Focus

There are several different focuses that we can discuss that

vary depending on what level of instruction we are planning
for from the overall school year to that of an individual
lesson.

For an overarching perspective, we want to create a global

objective, which is essentially our educational purpose, as
well as what is considered to be the central focus by EdTPA
which is The central focus should support students to
develop conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, AND
mathematical reasoning and/or problem-solving skills.

What we really want to be our central focus is a mixture

between our global objective and EdTPAs consideration, of
which our group resolved as Students will have fun while
developing conceptual understanding and procedural
fluency. They will also learn mathematical reasoning and/or
problem-solving skills. This understanding and reasoning
can be used to solve potential problems students may be
challenged with in the future. The reasoning skills
developed will help students in all content areas by helping
them process new information.
A central focus can link your entire course, but note that it
can be helpful to have one for each unit, at which point we
call it a unit focus as it is more specific. For a unit focus, it
still incorporates a part of the overarching central focus, but
also links to the essential questions for the unit. In some
cases, a unit focus can also be posed as an essential
question.

We can get even more specific and break our unit focus into
what is called a segment. Segments are a series of
connected lessons. Generally, segments last for about three
to five lessons that are on the same topic or at the very least
are closely related topics.