How do I download and use the NTN PrBL Math Courses?

New Tech Network offers full math courses to utilize for Grade 7 and Grade 8 Math. 

This document contains the following:

1. Description of Math Starter Courses and resources
2. New Tech Learning Outcomes and PrBLs
3. Structure of Units in Echo
4. Assessment and grading
5. What you'll have to do to make this course complete:
6. How to preview and download the courses

1.  Description of Math Starter Courses and resources:

These courses act as "starter courses" for Grade 7 math and Grade 8 math in a New Tech Network (or Echo-using) Middle School. While they need additional modifications from individual teachers to fit particular school and classroom settings, the bulk of the course is ready to implement.

The bulk of the courses consist of free curriculum created by Illustrative Mathematics (IM) and Problem-Based Learning (PrBL) Lessons pulled from various sources. 

The highly rated IM materials serve as the daily lessons and the scope and sequence of the units. They consist of the following:

• Student Task Statements and Lesson Summary
• Blackline Masters (such as cut outs for card sorts)
• Condensed Lesson Plans
• Cool Downs
• Practice Problems
• Teacher Presentation Materials

The lessons are crafted for daily 50 minute class periods; if your class time is different you will have to make modifications. Note that this is not an official partnership as these resources are freely available online at https://www.illustrativemathematics.org/. Additional information, tasks, and commentary can be found on the IM website. 

The PrBL lessons are of varying length (anywhere from 1-3 days) and are included with rubrics. The PrBL lessons attend to the design principles of the New Tech Model as well as the three design shifts for NTN Math:

• Emphasis on Inquiry
• Emphasis on Discourse
• Emphasis on Self-Regard

It's also worth noting that many of the IM tasks are already essentially problem-based (see example from Unit 3 Student Task Statement).

2.  New Tech Learning Outcomes and PrBLs:

In addition to the materials provided by IM, this course offers natural embedding of New Tech Learning Outcomes and Problem-Based Learning Lessons. Each unit identifies a handful of NTLO focus areas, typically one to three indicators per Learning Outcome per unit. These focus NTLOs can be found in the Unit Overview section. They are also identified in each unit's Master Rubric. This rubric contains all of the NTLO indicators being taught and assessed in that unit. Teachers are welcome to make a copy and adapt it for individual lessons (for instance, deleting certain indicators and get more focused for daily activities).

Much of the NTLO scaffolding and assessment will stem from the embedded PrBLs. Each unit has 3-5 PrBLs with rubrics. These may take anywhere from one to three days. It is up to the facilitator to determine when these PrBLs will occur within a unit. Generally, it is recommended you facilitate a PrBL once a week. This may require you to trim some of the IM daily lessons. The rubrics are generated according to the problem and the focus NTLOs. 

3.  Structure of Units in Echo:

The units are packaged as a mix of teacher- and student-facing materials. The units consist of the following categories.

Unit Overview. This resources gives a description of the content covered, the standards (CCSS), a suggested Driving Question for the unit, and the focus NTLOs for the unit.

Unit Master Rubric. This rubric has the focus NTLO indicators for that unit and is intended to be copied and edited. You may also have to adjust the point totals provided based on your grading agreements.

Lesson Progressions - Task Statements and Lesson Summaries. These include the warm up, work materials, and lesson recaps for each day. They are not currently set to be gradable activities, but they could be if desired.

Cooldowns. These are your daily exit tickets. They align to the lesson for the day. They are not currently set to be gradable activities, but they could be if desired.

Practice Problems. These are additional practice problems aligned to the day's lesson. They are currently set to gradable by default, but could be modified if needed.

PrBLs. These are folders that contain the 3-5 PrBLs for the unit, including Entry events, supporting materials, and problem-specific rubrics. 

Reflections and Portfolio Submission. These are self- and peer assessments based on the focus NTLO indicators for that unit. They may be duplicated to assign multiple times throughout a unit. NTN suggests you have students upload submissions as part of a student digital portfolio here. 

4.  Assessment and grading:

While you as a facilitate will have to decide what and how you will grade each assignment, some templates have been provided for you.

Each unit has a "master rubric" which identifies the core NTLO focus areas for that unit. You can see an overview of the NTLO focus by unit here. It is recommended NTN practice that teachers focus on a few NTLO indicators per unit, rather than try to assess all NTLOs at once. Each PrBL rubric contains indicators from the unit's Master rubric, along with indicators specific to the problem. While a point total is suggested on the rubric, you may have to alter the numbers to make them better align with your school.

Upon completion (or throughout) a PrBL lesson, teachers have multiple ways of having students submit or present their work, and additional choices on how to grade it. A menu of options for presentations, submissions, and assessing has been provided in the course facilitator materials. All you need to do is duplicate these resources, adjust the title, and drag and drop them in the appropriate location. Or you may wish to use the "my library" feature for additional efficiency.

 5. What you'll have to do to make this course complete:

• Check the daily lessons against your course calendar and class length.
• Adjust the NTLO grading scale to better represent that of your school's.
• Duplicate and add additional assessment resources for PrBLs.
• Add and adjust grading for individual assignments. 
• Add your own traditional assessments to ensure course mastery.
• Add some additional workshops to PrBLs.

6.  How to preview and download the courses:

1.  Follow NTN Math Curriculum's profile in the Echo Community.  You can find the Echo Community Tool when you click on the "grid" icon at the top of your Echo menu.

2.  Then search in the PEOPLE category to find, follow and preview the NTN Math Curriculum's courses in the Echo Community tool, click How do I use the search profile tool? . 

Helpful tip: Bookmark NTN Math Curriculum for later use.

3.  To download content from NTN Math Curriculum, go to the list under "Courses I Teach". Click on each course to view.  When you click on each folder in the course you can add activities to your cart.

Helpful tip: only add the resources from one Problem Folder at a time.  Then check to see what has been copied to My Library and organize before moving on to the rest of the course curriculum.

4.  Once you have added the content to your cart, click "copy" and the content will be added to your My Library to be "dragged and dropped" into any course of your choosing. 

Helpful Resources about Echo:

What is the Community Tool and How do I use it?

How do I add content to My Library using The Community Tool?