Activities for the 2005-2006 School Year at University of California, Santa Cruz

UCSC outreach focuses on professional development and includes work with both pre-service and in-service teachers as well as workshops with administrators and teacher leaders.

• Pre-service Teachers:

  A thrust of the multiple subjects (elementary) mathematics teaching and learning course taught by J. Aguirre (ED 213A: Mathematics Learning and Teaching in Elementary Classrooms) focused on developing a foundational knowledge base and teaching strategies integrating mathematics learning and teaching with language and culture. In particular, the course explicitly addressed teaching mathematics for social justice and working with English Learners and Latino children. The course included readings, books, theoretical frameworks, and activity ideas developed by CEMELA faculty and post-docs including Marta Civil, Eric Gutstein, Lena Licon Khisty, Judit Moschkovich, and Erin Turner. (See attached course reading list). The course taught by J. Moschkovich (ED 213B: Math Education Research and Practice, for secondary pre-service teachers and mathematics education PhD students) focused on conceptual understanding, proportional reasoning, and algebraic thinking (See attached course reading list). A section of the course explicitly addressed teaching mathematics for social justice and working with English Learners and Latino children and included readings, theoretical frameworks, and activities developed by CEMELA faculty as well as other projects (for example the Algebra Project).

• In-service Teachers:

  CEMELA has been forging links with the UCSC New Teacher Center, local school districts, CSUMB, and the Central Coast Math Collaborative. In this capacity J. Aguirre and J. Wilson attended planning meetings for ongoing professional development activities associated with the Central Coast Mathematics Collaborative Grant sponsored by our partnering district North Monterey County and faculty in the Mathematics Department California State University Monterey Bay. These activities build on the work developed over the August 2006 summer institute (see below), when CEMELA faculty at UCSC conducted several sessions focusing on mathematics learning and teaching with English Learners and Latinos. Building on the collaboration with the New Teacher Center and our partnering school district North Monterey County, four teacher leaders/mentors were invited to participate in further CEMELA related activities, such as the first annual CEMELA School, the TODOS sponsored pre-conference at Asilomar, and the TODOS sponsored strand at NCTM in April. CEMELA also organized and led two workshops using the Video Cases “Learning Mathematics in Two Languages,” with teachers and teacher leaders during the CMC South Conference in Palm Springs.

• Administrators:

  During the pre-conference for administrators at CMCM North (Asilomar) organized by TODOS, J. Moschkovich delivered the key note speech on “Language and learning mathematics.” CEMELA also organized and led two workshops with administrators, coaches, mentors, and teacher leaders using the Video Cases “Learning Mathematics in Two Languages.” Participants spent a morning in interactive workshops led by TODOS members on issues relevant to English Learners, Latinos, and mathematics instruction: Judit Moschkovich (UC Santa Cruz): "Language and Learning Mathematics: Moving Beyond Words to Mathematical Comprehension", Jeanne Ramos (LA Unified School District) "Closing the Achievement Gap for Latino/Hispanic Students", Carl Lager (UC Santa Barbara) "Making Large-Scale Mathematics Items More Accessible to ELLs", and Jose Franco (UC Berkeley) "Making Mathematics More Accessible for Our ELL Students". In the afternoon, teams of participants shared and discussed possible next steps for their own initiatives. In closing Dale Vigil, superintendent of Hayward Unified School District, presented a talk titled "Giving English Learners Access to Content Based on Research." The pre-conference was followed by a TODOS strand during the regular CMC North Asilomar conference on Saturday. The comments and feedback received were overwhelmingly positive. Participants felt this event was long overdue and similar events are needed in the future. The event was a success because so many people collaborated to develop, organize, and participate in the program. TODOS and CEMELA will be collaborating again in developing a strand on “ELLS and Mathematics Instruction” during the NCTM in St. Louis (April, 2006) and the CMC North Asilomar conference in December 2007. TODOS presenters from Northern California bring valuable expertise, resources, and years of experience as teacher educators. CEMELA will continue to collaborate in future outreach work in the UCSC area with Jose Franco, Harold Asturias, Grace Coates, and Debra Coggins.

• Three-Year Professional Development Initiative

  University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) is working with over 80 K-12 teachers in a three-year professional development initiative sponsored by one of UCSC’s partnering districts, North Monterey County Unified School District and in collaboration with California State Monterey Bay. The thrust of the work focuses on mathematics teaching strategies for English learners and Latinos/as. The goals for this work are to increase teacher understanding of the following: 1) Language/culture can be a resource (rather than a barrier) for mathematics learning and teaching, 2) Latinos/English learners can successfully engage in high level mathematics discussions and problem-solving activities, and 3) teachers have a critical role in promoting mathematical discourse that supports student access to, and advancement in, mathematics.

