Michele McKinney, Jessica McCurdyMonarch School.

Santa Cruz City Schools

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN MATH

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL WIDE PROBLEM OF THE MONTH

8 step process:1. PLC – 1 POM per trimester2. Staff chooses based on strand focus and student need3. Staff does the POM together in Staff Dev Mtg4. Review Teacher Notes together after struggling with

the problem 5. Plan how to differentiate for different grade levels 6. Staff implements POM in classroom (ind., sm. gr. or

whole class)7. Cross Classroom Gallery Walk8. Staff reviews student work and critiques the process

LINKS TO COMMON CORE – GEORGE POLYA“A PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM IF IT CAN BE SOLVED IN A SINGLE DAY.”

POM provides opportunity to apply CCSS Mathematical Practices1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others

Critical thinking, group work, have several days to work on the problems

Progressive cognitive load is modeled in the CCSS assessments example

SMARTER BALANCED TEST QUESTION

IMPACT FOR STUDENTS Students struggle with complex, rich

problems. Increased perseverance. POM problems are differentiated. Opportunities to explain their thinking, share

strategies, and critique each other’s thinking. Poster/gallery walk provides opportunities for

anonymous feedback, different solving strategies, and multi-format expression of solutions.

LESSONS LEARNED Try, try again. Allow for individual and small group

time to work on problem. Scaffolded process – teach a new step

each time you do a POM. Student choice – poster levels and

partners.

RESOURCES AND TOOLS svmimac.org – MARS and POM Illuminations.nctm.org Insidemathematics.org for videos of POMs Mathsolutions.org Kise, J. A. G. (2010). Creating a coaching

culture. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press Jessica Branch – jbranch@sccs.net Michelle McKinney – mmckinney@sccs.net