Math Night

Math for those who think they cant!

A mini-grant application respectfully submitted to

The North Branford Education Foundation
By Joe Amodio, Karyl Morton, and Meg Peterson
 North Branford Education Foundation
Mini-Grant Application

Name: Joe Amodio, Karyl Morton, Meg Peterson Date: 8/20/2015

School: Totoket Valley Elementary School Position: Third Grade Team

School Address: 1388 Middletown Avenue School Telephone: (203) 484-1455

Initiative Title: Math Night Requested Amount: $500

Scope and Reach of the Initiative

What is our proposal?

Math Night is a workshop designed to entertain students and provide parents with information
that will help them understand the math expectations in Grades 3-5, as they relate to the
Common Core State Standards (Appendix II). Common Core presents shifts in pedagogical
thinking, and often leads to parent misconceptions while students are completing homework.
This workshop will help bridge the gap between school and home, and will provide parents with
an increased understanding of the standards. Specifically, we are asking the North Branford
Education Foundation to cover some of our one-time costs associated with planning this event.

Who will participate?

Parents, students, teachers and administrators in grades 3-5 will participate in Math Night. The
workshop instructor can accommodate up to 40 families.

When is the Math Party Night?

Rachel McAnallen, PhD (Appendix I) will visit our school on the night of Wednesday,
September 23, 2015. The workshop will take place in the TVES cafeteria, and will last
approximately 90 minutes.

Objectives and Expected Results

TVES aims to meet the diverse learning styles and needs of our students and families as they
strive to work with us to make academic gains and meet grade level standards and expectations.
The Common Core concentrates on a clear set of math skills and concepts in a more organized
way both during the school year and across grades. The standards encourage students to solve
real-world problems.
As educators, we often get feedback from parents regarding their frustrations and misconceptions
with the way we are teaching math at school. Families struggle to support their students learning
at home because it is very different from the way they were taught and learned math as a child.
This causes students to become confused, ultimately impacting their math achievement. The
messages being sent at school and home are conflicting. Our goal is for parents to feel
comfortable enough with the shifts in math instruction by providing them with some tools,
resources, and confidence to support their students learning successfully at home.

The educators at TVES received intensive professional development instruction from McAnallen
last year, and found the workshop to be highly informative. She successfully provided us with
tools and techniques to use in the math classroom to help students develop a deeper conceptual
understanding of basic math skills, particularly involving the four basic operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division), and more complicated skills related to fractions and
decimals.

Dr. McAnallens philosophy is that mathematics is a language that needs to be spoken and our
culture speaks it incorrectly. This workshop helps students and families to clean up their math
language and start by calling numbers by their correct place value names. The participants will
then learn that there are an infinite number of ways to add, subtract, multiply, and divide
numbers. The learners are encouraged to use their own creativity to do these basic operations.
This session also deals with the mathematical connection between what we teach in the
elementary grades to what is taught in the algebras. Developmental theory, multiple
intelligences, and different learning styles are emphasized, enabling teachers to help their
students understand math concepts from the concrete stages to the abstract.

Our academic workshop proposal is aligned with TVES core beliefs, and will empower students
to achieve academic excellence. Additionally, we value parents as their childs first teacher and
as essential partners in their childs education:

Core Beliefs
All students will reach high levels of academic achievement.
High quality instruction will result in improved learning outcomes for all students.
All members of the school community are accountable for student learning.
The strength of a community is tied to the quality of its public schools.
 Detailed Budget of Initiative

There are some one-time costs associated with planning this parent/student workshop. If our pilot
is successful, then future funding will be built into our school budget, so that we can continue to
provide informational academic workshops for families.

We are asking the Education Foundation to share the costs associated with inviting Dr.
McAnallen to TVES to provide the Math Night workshop to our students and families. Due to
the timing of our proposed event, we are planning to provide light refreshments for all
participants as an incentive to increase family attendance at this event.

The costs associated with this initiative are outlined below:

Expert Speaker Fees Rachel McNallen, PhD $300

Food Costs Refreshments, drinks, paper goods $200

Initiative Success Measurements

The success of this initiative will be evaluated based on (1) student surveys indicating what they
learned and how their thinking evolved as a result of participating in the workshop, (2) parent
surveys indicating how they benefited from participating in the workshop, and (3) informal
feedback from parents during the school year regarding accessibility to math work as a result of
their increased knowledge and understanding.

