10 Takeaways from NCTM Los Angeles
I was able to attend the NCTM Los Angeles conference September 28- October 1st with a travel grant through ICME 14. It was a wonderful time to connect and learn with passionate educators from across the country. It was difficult to narrow it down to just 10 takeaways as each session I attended was filled with great information.
As I travel, I find it important to learn about the original stewards of the land. Los Angeles County sits on Chumash (Santa Ynez Band & Wishtoyo), Tongva, and Kizh land.
| Sessions | Takeaways | Resources/Ideas |
| Peter Lilijedah, Equity and Access in the Thinking Classroom | Students don’t listen to what we say but what we do so using Visible Random Grouping helps eliminate teacher bias, communicates that each and every student is capable and creates a classroom of empathy. | Equity and Access in the Thinking Classroom presentation slides
Sum of It All podcast reflects on Building Thinking Classroom & connection to equity |
| Marilyn Burns, Assessments as Part of Instruction | Asking your students, “How would you solve this problem using ___’s way?”
This assigns competence to students |
Number Talks |
| DeAnn Huinker, Catalyzing Change: Developing Identity, Agency and Deep Understanding Through Equitable Instruction | Teaching students to notice structure in mathematics (place value, algebraic properties, strategies such as doubling & halving) brings about wonder, joy and mathematics becomes connected, interrelated ideas. | Overview of Catalyzing Change |
| Juli Dixon, Continuing the Journey: How to Move Forward with Unfinished Learning | When Gradual Release is used in math class (I do, we do, you do), you lose the opportunity to see how kids think about a problem, lose the opportunity to formatively assess, and lose the opportunity to find out if a student has any unfinished learning. | Link to presentation slides |
| Rachel Lambert, Humanizing Intervention in Math Class | Intervention should do NO HARM. Intervention should reflect strategies, be playful with games, include students sharing their thinking (such as in a Problem String), and teachers having a deep understanding of how kids think and build upon that thinking. | Humanizing Intervention in Math Class presentation slides |
| Dr. Nicole Joseph, Making Black Girls Count | Reject stereotypes about Black girls, see Black girls as children (not adults), created a relaxed environment in math class that allows for humor, teach ambitiously, create conditions that make it impossible to fail | “In Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, Black girls are 8.5 times more likely than white girls to be suspended.”
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| Beth Kobett & Karen Karp, Strengths Based Feedback | Notice and name student strengths. When a student says, “This doesn’t make sense!” That is a strength in communication and advocacy as they believe they deserve more. | Planning Effective Strengths-Based Instruction |
| Dan Meyer, Math Without Mistakes | Mistakes are thinking. Wrong answers are real and as we learn, there will be many wrong answers. Labeling it a mistake assumes that’s what a kid meant to do. Don’t assume, ask them. | |
| Francis Su, Points of View: Building Joy, Wonder and Connection | Using images, changes the point of view and builds joy and connections.
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Number Talk images
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| Sara VanDerWerf, “CONNECT”ing within Mathematics and Students’ Lived Experiences to Drive Learning | Use two images and ask, “What is the same? What is different?” and students will connect what they know to their new learning. | Same or Different |
Laura Wagenman
VP Elementary