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Session Resources:

Handouts:

• "Growth Mindset" Session Handout (pdf)