 The MMSA provides assistance to schools, districts, and other organizations seeking to improve their curriculum, instruction, assessment, content knowledge, and other areas related to science and mathematics education. Audiences include classroom teachers, committee members, specialists, administrators, and other educators from schools and organizations that support science and math education. *In state rate: $900.00/day, $550 per half day plus presenter mileage and printing cost for materials. Contact us for quotes on out of state rates. Science
Assessment for Learning in Science Collaborative Inquiry into Examining Students Thinking (CIEST) Curriculum Materials Analysis Curriculum Materials Development Curriculum Review Curriculum Selection or Implementation Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) Data Walk Demonstration Lessons and Coaching Elementary and Middle School Content Courses or Seminars Embedded Professional Development Planning Examining Teaching through Video Cases Inquiry-Based Science Instructional Design Science and Language Literacy
Mathematics Professional Development Mathematical Content and Pedagogy: 3 hour sessions that enhance teachers’ understanding of mathematical content, research on how students learn mathematics, and best instructional practices. Modules include Number Sense, Place Value, Addition / Subtraction; Multiplication/Division; Data and Statistics; and Algebraic Reasoning. Investigations in Number, Data, and Space: Workshops provide training in the implementation of Investigations math curriculum. Formats can include grade level introductions to specific units or cross grade level topics, such as review and practice, leading classroom discussions, and assessment. Connected Mathematics: Workshops provide training in the implementation of the CMP2 math curriculum. Formats can include grade level introductions to specific units or cross grade level topics, such as Classroom Management, Review and Practice, and Assessment. Differentiated Instruction: Workshops sessions can by tailored for individual school or district settings. Instructional strategies based in research on best practice designed to meet the needs of diverse student populations. Particular emphasis on the language of mathematics and strategies for guiding effective mathematical discussions. Alignment to Standards: Three-hour sessions that examine alignment to state and local mathematics standards including Maine’s Learning Results and NECAP grade level expectations. Professional Learning Communities: Facilitation available for study groups investigating various topics in mathematics, including book studies. Online Book Study: 4-6 week book studies facilitated by MMSA staff. Materials include study agenda, weekly prompts for online discussion, reading assignments, and suggestions for classroom application. Classroom mentoring: MMSA staff will visit classrooms with a focus on best practices. Includes pre- and post-observation meetings with classroom teachers. Curriculum Topic Study: Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) helps K-12 educators deepen their understanding of the important mathematics topics they teach. CTS builds a bridge between state and national standards, research on students' ideas in science and mathematics, and opportunities for students to learn science and mathematics through improved teacher practice. Teachers can explore in depth specific topics such as numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, etc.
Assessment for Learning in Science Purpose: To learn about formative assessment as a significant way to improve student learning and teacher practice in science. Description: Sessions range from single day to a multi-day series to help teachers learn how to use science formative assessment strategies with differentiated instruction, to identify students ideas, diagnose difficulties, inform instructional practice, and monitor student learning. Probing, questioning, metacognitive strategies, and self-assessment will be addressed. Participants will learn about the research on formative assessment and students ideas in science, utilize assessment probes to help them uncover their students thinking and alternative conceptions, and learn how to use a process to develop and use research-based formative assessment probes. Some sessions will include the MMSA authored book, Probing Students Ideas in Science- Volume 1. (K-12, school, or by grade levels) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel or Lynn Farrin Collaborative Inquiry into Examining Student Thinking (CIEST) Purpose: To use a structured protocol to engage teachers in productive dialogue about student learning in science. Description: A one day session in which grade level or cross grade level teams come together to use a protocol to examine difficult ideas in science that often cut across grade levels. The CIEST protocol combines three strategies: data dialogue, examining student work and thinking, and a study of the standards and research findings. Participants will administer pre-selected assessments that target research-identified difficult ideas and use their own student work to sort, organize, and analyze data and engage in dialogue about implications for teaching and learning. (K-12 or by grade levels or subject areas) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel Curriculum Materials Analysis Purpose: To provide an external review and analysis of teacher-developed curricula or curricula developed by organizations that support science. Description: MMSA staff will apply a valid and reliable tool for analyzing curriculum materials during or after development for the extent to which they align with standards and utilize appropriate pedagogical strategies for students to learn scientific ideas. The results of the analysis will be provided as feedback for curriculum developers to improve or refine their materials. (K-12) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel Curriculum Materials Development Purpose: To develop standards and research-based supplementary instructional materials specifically designed for a school, project, or organizational need. Description: MMSA staff with experience in curriculum development will work with your school or organization to develop targeted supplementary instructional materials and pilot them with teachers in your school or project. Additionally, MMSA can conduct field testing as needed or requested. (K-12) Contact: Lynn Farrin Curriculum Review Purpose: To provide external review of a district-developed K-12 or grade level scope and sequence document and provide recommendations for revision or improvement. Description: An MMSA consultant will review your schools K-12 or grade level curriculum scope and sequence document for coherency, articulation of ̉big ideas, Maine's Learning Results alignment, gaps and redundancy, contexts, developmental appropriateness, and organization and discuss recommendations for improvement. (K-12 or by grade levels) Contact: Lynn Farrin Curriculum Selection or Implementation Purpose: To support schools in selecting high quality science curriculum programs or helping support teachers as they learn to use high quality materials effectively. Description: An MMSA consultant will work with teachers and administrators to learn how to select new curriculum materials, examine standards and research-based instructional materials, or help teachers implement new curriculum programs. Implementation support includes helping teachers understand the content, organization, the instructional approach, and the assessment components. (by school, grade levels, or subject areas) Contact: Lynn Farrin, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) Purpose: To learn how to utilize a comprehensive resource that enables teachers to deeply examine all aspects of science teaching and learning related to the topics they