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IM Professional Learning Frequently Asked Questions
Audience Focus
What are the different foci and who should plan to attend IM PL sessions?
Our PL Catalog was designed with 4 audience foci in mind:
- Teachers
- Teaching for Access and Equity
- Facilitating Teacher Collaboration
- Leading IM Implementation
See below for details for each of the 4 audience foci.
AUDIENCE FOCUS
Teachers
TARGET AUDIENCE
Teachers using IM in their classrooms
ADDITIONAL AUDIENCES
Paraeducators, special education teachers, coaches, math instructional leaders, principals, and other implementation leaders
NOTES/EXPLANATION
These sessions focus on teaching with the IM Math curriculum. Everyone supporting the teaching of IM is encouraged to attend to learn from and with teachers.
AUDIENCE FOCUS
Teaching for Access and Equity
TARGET AUDIENCE
Teachers, paraeducators, special education teachers, and educators focused on language access
ADDITIONAL AUDIENCE
Coaches and other implementation leaders
NOTES/EXPLAINATION
These sessions focus on IM’s approach to access, the goals of access within a problem-based curriculum, and practical strategies for focusing on access and equity.
AUDIENCE FOCUS
Facilitating Teacher Collaboration
TARGET AUDIENCE
Teachers, paraeducators, special education teachers, and educators focused on language access
ADDITIONAL AUDIENCE
Others working directly with teams of teachers to plan and reflect
NOTES/EXPLANATION
These sessions focus on the conditions and resources that help teachers to co-plan and collaborate as they focus on reflecting on student learning and instructional practices that support students to make sense of mathematics and one another’s ideas.
AUDIENCE FOCUS
Leading IM Implementation
TARGET AUDIENCE
School and district instructional leaders, such as principals and district math instructional leaders
ADDITIONAL AUDIENCE
District and building coaches
NOTES/EXPLANATION
These sessions focus on the different roles leaders play in establishing the conditions for successful IM implementation.
Maximum Participants
How many people can attend IM PL events?
In general, sessions are capped at 25 participants. Some K–5 sessions are capped at 50 participants.
IM PL sessions, both virtual and onsite, are designed to be highly interactive. We keep group sizes small enough for everyone to participate. Participants include teachers as well as others who may wish to “sit in” on sessions—we expect everyone attending to be an engaged participant.
Grade Levels Addressed
Should teachers be grouped by grade level?
In general, teachers should not be grouped by grade level. The exception is Unit Overview and PLC sessions, which are designed for single-grade groups to plan together.
For all other (non-PLC and Unit Overview sessions), teachers should be in mixed grade-level groups because this allows teachers the opportunity to
- spend time in cross-grade teams exploring a common vision for math instruction
- learn more about how content develops across multiple grade levels; examples are chosen purposely to demonstrate this
- experience how strategies students learned earlier, or strategies that preview later work, can be valued and incorporated into instruction, simulating how real student work often presents a wide range of strategies and approaches
- spend time in grade-level breakout groups looking at activities and lessons from their grade
Feedback on PL sessions is consistently better when teachers are in mixed grade-level groups.
For small districts, can you combine more grade levels into a single session?
The grade levels available are indicated on each product page in the catalog. When K–2 and 3–5, or 6–8 and 9–12 are split and a K–5 or 6–12 version are not available, it is because the content focus and approach is different enough across grade levels that combining into one session would not serve teachers as well.
For small schools exploring the virtual K–5 Preparation package, inquire about the possibility of a K–5 combined Establishing Instructional Routines session.
Structure
What is the structure of IM PL events?
Onsite Events
K–5 PL events are typically split by grade band, with a facilitator working with half of the teachers in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.
For IM Math™ Teach & Learn | K–5, all K–5 teachers are together for the first day, and teachers are split by grade band on the second day. Materials are included with the purchase for local leaders such as coaches or PLC facilitators to lead an optional session for teachers when they are not with the IM Certified Facilitator.
6–12 PL onsite Teach & Learn and focus days are a full day for teachers all together. 6–12 Onsite PLC and Unit Overview sessions are delivered by grade level, with one facilitator meeting sequentially with three grade levels throughout the day.
IM does not sell half-days of onsite PL. Products will note when they are combined to make a full onsite day.
Virtual Events
Virtual Modules are two hours of interactive synchronous PL, with up to one hour of asynchronous work per virtual module (reading, planning, applying, etc.) provided to be used at local discretion.
Virtual Unit Overview sessions for grades 6–12 are 2-hour sessions by grade level.
Virtual PLC sessions are typically 90 minutes, though the timing can be flexible as they are designed to fit into teachers’ allocated collaboration time. These sessions do not use a slide deck and are instead designed as collaborative sessions facilitated by an IM Certified™ Facilitator.
