Reply To: Wanted – Buddies to Spiral Curriculum

[Robin Dubiel]

Hi!  I survived family camping!  (It was fantastic; weather was perfect, family was happy, played lots of Catan, and hung out in the sunshine!)

I’ve been thinking about this a LOT.  First, I need to tell you that all this math exploration got rocking and rolling with Jo Boaler’s “Mathematical Mindsets” book (2015).  That led me to https://www.youcubed.org/ (they also have an excellent Facebook group), where I discovered all kinds of awesome about growth mindset and the fun and team thinking that should be Math.  Then, last summer (through Twitter and a colleague) I discovered https://tapintoteenminds.com/ (Thanks, @kylepearce!) and watched the video series on spiralling.  And here I am, trying to combine it all in a way that is about the right approach at the right time for learners.

That said, I began the year with lessons from YouCubed’s “Week of Inspirational Math”.  These lessons set the ground work for our year by building an atmosphere of safety (we are ALL mathematicians) through science (brain research) and low-floor high-ceiling tasks. After that, I wish I could say that the whole year was fantastically spiralled and easy to follow – but when is that ever the case?  I reviewed student data gathered from the previous year, looked at connections between outcomes in our curriculum, and jumped in.  I am going to end this post by telling you I am going back into my planning to try and outline the sequence of concepts/outcomes as I addressed them. Maybe that will help with your original question about algebraic expressions and equations?  Talk to you soon!