  CEMELA faculty and fellows co-planned and participated in two Central Coast Mathematics Collaborative MC3 professional development sessions focused on mathematics lessons study on January 21, 2006 and February 25, 2006. This teacher professional development is a continuation of the collaboration started in the summer with teachers from North Monterey County Unified School district (see below) and in collaboration with CSUMB. The teaching teams involved in the lesson study met on two separate occasions to publicly debrief their lessons. CEMELA faculty and fellows participated on a panel as mathematics, language and culture “experts” designed to give constructive feedback to the team to improve their lesson design. In addition, we also helped construct the feedback template using a “lens approach” to structure productive conversations and feedback between the audience and lesson teams. Our contribution included specific questions about the access and language demands of the lesson to meet the needs of English Language Learners. The template will also be shared CEMELA-wide as a model to help facilitate conversations with teachers using a lesson study format.

• Summer 2005 Institute for K-12 Math Teachers

  CEMELA faculty (Julia Aguirre, Judit Moschkovich, Kip Téllez) and CEMELA fellow (Johnnie Wilson) participated in several professional development activities in June 2005 and August 2005. Elementary, middle school and high school teachers were introduced to current theory/research and resources about math learning/teaching with English Learners and Latinos/as in three ways: critical analysis of math lessons using video tape and curricular materials, comprehensive resource binder, and lesson study support.

  Special Sessions:

  a) Session A: Mathematics Learning and Teaching for English Learners and Latinos/as: General 3-hour session that focused on current research in the field. Teachers analyzed a video tape of an algebra/function lesson from multiple perspectives: learning, teaching, and mathematical task paying attention to how students, many of whom were English learners and/or Latino/a communicated their mathematical understanding. Teachers analyzed how instructional questions and strategies, class environment and the lesson activities promoted/constrained that mathematical communication. Julia Aguirre (Faculty) and Johnnie Wilson (Fellow).

  b) Session B: Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Connecting math to students' lives/communities and helping them change the world. In this session, participants critically examined mathematical content, learning, teaching and socio/political/cultural issues related to connecting mathematics to students lives/experiences. Participants analyzed specific mathematics lessons in small groups on topics such as racial profiling, population density, teen drug use, and government spending. We discussed the promises and challenges of infusing social justice into mathematics lessons. Julia Aguirre (Faculty) and Johnnie Wilson (Fellow).

  c) Session C: English Language Development Strategies for Teaching Math. Billed as "refresher" this session provided participants with effective strategies for teaching English through math content. Teachers explored how multiple medias could be used to create comprehensible input for English learners. Participants also worked in groups to plan/adapt a current textbook lesson. Kip Téllez.

  d) Session D: Beyond Words: Academic Language, Communication and Math Learning. In this session, teachers were provided with information and opportunities to discuss multiple views of the role of language in learning mathematics. Participants also analyzed video and transcript of a lesson in small groups that focused on the following questions: What counts as proficient mathematical communication? How can we distinguish mathematical knowledge from fluency in English? How is mathematical communication more than vocabulary? What resources do students use to communicate mathematically? How can instruction support mathematical communication for English Learners? How can instruction build on student resources for communicating mathematically? Judit Moschkovich

  Resource Binder:

  Teachers received two curriculum resources they could take back to their schools and utilize. All teachers received a comprehensive binder that included the latest research on mathematics learning, teaching, assessment, community/parent engagement, Spanish-English math glossary, and suggested websites (The main ideas of these articles were touched upon in the special sessions). In addition, all school teams were given a copy of "Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the numbers", edited by Eric Gustein and Bob Peterson. These resources were specifically geared to helping the teachers think about how to make mathematics more accessible, equitable, rich and rigorous, to Latinos/as and English Learners. Many of the research/curricular materials were authored by CEMELA Faculty: Marta Civil, Eric Gutstein, Lena Licon Khisty, Judit Moschkovich and CEMELA Postdoctoral Fellows: Cynthia Anhalt, Erin Turner

  Lesson Study Support:

  All teachers attending the summer institute are part of lesson study teams at their school sites. As part of their lesson study development, the teachers participate in an intensive planning and research process that includes the development of a critical lesson (that makes student math thinking explicit), video-taping of that lesson, and a critical debriefing of the video tape with mathematicians, math educators and math coaches. The prompts that guide the lesson planning stage of this process focused on mathematical thinking, mathematical language, connecting the lesson to student/community experience and knowledge bases, multiple representations, and incorporation of multiple modes of mathematical communication (all these ideas were embedded in the resource material and special sessions teachers attended). In Jan/Feb 2006 teams will debrief the video taped lesson. Debriefing will focus on lesson goals and how the lesson met the mathematical needs of students, especially their English learners and Latino/a students. UCSC CEMELA Faculty and Fellows will participate in the debriefing sessions.