Math & Literacy
Math
“Procedural fluency is an essential component of equitable teaching and is necessary to developing mathematical proficiency and mathematical agency. Each and every student must have access to teaching that connects concepts to procedures, explicitly develops a reasonable repertoire of strategies and algorithms, provides substantial opportunities for students to learn to choose from among the strategies and algorithms in their repertoire,.” - Position Statement. National Council of Teacher of Mathematics
Mathmatics in FPS
It is critical that students develop both conceptual and procedural understanding of mathematics in order for them to engage in and with the world. We want students to be exposed to complex mathematical tasks. With each task, students apply their learning to consider and apply multiple approaches to problem solving. They consider what strategies are most efficient and explain their reasoning. Teachers are present to guide students as they make sense of the tasks and help them to explore and refine their own understanding. Students need to make their thinking visible daily and change their understanding as they interact with the thinking of others.
The Elementary Math Experience
Elementary students have opportunities to build foundational math skills through whole group lessons, partnerships, and
individual practice. Lessons focus on not only finding answers to mathematical problems but also examining the processes used to determine answers. Students are learning mental math strategies in addition to traditional algorithms. Determining which strategies are the most efficient is an important part of their learning.
Students will engage in learning mathematics concepts through tasks, hands on experiences, classroom discussions, practice problems, and math games. Students learn mathematics concepts through daily warmups, focus tasks, and practice. Their learning is based on spiral, spaced practice in order to build a solid mathematical foundation over the school year.
Math Resources to Support the Learner Experience
Teachers use Everyday Mathematics 4 design the student’s core math experience. Everyday Math 4 which is aligned to our state standards and encourages learning math through a conceptual and procedural understanding lens and is built on a spiral, spaced practice model. It provides an opening message, focus task, lesson closure, and integrates games through each unit.
Teachers provide space for students to use DreamBox within the school day. Dreambox is a computer based program that provides students individualized learning experiences and practice while also providing teachers data to inform their instructional planning (full class and small group).
Teachers also have access to Math Recovery training and instructional resources which provides them with progressions of mathematical learning for all students, assessments to determine where students are in the learning, and resources to support all students where they are at in their mathematical journey.
The Middle School Experience
Middle school students have opportunities to build more complex math knowledge through small group work where students engage in collaboration to learn math concepts. Every lesson includes a class discussion to summarize their learning and highlight important concepts. Lessons focus on not only finding answers to mathematical problems but also examining the processes used to determine answers. Examining the thinking of others is an important part of their learning of math in middle school.
Students will engage in learning mathematics concepts through problem based learning with their peers. The theme of proportional reasoning is found through the middle grades and students use real life examples to examine how mathematics works and is used to find solutions to real world examples. Students also engage in practice problems that include current learning and learning from previous units.
Students learn mathematics concepts through a daily launch to the lesson where prior knowledge is used to start their learning, dialogue with their peers to solve a number of math tasks, and a classroom summary of what students explored for the day and how that can be used to solve other math problems.
Math Resources to Support the Learner Experience
Teachers are supported through the use of Connected Mathematics 3 which has several different units throughout the year that focus on major concepts in mathematics including proportional reasoning, geometry, statistics, and measurement of 2-D and 3-D objects. They are also supported with DreamBox which is a computer based program that provides individualized based practices for students. Teachers also have access to Math Recovery which provides them with progressions of mathematical learning for all students, assessments to determine where students are in the learning, and resources to support all students where they are at in their mathematical journey.
The High School School Experience
High School students engage in mathematical learning through exploration tasks and example problems. They engage in opportunities throughout units which provide them with experiences to make sense of the math through their own lens and share that thinking with others in their classroom.Students will engage in learning mathematics concepts through tasks, classroom discussions, and practice problems. High School students explore math concepts that focus on the different relationships between sets of numbers including linear, quadratic, exponential, and more advanced math topics.
