Professional Development
Sample Workshops
Sample Descriptions of Workshops
The descriptions that follow provide insight into the kinds of workshops provided by LLTeach Inc. When we work with a particular audience, however, that workshop is designed with the wishes and needs identified by the school or district being served.
Sample Workshops:
Grades K-2
Number Sense, Operations and Patterns, the Standards Way
- Base ten number system and representing, comparing and working with thousands to millions.
- Incorporating the “Model a 1000 Project”
- Developing a million with ten-thousand squares and extending their use to expanded notation and mental math strategies
- Developing alternative strategies for addition, subtraction using base ten blocks, 100 charts and connecting cubes
- Using a replacement unit to master understanding as well as fact recall for the 10 times tables
- Using mental math, base ten blocks and 100 chart activities to master single digit times double digit numbers
- Initial division concepts
- Complete related open-ended questions
- Using How Much, How Far, How Tall How Long is a 1000?, The King's Commissioners, One Hundred Hungry Ant and, Remainder of One to promote understanding and interest
Geometry, Measurement, Spatial Sense and Algebraic Thinking
- Creating tangrams from 6” by 6” squares of construction paper while comparing, contrasting and building basic shapes
- Developing algebraic thinking with patterns blocks and money
- Making pattern block “jewelry”
- Using an 11 pin x 11 pin geoboard to develop the concept of perimeter, area and coordinates
- Using connecting cubes to develop understanding of three dimensional shapes and volume
- Learning math from literature—stories include Spaghetti and Meatballs for All, Grandfather Tang's Story, Cloak for a Dreamer, Pigs Will Be Pigs, Alexander who Was Rich Last Sunday and other grade-level appropriate selections
- Writing in math and using open-ended questions
Grades 3-4
Geometry and Spatial Sense
- Creating tangrams from 6” by 6” squares of construction paper while comparing, contrasting and building basic shapes
- Using an 11 pin x 11 pin geoboard to develop the concept of perimeter, area and coordinates
- Developing understanding of three dimensional shapes and volume using connecting cubes
- Building interest and understanding of math concepts through appropriate literature such as Spaghetti and Meatballs for All and Grandfather Tang's Story.
- Completing related open-ended questions to build skills in writing in math
Money, Measurement and Algebraic Thinking
- Studying standard and non-standard measurement
- Reading a self-made ruler
- Understanding weight and capacity measurement
- Developing algebraic thinking with patterns blocks and money
- Making pattern block “jewelry”
- Building interest and understanding of math concepts through appropriate literature such as Cloak for a Dreamer, Counting on Frank, and Pigs Will Be Pigs
- Complete related open-ended questions to build skills in writing in math
Middle School
Number Sense and Fraction/Decimal/Percent Concepts and Operations the Standards Way
- Balancing instruction between traditional fraction-decimal-percent concepts, the related arithmetic operations and the concepts as assessed on high-stakes tests
- Teaching fractions using a problem solving approach through hands-on, discovery-based, inquiry-oriented activities
- Using journal writing, open-ended questions, mental math and higher-level multiple-choice questions to build skills in challenging mathematics
- Making fraction rulers and using geoboards, pattern blocks, paper folding and slates to build interest in and understanding of essential math concepts
- Reviewing instruction for skills to address related open-ended questions that can be easily implemented into the classroom
Probability, Statistics, and Discrete Mathematics
- Helping students understand the concepts of mean, median and mode, range and outliers using hands-on activities
- Identifying methods of gathering, collecting and displaying data, including criteria to use in selecting a graph type to represent data most effectively
- Investigating Stem and Leaf, Box and Whisker, bar graphs, line graphs, and circle graphs
- Discovering the counting principle and completing simple probability problems
- Introducing concepts of reduce, replicate, and rebuild with spirolaterals
- Using connecting cubes to demonstrate the concept of a fractal
- Introducing effective practices to build students' power in writing in math and responding to open-ended questions
High School
Geometry/Spatial Sense
- Using geoboards to understand, compare and contrast geometric shapes and figures
- Developing concepts of similarity, congruency and transformations with calculators, geoboards and pattern blocks
- Working with connecting cubes and straws to model three-dimensional shapes, calculate volume and determine surface area.
- Completing related open-ended questions
Patterns and Algebra
- Identifying, extending and describing patterns
- Using patterns to understand/discover concepts
- Algebra Lab Gear: Factoring and monomial/binomial operations
- Using calculators as tools for understanding slope, intercept and connections to real-life phenomena (A Complete unit on developing linear functions will be distributed.)
- Completing related open-ended questions