Our goal was to develop productive ways for talking about and analyzing classroom practices. We examined classroom video cases, observations of teaching, and relevant readings. Our discussion-based group focused on the following "big ideas" during PCMI: How can we classify instructional tasks (i.e., cognitive demand, group-worthiness)? What kinds of teaching practices effectively support task implementation? What are relationships between instructional tasks and classroom practices? How do these ideas help us talk about classroom teaching practices productively? Several themes emerged from our discussions, which we found to be helpful starting points for collegial conversations about our classroom practices. We selected a few salient themes (Teacher Moves, Questioning, and Status) and organized them in a PowerPoint booklet that can be used to catalyze conversations with your colleagues about your practices. Please note that the list of themes within this booklet is not meant to be comprehensive nor exhaustive in their descriptions, but instead serves to represent the ideas that we deemed the most useful for talking about our teaching practices. As such, the ideas presented here should be viewed as tools for starting collegial conversations about classroom practices.
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