Documenting Patterns of Student Thinking, Vol. 3

Mark Driscoll and codevelopers of The Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit: A Guide for Staff Development will conduct the second Fostering Algebraic Thinking Facilitation Institute at the Education Development Center in Newton, Massachusetts, from July 21 to July 25, 2003.

Commenting on their experience at the 2002 Institute, participants cited a range of new insights and skills they gained, including how to

• design with purpose
• infuse facilitation into listening and questioning
• employ different strategies to manage group dynamics
• capitalize on diversity in mathematical thinking.

For more information about the Institute, contact Angela Martino at 617.969.7100, ext. 2524, or [email protected].

The Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit is a set of professional development materials whose goal is to help mathematics teachers in grades 6-10 learn to identify, describe, and foster algebraic thinking in their students. Underlying the Toolkit is a core belief that good mathematics teaching begins with understanding how mathematics is learned. The focus here is on how students think about mathematics.

The Toolkit features four separate modules containing notes for the facilitator and reproducible blackline masters for the workshop participants. Each module concentrates on a different kind of classroom evidence and, in facilitated sessions, asks teachers to collect student and/or teacher data to share and analyze with colleagues. A module can be covered in four three-hour sessions.

The first module, Introduction and Analyzing Written Student Work gives participants an opportunity to analyze students' written work for evidence of algebraic thinking, and to become comfortable with the language of the algebraic habits of mind, before moving on to one of the other modules. Each of the three remaining modules builds on the work done here.

Documenting Patterns of Student Thinking
Participants will find in this module more written student work to analyze, but the focus, instead, is on patterns of thinking across a class of students. The module takes a step beyond analyzing data to systematically recording the information gained through analysis. The issues of alignment between goals for student learning and the mathematical questions that are posed to students are addressed.

Mark Driscoll is the author of Fostering Geometric Thinking (2007) and Fostering Algebraic Thinking (1999) and their professional development companions,The Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit (2008) and The Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit (2001)-all published by Heinemann. Through Heinemann Professional Development he presents further PD related to math teaching and learning. Mark is Codirector of the Center for Leadership and Learning Communities at Educational Development Center, Inc., where he has directed a range of teacher enhancement, leadership, and materials-development programs. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics (differential geometry) from Washington University in St. Louis and taught mathematics at Logos School, an alternative high school in inner-city St. Louis. He has been a member of the writing team for NCTM's Assessment Standards for School Mathematics and served as Editor of Mathematics Education Leadership, the journal of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, from 2003-2007. Mark has been named the recipient of the Ross Taylor/Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM). The award recognizes Mark's contributions to mathematics education over four decades as well as his work at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). He is the coauthor of Fostering Geometric Thinking and its accompanying toolkit, and author of Fostering Algebraic Thinking, the book Mathematics Teacher called "an important tool in our collective effort to improve the quality of mathematics instruction."

The Education Development Center, Inc (EDC) specializes in creating and implementing professional development programs for teachers, health care professionals, and other workers; designing technology tools and curriculum materials dedicated to inquiry-based, hands-on learning; and conducting applied research on learning in a wide variety of settings.

Johannah Nikula is a coauthor of a number of Heinemann professional development books and staff development materials. Her most recent are Lesson Study in Practice: A Mathematics Staff Development Course (2010) and the companion, A Mathematics Leaders Guide to Lesson Study in Practice (2010). She also coauthored Fostering Geometric Thinking (2007) and its professional development companion, the Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit (2008), both published by Heinemann. Her work has focused on professional development for middle and high school mathematics teachers that is grounded in the work of teaching through analysis of artifacts that reveal students' mathematical thinking and through the Japanese lesson-study process.