Contact Information:
Mathematics Leadership Program
c/o Kay Caruso
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02458
Tel: 617-969-7100
kcaruso@edc.org
SummerMath for Teachers
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA 01075-1441
Tel: 413-538-2063
Fax: 413-538-2002
jpaquett@mtholyoke.edu
LOLS
Lenses on Learning for Systems - Content (LOLS) Institute
Opens at 1:00 PM on Sunday, July 18 and closes at 3:30 PM on Friday, July 23, 2010
This institute is based on the Secondary Lenses on Learning: Team Leadership for Mathematics in Middle and High Schools professional development materials. This highly interactive seminar is anchored in algebra, a topic of critical importance and challenge in secondary schools today. In it participants work through mathematical ideas themselves; view videotaped classroom episodes and think through what needs to take place in a classroom in order to extend opportunities to learn significant mathematics to all students; and discuss readings that link research and practice.
Opportunities to learn from research and practice are built into six cumulative sessions, focused on such topics as Content, Instruction, Formative Assessment, Equity, and Practice-Based Professional Development. Threaded throughout the sessions is the development of key ideas related to the importance of attending to learners' mathematical thinking; the value for students at all levels of working with cognitively demanding mathematical tasks; and the role of discourse in supporting sense-making about mathematical ideas.
The work of the LOLS week at Mount Holyoke is intended to provide an opportunity for two or more individuals from a school or district to learn about what the experience of Secondary Lenses on Learning might afford their setting, and for them to get support in thinking strategically about how to move this professional development opportunity into their site. These individuals (who might be principals, teacher leaders, mathematics specialists, coaches, staff developers, guidance counselors, teacher educators, or others) should be selected because they have insights into the various constituencies in their district setting and are in a position to influence decisions about priorities for professional development.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The full Secondary Lenses on Learning seminar, as written in the published materials, is intended for site-based mathematics leadership teams, comprised at the minimum of the principal, influential teachers/department chair, guidance counselor, and district curriculum director. (Others can be added to the team as fits the setting, such as a mathematics coach, director of special education, English Language Learner specialist, or a school psychologist). The seminar provides these participants, who have very different backgrounds, knowledge, and job, an extended learning experience so that they can develop a more closely shared understanding of current practices and a common vision for where to lead the mathematics program.
The full Secondary Lenses on Learning seminar also provides mathematics leadership teams with time and a structure to begin developing both a short-term and long-term plan for addressing what they have learned. It builds into each session, which occur at 3-4 week intervals, a structured data collection assignment and team reflection that enables them to inquire together into questions designed to shed light on:
During the sixth session of the full Secondary Lenses on Learning seminar, site teams are guided through a process in which they review their findings, drawing on the multiple perspectives and insights offered by all team members. Each team creates a mathematics program improvement plan that includes short- and long-term goals, and specific first steps. They also plan for involving other critical players as they further develop the initiatives that grow out of the seminar.
- where their school is currently with respect to the practices examined in the session
- where are the strengths, and the limitations, in their current efforts to afford strong mathematics learning opportunities for all students
- what are potential leverage points that they hadn't seen before
Because of its intensive and off-site structure, the LOLS Institute at Mount Holyoke does not include the component of program self-assessment and development of a mathematics program improvement plan. However, participants are introduced to this component so that they can see its connection to the topics examined in LOLS and represent it to their sites.
See Introduction to Corwin's 2009 publication (in Documents column on the right) for more information about the content and structure of the full Secondary Lenses on Learning seminar.
Please email Catherine Miles Grant for further information at: cmgrant@edc.org.
See the Summer Institutes at Mount Holyoke page for information about application, schedule, costs, location, and housing.