teach and to bridge the gap between standards, research, and classroom practice. Description: CTS is a comprehensive professional development strategy, supported with funding from the National Science Foundation, that targets all areas of teacher learning in science. It has been called ̉the missing link in implementing standards in ways that will improve and enhance teaching and result in increased student achievement. Overall, CTS helps teachers use standards and cognitive research to better understand the topics they teach. Sessions can be comprehensive or specifically designed to focus on using CTS for any of the following: improving content knowledge, curriculum coherence, curriculum materials implementation, instructional design and strategies, or assessment purposes. CTS workshops can be designed for specific science content topics or include topics that integrate both mathematics and science. CTS will also help teachers learn how to clarify the meaning and intent of Maine's Learning Results. Each school will receive the CTS book Curriculum Topic Study- Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Practice with the option to purchase multiple copies for teachers as part of the training. (K-12 or by grade level or subject area) www.curriculumtopicstudy.org Contact: Page Keeley, Lynn Farrin, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley Data Walk Purpose: To collect, organize, examine, and utilize data from students for the purpose of improving opportunities to learn science based on student needs. Description: A data team of MMSA staff and selected faculty members will use a process to interview all students at targeted grade levels about aspects of the schools science program, with the intent of learning from students about their science learning perceptions and needs. The team will put the data together in the early afternoon and present it to the staff after school, engaging them in safe and productive data dialogue about the student collected data and implications for the school or grade level science program. (by school or grade levels) Contact: Joyce Tugel, Lynn Farrin Demonstration Lessons and Coaching Purpose: To improve through modeling of instruction and the use of a coaching model. Description: An MMSA consultant will work with selected teachers to demonstrate teaching of a lesson or co-teach a lesson, and support peer-coaching and classroom observations. (by grade levels or subject areas) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, or Lynn Farrin Elementary and Middle School Content Courses or Seminars Purpose: To help elementary and/or middle school teachers understand the science content they teach. Description: The MMSA will work with schools or districts to design a series of sessions to improve teacher content learning in an identified area of science and support the application of teachers learning to the science units they teach. A combination of inquiry-based experiences, videos, instructional materials, digital resources, and readings will be used to facilitate and support teacher learning. These sessions are geared toward teachers who were not science majors or have had few courses in science. (K-6 or by grade levels) Contact: Page Keeley, Lynn Farrin, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley Embedded Professional Development Planning Purpose:To develop a site-based professional development program for science teachers within a school or district. Description: An MMSA consultant will work with school staff or leaders to develop a plan, learn the requirements and features of a specific strategy, and help support the implementation of embedded, practice-based professional development. Schools can choose from a selection of practice-based strategies such as study groups, action research, examining student work or thinking, CIEST, lesson study, curriculum replacement implementation, demonstration lessons, book studies, mentoring, or coaching. The MMSA will help schools establish these strategies and access the tools and resources they need in order to successfully develop and sustain a teacher led learning community within the school (by school or grade level teams). Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel Examining Teaching through Video Cases Purpose: To examine videos of real teaching episodes for the purpose of analyzing instruction to learn more about effective teaching practices. Description: Sessions are designed to examine and discuss videotapes of real science teaching episodes in a variety of contexts. Teachers will use a protocol to view, evaluate, and discuss the teaching seen on videotapes for content as well as effective pedagogical strategies and discuss implications for their own instruction. (by grade levels, grade spans, or subject areas) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, or Lynn Farrin Inquiry-based Science Purpose: To improve teachers ability to use inquiry-based instructional practices and develop inquiry skills and understandings among students. Description: Inquiry is much more than hands-on science! Sessions are designed to help teachers understand and implement the multifaceted nature of inquiry based teaching and learning as the centerpiece of school science. Sessions can range from a one day introduction and overview of inquiry to a multi-day series that gives teachers time to practice inquiry-based strategies in their classroom. The sessions also help teachers develop a deeper understanding of the nature and intent of Maine's Learning Results Standards in Inquiry and Problem Solving, Scientific Reasoning, and Communication. Summer institutes that allow teachers an opportunity to experience inquire themselves can be arranged. Some sessions will utilize the National Science Education Standards Inquiry Addendum. (K-12 or by grade level) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn Farrin Instructional Design Purpose: To learn how to develop effective lessons based on standards and research on teaching and learning, using an instructional model, that provide students with opportunities to learn important ideas in science. Description:The instructional design sessions or introductory workshop include an overview of effective principles of science teaching, strategies for eliciting and using students prior knowledge; representing ideas effectively; selecting and using appropriate phenomena or objects that engage student thinking, building understanding through scaffolding and connected experiences, and embedding assessment into instruction. Participants will utilize a design process to develop lessons or units that align with standards and provide opportunities to learn and demonstrate their understanding. (by grade levels, grade span, or subject areas) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn Farrin Science and Language Literacy - Elementary K-6 Purpose: To learn how the reciprocal processes of language literacy and science can strengthen student learning in science as well as improve literacy skills within the rich, engaging context of a schools science program. Description: Introductory or multiple sessions designed to build understanding and assist in implementation of language literacy in an authentic, inquiry-based science context including science notebooks, visual literacy, science discourse, reading in science, expository science writing, and science trade book selection and use. National studies with data that show significant gains in elementary students reading, writing, and science achievement when literacy is used in the context of a high quality science program for the purpose of learning science will be shared. Sessions can be designed as a series, allowing teachers to try out strategies between sessions. (K-6, middle school, or high school) Contact: Page Keeley, Joyce Tugel, Nancy Chesley or Lynn Farrin |
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