EMC Professional Learning Course
Grades 6-8 Ratios and Proportional Relationships
This online Professional Learning Course [PLC] is designed around a grades 6-8 series of professional learning videos. Each video is paired with questions and prompts for pause points in the video, classroom application pages, and reflection questions. These features are designed for self-paced PD, asynchronous PD assignments, and facilitation of discussions in professional learning team meetings.
Each PLC Video explores an essential component of the multigrade progression of representations, strategies, and concepts for ratio and proportional relationships. The questions and prompts for each video dig deeper into how students would build a particular representation, implement a given strategy, or make sense of an essential concept. The Application Pages allow teachers to implement the representations and strategies from the video with a small group or class of students. Student work and teacher responses to reflection questions provide documentation for self-paced PD.
Build Conceptual Coherence for
Grades 6-8 Math Instruction
The math representations and strategies that teachers introduce and emphasize in grade 6 build a foundation for more advanced topics in grades 7 and 8. This Professional Learning Course challenges teachers to explore the details of math concepts that they teach and to identify when and how essential representations and strategies are introduced.
Get the Most out of Your Existing
Math Curriculum
Building momentum for instructional change requires that teachers value their grade levels’ contribution to a multigrade curriculum. The EMC Professional Learning Course and Resources provide an easy-to-implement classroom-centered exploration of multigrade progressions, with a focus on essential representations, strategies, and concepts.
Support New Math Teachers and Staff with Specialties other than Mathematics
With the current challenges facing schools, some math and intervention classes are being taught by teachers who are new to the classroom or specialize in topics other than math. EMC resources provide an easily accessible instructional experience for teachers so that all students are challenged to make sense of essential math representations, strategies, and concepts.
Overview of Professional Learning Course [PLC]
PLC Overview Video
Resources in a Professional Learning Course include:
PLC Videos
These 3-4 minute professional learning videos explore the progression of representations, strategies, and concepts with an emphasis on practical problem-solving and diagram comprehension.
PLC Questions and Prompts
Prompts and questions for specific video pause points in the PLC Videos focus on the progression of essential math concepts and developing class discussion and questioning strategies. These prompts and questions are designed to help teachers dig deeper into the mathematics and instructional strategies explored in the video. Specific pause points can be selected to structure conversations at professional learning team meetings.
Application Page and Reflection
Application Pages allow teachers to apply the representations and strategies from the PLC Video with a small group or class of students. Then, student work and responses to Reflection Questions can be organized in a PL Course notebook for future reference and documentation purposes.
Technical Issues
The Technical Details section for each PLC Video addresses more in-depth issues regarding representations, strategies, and concepts in the progression.
Explore a Multi-Grade Progression
What is a Multigrade Progression?
Essential representations, strategies, and concepts for a topic, such as Grades 6-8 Ratio and Proportional Relationships, are explored, applied, and refined across multiple grade levels in middle school. This progression or continuum follows a common learning cycle, where:
Intuitive representations and strategies are used to explore foundational concepts and problem-solving strategies.
More efficient transitional strategies are justified using intuitive representations and applied to solve problems involving benchmark values.
Formal concepts and strategies are introduced and applied to solve problems, where the transitional representation, ratio tables, organize the given values and multiplier calculations.
Click on the button below to explore an overview of the multi-grade progression for ratio and proportional relationships.
“The math that we teach today is the foundation for what students learn next week, next month, and the following school year.
Helping students develop multi-grade math fluency requires that math teachers at a school share an understanding of how math representations, concepts, and strategies build from one grade level to the next.”
— Peter Sickler, MobiusMath Founder