Thank you for sharing your video. I am so glad to see this work happening in the schools. Could you talk about how responsive discourse is being supported/developed in classrooms with bilingual students?

Gladys,

Thank you for your important question. The professional development program draws on what is known about effective mathematics instruction for addressing English Learners’ (ELs) needs (such as providing students with challenging mathematical tasks, making strategic use of multimodal representation, and developing students’ academic language) to help teachers structure discourse practices in their classrooms that are inclusive and supportive of all students.

Considerations for supporting ELs’ engagement in mathematics discourse are built into the Project AIM professional development materials both implicitly and explicitly. They are embedded within the conceptual ideas behind the Project AIM foundation frameworks and more specifically highlighted in session plan activities (e.g., readings about important features of mathematics tasks that support discourse and equitable access in the classroom, discussions about types of ELs and various factors that influence the amount of support they need in the classroom). In addition, throughout the professional development program, teachers are provided with Discourse Strategy Handouts for each of the Project AIM discourse strategies. These handouts include sections outlining “Supports that Help” and “Ideas for Modifications” that are beneficial to ELs, and “Other Key Ideas” that provide explicit attention to how each strategy supports ELs.  

Hi Wendy,

Thank you for your questions.  The 40 hours of Project AIM span 13 sessions – 6 in a summer institute and 7 monthly academic-year sessions.  Among other things, the summer institute helps participants prepare for the school year by focusing on instructional moves that promote responsive discourse and ways to establish classroom norms to create mathematics discourse communities.  Time is spent throughout the PD discussing how to plan for discourse-promoting lessons, including how to set mathematics AND discourse goals, and how to select discourse-promoting tasks.  The PD also introduces several discourse strategies teachers can use in their mathematics classrooms.  Each strategy can be incorporated into part of a mathematics lesson; none fully structure lessons. Accordingly, teachers can try out a strategy within a lesson that does not need to be radically different than their current mathematics instruction.  Participants are able to try out these discourse strategies in their classrooms between the academic year sessions, and time is provided at the beginning of each session for teachers to reflect and debrief on their experiences.  Additionally, the last 20-25 minutes of each session is devoted to planning time for teachers and their school-based teams.

The professional development does not use a live “studio” model.  However, teachers do spend time during the PD analyzing authentic classroom artifacts, including video clips of teachers (most of whom are former Project AIM participants) implementing discourse strategies in their classrooms.  At times they also rehearse enacting a strategy with other participants as a way to practice it prior to using it in their own classrooms.

Thank you, Miriam, for your questions.  To clarify, the Project AIM professional development is stored and accessed from an online learning management system, but it is delivered face-to-face by a facilitator.  The facilitator and teachers meet for three days in the summer and then seven 3-hour sessions during the academic school year.  Teachers attend in school-based teams (at least two teachers from a school) which allows for collaborative planning time during each academic year session.

A main goal of our work has been to scale up the Project AIM professional development program for broader use in the field. Part of this endeavor has entailed creating an extensive set of facilitator training and support materials in order to prepare future users and guide their implementation of the program.  Currently we are examining the extent to which external facilitators can enact the program with fidelity.

We would be interested in hearing about the types of training and/or support structures others in the field offer outside facilitators.  How is multimedia being used to deliver critical information to facilitators about program goals, content, conceptual frameworks, etc.?