February 23, 2016 — Virginia Lewis
The Proportional Reasoning Enrichment Project was designed to provide professional development for seventy grades 6-8 teachers to further develop their proportional reasoning and increase their productive use of formative assessments to analyze students’ understanding of rational numbers and proportional reasoning. This partnership included Longwood University’s Mathematics Department, Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices (ITTIP), and the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics (VCTM) along with eighteen school divisions. During the summer of 2014, teachers participated in two weeks of professional development workshops focused on developing their own understanding of rational number concepts and proportional reasoning. For one day in fall 2014, teachers focused on using a wide variety of formative mathematics assessments. In spring 2015, teachers participated in two full-day sessions focused on analyzing student work collected when using formative assessments. Teachers shared tasks, identified student misconceptions, and designed and/or selected additional formative assessment tasks that can be used to revisit concepts and processes. Teachers also gave a common student assessment three times during the school year to better understand how students’ proportional reasoning changed. The summer workshops were delivered face-to-face and through video-conferencing. MERC evaluated the impact of the workshops using a pre- and post-assessment, participant surveys, and focus groups. Materials developed will be shared with the VCTM to be used for professional development workshops and on this website.