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In-service program documentation
Reflecting and sharing on the on-going field experiences (D6.6)
List of concerns recorded in a sharing session

Note: The following list was created as participants engaged in a "round robin" sharing session during the first project wide meeting of the field experiences for Implementation B/C. This meeting was scheduled to coincide with the completion of the participants' first implementation of one of our illustrative units. Prior to the meeting participants were asked, by means of a memo, to "come prepared to share (in 3-4 minutes) one thing from your experience that other teachers in this project could benefit from knowing (for example: about teaching math differently; or, planning and adjusting units; or, teaching a specific; or, how students learn) and one concern you have". [These notes, along with the highlights from the "round robin" sharing session and reports of the "round table" discussions were sent to all participants.]

How do you set expectations, using processes (e.g. notebooks), etc. within units at the beginning of the year'?

What to do about prior experience of kids - those who have had the same unit or those who haven't had any experience with inquiry -

Need to get work expectations set within group work/inquiry unit

Planning how to plan for letting kids drive unit

How do you assign meaningful homework when class is student driven?

Time: how much time can I spend - how long will kids remain engaged?

School interruptions and missing students

Amount of time, particularly with sharing - does everyone need to share - how to decide

Need to communicate clearly with parents - even the goals

What if you aren't sure of the direction (goals) the final project is expected to go in?

Will pre-assessment questions block their learning'?

Exposing kids sense of concepts - how to be sure kids knew what area is all about (e.g. difference between distance and area in application)

How do you meet the goal of working with decimals and fractions when kids see rounding as a possibility for work (remodeling)?

How to prepare for Course 1B or Course I - need to set these expectations from beginning

What math topics/ideas are in remodeling that are needed in Course 1, or IA or IB?

Needed to do more direct instruction (prompting, suggesting,...) than originally planned.

Kids getting "journalled out" with other teachers using journals too

What other vehicles can we use to get kids to articulate their thinking?

Need to find time for the teacher to go over and use journal work in class

There are still a handful of kids who need additional work with skills (e.g. multiplication, division, fractions) - how to find more time for that

What do you do when the units are finished?

Additional units may not be as much fun - how to keep the excitement

Needed to create sense of REAL size by finding good examples (e.g. 6 ft x 3 ft rectangle).

Needed more and better tools: Discovering Geometry by Michael Serra - Key Curriculum Press

Need to vary approaches

Importance of the support of other educators

Kids who "knew" area at first became confused, frustrated

Transferring their own ''formulas'' (e.g. columns x rows) and their own language to standard formulas was difficult for the kids.

Concerned about results of written-assignments, variety of interpretations of "my" wording of directions

Writing and verbalization is a problem for certain LD students who's strength has often been math - do they see connections to "math"

How will enriched students and their parents see these units - how do they connect with their ideas of REAL math?

Need for "higher"'' kids as models to get some kids started

Need enough kids for group dynamics

In group work, particularly, how much direction do you give when students ask questions'?

Can you use the textbook?

Needed to use their math book to validate work

How do you tell someone else what to do - if you have to have a substitute

How do you work as a team with "non-initiated" special education, resource room, math teachers - someone who doesn't know goals?

Stayed too long with easy shapes - kids needed more challenge

Kids still do not do well on tests and I don't know why.

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