Eliciting and interpreting student thinking is an essential skill for teachers, but can be particularly challenging to do with young children, who often know more than they can say. In mathematics in particular, the complex ways in which teachers must know content informs how successfully they are able to make sense of student contributions in order to see and build on their strengths. In this interactive workshop, teachers will work together to analyze videos, tasks, and student work to build on and practice their skills in eliciting and interpreting student thinking in mathematics, foregrounding sense-making, collaboration, and joy.

The first few weeks of school set the stage for learning for the year. Teachers work to get to know their new students, to determine what they already know and can do, and to introduce and establish norms and routines for discourse and work. This session will provide an opportunity for teachers to consider:

1. Reasons to co-create a student/teacher contract with students and how to use it to serve as a foundational, living resource for building relationships and classroom culture 
2. Productive norms and routines for mathematical discourse and work and how to deliberately implement them early in the year
3. Adaptations to curriculum tasks and activities to support engagement, normalize the exchange of student ideas, and position children as capable learners
4. Ways to learn what students know and can do without over-assessing

Of all the mathematical practice standards, building and critiquing mathematical arguments sounds straightforward. But what, exactly, is a good mathematical argument, particularly in elementary classrooms? What does it have to do with equitable teaching? And how do we teach students to develop their skill with this important practice? In this workshop, we will work toward supporting our students to build mathematical arguments by:  

1. trying out making our own mathematical arguments,
2.  analyzing how elementary teachers support students to learn this practice, and
3.  practicing our teaching together.

This session will provide a rich opportunity for instructional leaders to develop an understanding of several high-leverage practices. This workshop will focus on methods for observing and giving feedback on particular high-leverage practices, including strategies and protocols for productive dialogue around teaching practice. We will focus on issues of equity and access broadly, especially in this particular moment in time when the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the deep inequalities in educational access sowed by structural racism.