Math Ed Said
August 5: Inspired by Skemp (1976), Mark Chubb wrote, "Focus on Relational Understanding." In the post he discusses differences between instrumental and relational understanding and offers suggestions and resources to help bridge the gap between the two.Shared by: Mary Gambrel, Ashley Bingenheimer, Beth Brandenburg, Matthew Oldridge, David Costello, Mark Chubb, Brian Bushart, Jeremy Went
August 6: Dylan Kane was thinking about the nature of students' questions, and when and if certain questions are best answered. In his post "Answering Questions," Dylan builds on the ideas of John Holt and Peter Liljedahl to focus on the kinds of questions and answers that keep students thinking.
Shared by: Dylan Kane, Matthew Oldridge, Mary Bourassa, MathDDSB, Ilona Vashchyshyn, Judy Keeney
August 7: The I-don't-know-her-name-cuz-maybe-it's-secret teacher that goes by Druin wrote, "Teaching Statistics: Thinking about Closure." The topic of this post are those precious minutes at the end of lessons, and how best to help students consolidate their ideas and reflect on what they've learned.
Shared by: Druin, Shauna Hedgepeth, Pam J. Wilson, Tracy Johnston Zager, Bridget Dunbar
August 8: The final minutes of a lesson are important, but so are the first few minutes of a unit. Sara VanDerWerf wrote about "Unit Pictures," a visual guide to get students thinking about what they'll be learning in the days ahead.
Shared by: Sara VanDerWerf, Megan Schmidt, Annie Perkins, Laura Wagenman, Mary Gambrel, Meg Craig
August 9: The topic of last week's Global Math Department meeting was "Back to School Night Ignites."
Shared by: Jessica, Global Math, Sadie Estrella, Regan Galvan, Deborah Boden, Cary Behrendt, Katherine Martin
August 10: THE Journal reported on some recent research with the article, "With High-Quality Lessons and Social Supports, Even Weak Teachers Do Better." The researchers, writing in a NBER working paper, found that teachers who were supported in the use of high-quality, off-the-shelf Mathalicious lessons saw greater student achievement than teachers who were not provided the lessons or support. Just giving teachers access to lessons didn't help as much, and researchers hypothesized that some teachers don't invest enough time in lesson planning to use an off-the-shelf lesson.
Shared by: Desmos.com, Christopher Danielson, Sadie Estrella, Patty Stephens, Glenn Waddell, Jr., John Golden, Martin Joyce, April Pforts
August 11: Mark Chubb is back with another post, "Never Skip the Closing of the Lesson."
Shared by: Tracy Johnston Zager, Margie Pearse, Matthew Oldridge, Max Ray-Riek, Annie Forest, John Rowe, Mark Chubb, Jami D. Packer, Mark Chubb, Jennifer Wilson, Bridget Dunbar, Pam J. Wilson, Brian Bushart
Around the Math Ed Web
On Tuesday the Global Math Department will be talking about "Flipping Your Math Classroom: More Than Just Videos and Worksheets."August 19th is your last chance to submit a proposal for RUME. Actually, that's not entirely true — if you're submitting a poster, they'll take proposals on a rolling basis for a few more months.
The deadline to submit NCTM Research Conference proposals is September 4.
Research Notes
I've had some trouble tracking new article in Teachers College Record, but here's one that I think has appeared recently:- What Keeps Chinese Students Motivated in Doing Math Homework? An Empirical Investigation by Fuyi Yang, East China Normal University; Jianzhong Xu, Mississippi State University; Heping Tan, East China Normal University; and Ningjian Liang, East China Normal University
- An empirical study in the notion of area: a Socratic educational experience anchored in van Hiele's model by María Ángeles Navarro, University of Seville; and Pedro Pérez Carreras, Polytechnic University of Valencia
- On a calculus textbook problem by Arkady Kitover, Rider University; and Mehmet Orhon, University of New Hampshire
- Geometry and mathematical symbolism of the 16th century viewed through a construction problem by Milana Dabić, University of Belgrade
- Does the problem complexity impact students' achievements in a computer aided mathematics instruction? by Eugen Ljajko, Kosovska Mitrovica
Math Ed in the News
- Pilot math program prepares sixth graders for new school year (Caller-Times)
- Numberplay: Olympic Strategies, Part 2 (The New York Times)
Math Ed in Colorado
Recaps:
CCTM Board Meeting: I attended a CCTM board meeting on Saturday, August 6. We welcomed our new board members: Kevin Duren, our newly elected vice president from the Security-Widefield district; Gilbert Apodaca, technology specialist from Centennial R-1, and Erica Hastert, our new MAA representative who comes from Early College of Arvada. Most of the day we discussed the upcoming CCTM Conference and plans to grow and strengthen the math education community in Colorado.
CCTM Conference: Register now!
Upcoming ESSA Standards Committee Webinar:
In December of 2015, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), replacing the No Child Left Behind Act. Following a statewide listening tour in May and June of this year, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is now convening committees to inform the development of Colorado's ESSA state plan to comply with the requirements of ESSA. For more information regarding ESSA please visit: http://www.cde.state.co.us/fedprograms/essa.
Under the guidance of the State Board of Education, the CDE will utilize a Hub/Spoke Committee structure for ESSA state plan development. The idea is to create a formal, central Hub Committee that will have an oversight role in the development of a draft of our state plan to be submitted to the State Board in early 2017, and ESSA topical spoke committees that will be responsible for developing and appropriately vetting sections of the state plan with the nimbleness and flexibility to get the work done in a timely manner.
The Office of Standards and Instructional Support at CDE is hosting an informational webinar about the standards spoke committee on Thursday, August 18, from 3:30 to 4:30 PM. A recording will be made available for those unable to participate.
The webinar will provide those interested in participating in or knowing about the work of the committee. Topics to be addressed in the webinar include:
- A general overview of the Colorado’s ESSA state plan development process
- ESSA requirements for state standards and related components for the state plan
- Colorado's process for developing, vetting, and finalizing the standards section of the ESSA state plan
- How stakeholders can become a part of the committee
- Expectations of committee members
Following the webinar, the membership for the standards spoke committee will be confirmed and work will begin on the standards section of the ESSA state plan. To become involved in the committee or to follow its work, please visit: http://www.cde.state.co.us/essa_stateplandevelopment_standards/.