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Cultural/Community-based funds of Knowledge and Social Justice Support: The lesson supports students’ use of mathematics to understand, critique, and change an important equity or social justice issue in their lives

  • Collective understandings about mathematics involve intricate connections to community/cultural knowledge and permeate the lesson. This would include hook/intro, main activities, assessment, closure and homework. Students are asked to analyze the mathematics within the community context and how the mathematics helps them understand that context.
  • Deliberate and continuous use of mathematics as an analytical tool to understand an issue/context, formulate mathematically-based arguments to address the issues and provide substantive pathways to change/transform the issue.

Academic Language Support for Linguistically Diverse Students: The lesson provides academic language support for English Language Learners

  • Deliberate and continuous use of language strategies, such as gesturing, use of objects (realia), use of cognates, revoicing, graphic organizers and manipulatives are observed during whole class and /or small group instruction and discussions. The main focus is the development of mathematical discourse and meaning making, not students’ production of “correct” English.

Power and Participation: The lesson distributes math knowledge authority, value student math contributions, and addresses status differences among students

  • The authority of math knowledge is widely shared between teacher and students. All mathematical contributions are valued and respected. Student mathematical contributions are actively elicited by teacher and among students. Multiple strategies to minimize status among students (and specific subgroups) are explicit and widespread throughout the lesson.

Cognitive Demand: The lesson enables students to closely explore and analyze math concepts(s), procedure(s), and strategies.

  • The majority of the lesson includes task(s) that require close analysis of procedures and concepts, involves complex mathematical thinking, utilizes multiple representations AND demands explanation/justification. A large majority of the lesson sustains mathematical analysis.

Depth of Knowledge and Student Understanding: The lesson makes student thinking/understanding visible and deep

  • Knowledge is very deep because the teacher successfully structures the lesson so that students do at least one of the following: sustain a focus on a significant topic; demonstrate their understanding of the problematic nature of information or ideas; demonstrate complex understanding by arriving at a reasoned, supported conclusion; explain how they solved a complex problem. In general, students’ reasoning, explanations, and arguments demonstrate fullness and complexity of understanding.

Mathematical Discourse: The lesson creates opportunities to discuss mathematics in meaningful and rigorous ways (e.g. debate math ideas/solution strategies, use math terminology, develop explanations, communicate, reasoning, and/or make generalizations)

  • The creation and maintenance of collective understandings permeates the lesson. This could include the use of a common terminology and the careful negotiation of meaning