CEMELA Institute for the Improvement of Mathematicsteaching and Learning with Latinas/Os

CEMELA Institute for the Improvement of MathematicsTeaching and

Learning with Latinas/os

Math Talking + Writing= Latinas/os’ Learning²

June 16-19, 2008

The Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinas/os (CEMELA)[1], UIC site, invites teachers 2nd-8th grade to participate in the Institute for the Improvement of Mathematics Teaching and Learning with Latinas/os (IMTeLL). The purposes of the Institute are the following:

To assist teachers in the integration of content and language development (e.g., academic language and writing) in order to better meet the needs of Latina/o students and assessment objectives and requirements in mathematics;
To assist teachers to enhance their abilities to develop student ideas, communication, and problem solving in mathematics in order to advance student learning;
To assist teachers to better understand the conceptual objectives of their mathematics curriculum and connect these to the language needs of students;
To create an environment that encourages teachers to form collaborative teams that can further self-directed instructional enhancement (e.g., action research).

What is the Institute?

Clearer understandings about how children learn, and new content goals and curriculum that emanate from these understandings regarding what children should know and be able to do in mathematics, have shifted the nature of teaching significantly. Teaching now is less about managing learners’ behaviors and more about managing children’s ideas, interactions among learners, and “on-the-spot” assessments. The skills related to this new perspective of management of children’s mathematical ideas, communication, and conceptual development are still very new and difficult for most teachers. In linguistically diverse classrooms, communication not only can develop content, but it can contribute to academic language development. However, the integration of language and mathematics development is not always clear and straightforward. Moreover, assessment falls short because it may be difficult to know exactly what to look for in students’ thinking and communication in terms of mathematics/language growth.

The Institute is designed to assist teachers in refining these “new management skills” of teaching for content understanding and communication, and integrating these skills with language development. Special attention will be given to assisting teachers with their lessons to enhance student mathematical conceptual understandings and writing—an area often overlooked in many busy classrooms--and to integrate language development and assessment into mathematics teaching.

The Institute also is designed to create a collaborative team among teachers and university representatives, to capitalize on and enhance teachers’ existing expertise, and to utilize techniques of action research such that teachers collaboratively examine lessons and instruction, and set their own targets for professional growth. It is hoped that school or area Leaders in integrating language and mathematics will develop from the Institute.

Who can participate and what are the requirements?

The Institute is recruiting 2 or more teachers from any grade (2nd-8th) from the same school (forms a school team) for a maximum of 20 participants. Participants must teach mathematics as part of their school assignments and must have a significant number of Latina/o students to whom they teach mathematics. Participants also can be either bilingual or ESL teachers and hopefully school teams will have one of these areas represented. Priority for selection to participate will be given to teachers who come as a school team.

Participants must be willing and able to:

Do prior Institute readings,
Attend the full summer portion of the Institute (i.e. June 16-19)
Participate in occasional after-school lesson study meetings in the Fall and Spring to review action research activities (Teams of teachers will decide their meeting times during the Fall and Spring but should plan on devoting 1.5 hrs after-school about 4 times during the year).
Video-tape 1-2 teaching episodes of themselves to share with colleagues.
Participate in a culminating (June, 2009) 1-day activity to present results of their action research to Institute and/or school colleagues and others.

When and where will the Institute take place?

The Institute will be held June 16-19 {Mon-Th}, 2008, from 9:30-3 at the University of Illinois, College of Education. Rooms to be announced.

What resources will participants get?

Participating teachers will receive $32.00 per hour (CPS rate) for hours during the Summer (including pre-determined time spent out side of Institute sessions). Meetings will be from 9:30am-3pm, but participants will have readings and video analyses that they will be responsible for outside of the meetings. IMTeLL is currently negotiating with CPS to offer CPDU credit. In addition, participants will receive campus parking permits and some print or video supplies.

How do I/WE apply?

For more information, contact Ms. Susan Kolian, . Please return the following information via email to Ms. Kolian by May 25, 2008.

Name of school, address, telephone number
Names of participating teachers and grade level of each (maximum 5 teachers per school)
Please list any similar professional development activity each is/has been involved in and when.
Each participant should send an individual email with the following statement,

I understand that if I am accepted to participate in the IMTeLL Institute that I will attend all required sessions and complete all out-side assignments during the summer, and will work with my team members to organize meetings during the Fall and Spring 2008-9.

[1] CEMELA is a Center for Learning and Teaching supported by the National Science Foundation, grant number ESI-0424983. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.