CGI Seminars for Teachers

Our CGI Seminars are informed by over 35 years of research on teachers’ and students’ learning and over 50 years of research on children’s mathematical thinking. Our center director, Linda Levi, is a member of the team that designed and delivered CGI Seminars in multiple CGI research projects. Our CGI Seminars meet What Works Clearinghouse evidence-based standards for high quality intervention.

CGI Seminars increase teachers’ ability to:

  • Increase meaningful student-talk and engagement in math classes.

  • Support students to solve problems using their own strategies.

  • Design or choose problems that engage their students with specific math content standards.

  • Adapt instruction so that all students learn with understanding.

  • Connect students’ strategies for solving problems to State Math Standards.

  • Engage students with each other’s mathematical ideas.

  • Develop students’ identities as mathematicians who are capable of generating their own ideas and reasoning about the ideas of others.

Our CGI Seminars

We offer CGI PK-2, CGI 3-6 and CGI K-5. There are 8 6-hour days each year. It is ideal if at least 4 of these days occur during the school year so that we can include classroom embedded work. Our full program consists of 3 years of teacher learning. The number of days and number of years of our Seminars are informed by CGI research on teacher learning. Contracting agencies are encouraged to commit to one year at a time and evaluate their needs as time goes on. We are open to working with agencies that require a different schedule.

CGI PK - 2: Content Focus

Number, Base Ten Concepts, Operations, Counting, Equations and Algebraic Thinking.

CGI 3 - 6: Content Focus

Number, Base Ten Concepts, Fractions, Decimals, Operations, Equations and Algebraic Thinking.

CGI PK-6: Content Focus

Combines the content focus of our PK-2 and 3-6 seminars. This option is especially appropriate when all teachers at a school can attend the course together.

CGI for Administrators

Administrators are welcome and encouraged to attend courses alongside their teachers. These seminars support administrators to become instructional leaders with a deep knowledge of students’ mathematical thinking and teachers’ trajectories in learning to teach math with understanding.

Additional CGI Offerings

CGI Classroom Coaching

Teams of teachers work with a CGI Teacher Educator to plan and teach lessons based on data from the students in the classroom and math standards. Coaching typically occurs after teachers have completed at least 2 days a CGI Seminar.

Introduction to CGI

This 3-day seminar gives teachers an opportunity to start using CGI in the classroom. It is possible to add remote-learning sessions to the CGI Intro Seminar in order to enhance teachers’ use of CGI with their students.

FAQ

Scheduling

We recommend that at least 4 days of our Seminars occur during the school year so that we can either work with children during the session or teachers can bring current student work to the session.

Group Size & More

We work with up to 30 participants in each of our sessions. We like to schedule 6-7 hours of contact time plus a lunch break for each day. We are happy to adapt our work to meet your agency’s culture.

Our CGI Teacher Educators

All of our Teacher Educators have been working with Linda Levi, our Center director of 10 or more years. Dr. Levi works with each agency to choose an instructor that is suited to the agency’s needs.

Getting Started

Our Director, Dr. Linda Levi, works with each contracting agency to develop a plan that meets the agency’s goals and needs. For more information contact Dr. Levi. She is happy to talk with agencies at any stage in the process of considering CGI.