The Power of Progressions: Untangling the Knotty Areas of Teaching and Learning Fractions

Graham Fletcher

As more teachers look to add high-yield tasks to their repertoire, the struggle to make it all work becomes real. Let's examine how problem-based lessons can be used throughout the scope of a unit and how we can harness their power to move student thinking forward. We'll identify strategies and explore some tasks that help us find a healthy balance between application, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency.


Participants will:

  • Engage in grade appropriate problem-based lessons (PBL) and understand how the implementation of low-entry, high-scalability tasks can be used to reach all students.

  • Explore the use of problem-based lessons as regular practice. Participants will identify when and how these lessons can be used throughout the scope of a unit.

  • Understand how problem-based lessons can be used within the instructional framework (opening, work session, close), and the purposeful moves required to orchestrate an effective closing session.

  • Identify ways in which rich tasks can be used as formative assessment to monitor student growth.

  • Connect conceptual learning and application, and the role they play in modeling with mathematics.


Graham Fletcher has served in education as a classroom teacher, math instructional lead, and currently as a math specialist. His work with the math progressions and problem-based lessons has led him to present throughout North America and beyond.


Graham is continually advocating for best practice in elementary mathematics by seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding. He is a coauthor of Building Fact Fluency

  • Cost Per Registrant: $249 for WASCD members and $299 for non-members

  • Date: November 8th, 2023

  • Time: 9:00 AM -3:00 PM

  • Location: Hilton Garden Inn; 1220 S Grand Ave; Sun Prairie, WI

  • Meals Included: Lunch included

See WASCD.ORG for cancellation and refund policies.

Con­tact Wisconsin ASCD (715) 453-2142 or office@wascd.org

Reg­is­tra­tion Terms:. Con­fir­ma­tions are e-​mailed approx­i­mately 3 days before the pro­gram. Please call the WASCD office before the pro­gram if you did not receive a con­fir­ma­tion to deter­mine your reg­is­tra­tion sta­tus. There are no refunds on cancellations two weeks prior to the event. How­ever, there is no charge for substitutions.

Can­cel­la­tion Pol­icy: There are no refunds on cancellations two weeks prior to the event. How­ever, there is no charge for substitutions. WASCD reserves the right to move or can­cel meet­ings because of low reg­is­tra­tion. That is why it is impor­tant to reg­is­ter early. In the unlikely event of a can­cel­la­tion, all reg­is­trants will be noti­fied and will receive full refunds.

Spe­cial Needs: Please notify WASCD of any spe­cial needs when you register.