HISTORY OF PROJECT CRISS
Project CRISS started as an action research project conducted by a group of secondary content teachers interested in identifying classroom practices that truly make an impact on student learning. These teachers, led by reading specialist and IRA past president Dr. Carol Santa, scoured the available research on learning (in the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience) and tested theories in their classrooms. Those practices which worked became the foundation of Project CRISS. Their early successes garnered recognition and grant awards first in Montana, and then nationally through the U.S. Department of Education National Diffusion Network. As their work spread across the United States, education practitioners contributed their expertise to develop the pedagogical frameworks for CRISS, the toolbox of powerful learning strategies, and the workshops which evolved into the Introduction to Project CRISS workshop (Level I). The original development leaders, Dr. Santa and science and math teacher Lynn Havens, established Project CRISS as a national professional development initiative and private business in 2001. Now in its 4th edition (2012), Project CRISS offers high quality, practical professional development and an array of support materials and curricula for teaching and learning across the United States, Canada, and countries throughout the world. KEY PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT CRISS 1. Background knowledge is a powerful determinant of reading comprehension. 2. Good readers are actively involved in making sense from their reading. 3. Students need many opportunities to talk with one another about what they are learning. 4. Good readers are metacognitive. They are goal directed, and they know how to attack print to create meaning. 5. Students need many opportunities to write about what they are learning. 6. Good readers and writers have an intuitive understanding of the author's craft. 7. Good readers know a variety of ways to organize information for learning. 8. Students learn to become strategic when teachers teach these processes directly through explanation and modeling. 9. Students come to understand by doing a variety of thought-demanding activities with a topic. |
WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH MATH?
Replace the word "reader" with the word " mathematician".
Every key principle is true for mathematicians!! Every key principle is an indicator for the opportunities that good math educators provide in their instruction on a daily basis! THINK ABOUT IT: *accessing and building upon background knowledge *engaging lessons *math discourse *reflection *writing about mathematical thoughts and processes *comprehending problems and determining how to solve them *organizing and analyzing data *justification through reasoning and modeling *DOING and APPLYING math in a variety of situations |