Professional Development for Teachers of Mathematics in Grades 6 through 9

The professional development for teachers will support high-quality instruction in all mathematics classrooms in grades six through nine. Participants will participate in summer and school year sessions to develop their content and pedagogical content knowledge, and their knowledge of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The MARS tasks will be introduced, along with the task-specific protocols developed by SVMI for evaluating the resulting student work and planning re-engagement lessons. Teachers will use the tasks in their classrooms during the year, continue the analysis of work with the teacher leaders in their schools, and plan and implement re-engagement lessons. The first two days of the summer sessions will be led by David Foster, and the third day in the summer will be led by project staff. (Teacher leaders will attend with their school teams during the summer and support their work in small groups, including the analysis and use of the MARS tasks. The four school-year sessions will support ongoing work with the MARS tasks and integrate this work with high-quality instruction throughout the year.) Audience: All mathematics classroom teachers in Grades 6-8, Algebra 1 teachers in Grade 9

TIMELINE: Three-day session during the summer (teacher leaders also participate in the summer sessions); 4 three-hour sessions during the school year (after school, on Saturdays, or during the school day, as selected by schools or districts).