Literacy
At its simplest, literacy is the way that we interact with the world around us, how we shape it and are shaped by it. It is how we communicate with others via reading and writing, but also by speaking, listening, and creating. It is how we articulate our experience in the world and declare, “We Are Here!” -National Council of Teachers of English
Literacy in FPS
It is critical that students develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in order for them to engage in and with the world. Literacy is how students build and share knowledge, making it necessary for students to use these skills throughout the school day within authentic learning experiences. Each day, students should find themselves using and deepening their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Diverse texts are a central part of a student's literacy experience.
The Elementary Literacy Experience
Elementary students in grades K-2 have opportunities to build foundational reading skills through daily whole class and small group lessons, with embedded independent practice activities aligned to their learning goals.
With foundational skills as a foundation, all K-5 students learn English Language Arts concepts through an integrated approach that provides them with daily opportunities to engage in authentic reading, writing, speaking and listening activities while also building their knowledge of the world through daily theme-based module lessons. Students have daily opportunities to engage with the content through collaborative discussion with peers during activities like Socratic Seminar, Think-Pair-Share,Fishbowl, and Mix and Mingle.
Grammar lessons are woven throughout to support students in developing language skills such as vocabulary, sentence structure, and proper punctuation.
- Literacy Resources to Support the Learner Experience
- Literacy Assessment to Support Student Learning
Literacy Resources to Support the Learner Experience
Teachers use of Expeditionary Learning (EL) Skills Block and Wit and Wisdom to design the student core literacy experience.
- EL Skills Block is aligned to the K-2 Foundational Skills standards, and provides explicit and systematic instruction in the areas of phonological awareness, phonics and fluency so that students have the early literacy skills they need to be fluent and confident readers and writers.
- Wit & Wisdom is aligned to the K-5 ELA Standards and provides teachers and students with a predictable structure for engaging with grade level text through daily reading, writing, listening, and speaking opportunities.
Teachers utilize activities within EL Skills Block and/or UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Initiative) to provide students additional learning opportunities to accelerate learning.
Literacy Assessment to Support Student Learning
Farmington Public Schools has a K-5 literacy assessment plan. In addition to monitoring literacy through NWEA and M-STEP assessments, there are two key screening tools that teachers administer 3 times per year: EL Skills Block Benchmark Assessments and Acadience benchmark assessments.
- The EL Skills Block Benchmark tool assesses foundational skill development and is used in grades K-5.
- Acadience assesses skills connected to comprehension and is used in grades 3-5.
Literacy Resources for Elementary Families
The Secondary Literacy Experience
In each unit, students encounter topics that center their reading and writing experiences. Students will experience reading and writing with a wide range of texts (narrative, informational, visual, etc.) on a wide range of topics, from a wide range of perspectives. Common anchor texts and choice texts will be read throughout the year. With our units being built upon workshop principles, students have the opportunity to independently select and engage in a wide range of reading experiences and volume of reading is critical. Students will engage in deep discussions on a regular basis to deepen their knowledge and views. Authentic writing and purposes are critical in engaging students in writing instruction that will develop their independence as writers within the classroom and beyond. Students will investigate grammatical structures as they impact meaning and intention in their writing.
Literacy Resources to Support the Learner Experience
Middle school teachers use the Michigan Middle School ELA Units to provide teachers with standards aligned units of study arranged around topics, while high school teachers are developing courses and units that follow the same structure. Assessments, resources, and lessons are provided, but are flexible enough to work with the interdisciplinary units that teaching teams collaboratively develop and tailor for their students. Classroom Libraries provide a wide range of books for students to choose from to support their independent choice reading.
Patterns of Power 6-8 and 9-10 provides explicit grammar and writing instruction to help students develop writing skills that are applicable to any writing situation. Daily routines include using grade level sentences with specific grammatical constructs. The students practice noticing, comparing/contrasting, imitating, celebrating, applying, and editing over the course of the lesson series. Through the routines, students will not only learn grammatical constructions, but will help them know how to choose conventions in order to convey meaning accurately.