Spring Symposium on Math, Curriculum, and Assessment

Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) teaching residents and faculty recently kicked off the spring semester by gathering together at Gorham’s North Country Education Services to share strategies and learn about the relationship between curriculum and assessment.

Each semester TRRE faculty gather with teaching residents for symposia that review course content and highlight the connection to teaching students in rural communities. Courses for spring include: Exploring Mathematics with Young Children with Dr. Kathryn McCurdy, Introduction to Assessment taught by Dr. Emilie Reagan, and our Residency Internship and Seminar in Teaching with Dr. Tom Schram.

At this symposium, local math specialists Ann Elise Record from Hillside Elementary in Berlin and Mark Pribbernow from Lancaster Elementary shared how specialists work with and support classroom teachers. Teaching residents learned a helpful analogy: 

Teaching math is an iceberg – what we see is the tip, but the “underneath” part is the foundation. So we must slow down and pay attention to depth, asking learners: 'How do you know? Show me.'

Ann Elise discussed the need for teachers to collect and use data to better understand students' learning. Teaching residents then worked together to conceptualize the relationship between curriculum and assessment referring to the principles and guidelines of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).