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Avon Grove students demonstrate ‘Building Thinking Classrooms’ math routines to board
Summary
Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Avon Grove Intermediate School demonstrated the district’s Building Thinking Classrooms routines to the board, describing vertical whiteboards, random grouping and collaborative problem-solving as ways to promote critical thinking and perseverance.
Students from Avon Grove Intermediate School presented the district’s Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) strategies to the board Feb. 27, describing how vertical whiteboards, random grouping and shared roles promote collaboration and critical thinking in math classes.
“Instead of the traditional way of sitting at our desks and listening to the teacher explain the lesson, we are standing up at whiteboards with our group members thinking and working through problems,” fifth-grader Auden Cammarata told the board. Eva Duckworth, another fifth grader, said BTC “is a fun way of learning, and it helps us develop our skills as a future-ready Avon Grove learner.”
Students explained classroom routines used at Avon Grove Intermediate School: teams of three are created with a tool called “Flippity,” one marker is shared to encourage teamwork, the thinker is not the writer to promote verbal explanation, and students work at vertical whiteboards to “productively struggle and persevere,” student Jack Preston said. Kellen Bowman summarized outcomes from a classroom video, noting a fifth-grade task finding volumes of rectangular prisms and fourth-grade missing-number tasks as examples of how BTC builds knowledge, collaboration and resilience.
Teachers and board members praised the presentation and asked clarifying questions about specific student interactions in the tasks shown. Principal Mrs. Hall and district leaders said the approach aligns with the district’s “future-ready” competencies and cited classroom visits and learning-walk observations in support of the program.
The presentation lasted several minutes and concluded with the board thanking the students and inviting some of them to stand so the board and audience could see them. No formal policy or funding action was taken at the meeting based on the presentation.
The demonstration provided a direct view into classroom practice as the district reviews instructional strategies and communicates curricular approaches to families and the board.