Closing Remarks

The inclusion of this Math Night academic workshop will help us bridge the gap between the
learning experience at school and home. It would provide parents and students with tools and
resources to continue math learning at home, making homework a more effective practice for all
stakeholders involved in the school community. Ultimately, the consistency between school and
home will likely increase student success and achievement in the area of mathematics. Partnering
with the Education Foundation is the perfect opportunity to provide our students and parents with
highly effective math strategies, and tools that will be useful for lifelong learning.

We would like to thank the members of the North Branford Education Foundation for taking
the time to consider this proposal in support of the academic programming at TVES!

Signature of Applicant: Joe Amodio, Karyl Morton,Meg Peterson Date: 8/3/15

Signature of School Administrator: Kris Lindsay Date: 8/3/15

Appendix I
 Rachel McAnallen
Zoid and Company

Known simply as Ms. Math to children across the country, Rachel McAnallen has devoted her
life to sharing the joy and beauty of mathematics with learners of all ages. A professional
educator for over half a century, Rachel travels the world teaching her subject at every grade
level. In addition to her experience in the classroom, Rachel has served as a department chair, a
school board member, and a high school administrator she claims the latter position is
responsible for the majority of her gray hairs.

Rachel has a passion for teaching, golf, and mathematical modular origami, though not always in
that order. As a life-long learner, Rachel has completed her PhD at the University of
Connecticut at age 75. Rachel approaches the world around her with a boundless curiosity and a
playful sense of humor that is reflected in her teaching style.

(http://zoidandcompany.com)
Appendix II
 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
These standards define what students should understand and be able to do in their study of
mathematics. But asking a student to understand something also means asking a teacher to assess
whether the student has understood it. But what does mathematical understanding look like? One
way for teachers to do that is to ask the student to justify, in a way that is appropriate to the
students mathematical maturity, why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a
mathematical rule comes from. Mathematical understanding and procedural skill are equally
important, and both are assessable using mathematical tasks of sufficient richness.

Key Shifts in Mathematics

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics build on the best of existing standards and
reflect the skills and knowledge students will need to succeed in college, career, and life.
Understanding how the standards differ from previous standardsand the necessary shifts they
call foris essential to implementing them.

The following are the key shifts called for by the Common Core:

1. Greater focus on fewer topics

The Common Core calls for greater focus in mathematics. Rather than racing to cover many
topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, the standards ask math teachers to significantly
narrow and deepen the way time and energy are spent in the classroom. This means focusing
deeply on the major work of each grade as follows:

In grades 35: Concepts, skills, and problem solving related to multiplication and
division of whole numbers and fractions

This focus will help students gain strong foundations, including a solid understanding of
concepts, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they
know to solve problems inside and outside the classroom.

2. Coherence: Linking topics and thinking across grades

Mathematics is not a list of disconnected topics, tricks, or mnemonics; it is a coherent body of

knowledge made up of interconnected concepts. Therefore, the standards are designed around
coherent progressions from grade to grade. Learning is carefully connected across grades so
that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years. For
example, in 4th grade, students must apply and extend previous understandings of
multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number (Standard 4.NF.4). This extends to
5th grade, when students are expected to build on that skill to apply and extend previous
understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction
(Standard 5.NF.4). Each standard is not a new event, but an extension of previous learning.

Coherence is also built into the standards in how they reinforce a major topic in a grade by
utilizing supporting, complementary topics. For example, instead of presenting the topic of
data displays as an end in itself, the topic is used to support grade-level word problems in
which students apply mathematical skills to solve problems.
3. Rigor: Pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and
application with equal intensity

Rigor refers to deep, authentic command of mathematical concepts, not making math harder or
introducing topics at earlier grades. To help students meet the standards, educators will need to
pursue, with equal intensity, three aspects of rigor in the major work of each grade: conceptual
understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application.

Conceptual understanding: The standards call for conceptual understanding of key concepts,
such as place value and ratios. Students must be able to access concepts from a number of
perspectives in order to see math as more than a set of mnemonics or discrete procedures.

Procedural skills and fluency: The standards call for speed and accuracy in calculation.
Students must practice core functions, such as single-digit multiplication, in order to have
access to more complex concepts and procedures. Fluency must be addressed in the classroom
or through supporting materials, as some students might require more practice than others.

Application: The standards call for students to use math in situations that require mathematical
knowledge. Correctly applying mathematical knowledge depends on students having a solid
conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.