Major Course Assignments

Mathematical Reasoning EDU 614 (3 Credit hours)
July 2010

The following assignments were selected as opportunities for you to evaluate your level of attainment for the course goals as described by these principled procedures for Mathematics and the overall program outcomes for a Master in Education.

Class discussion includes postings in the Forums for course discussion questions, book discussion questions, introductory reading dicussions, curriculum ideas, and other discussion ideas listed in the professor notes for class ...

Evaluation note - Evaluation for Discussion postings includes all postings on the discussion board and all other communication related to the class and all class activities.
If you question the quality of your postings you may contact the professor at anytime and ask about the quality of your postings. However, that opinion may change if the quality of assignments changes significantly.

Introductory Readings - Take a proportional amount of time, relative to how familiar you are with the information in each articles. Very familiar, then identify some ideas you agree and disagree with and share them in a forum. If you are not familiar, then spend more time becoming familiar, then make comments or ask questions. If you don't see the value, question about it. Focus questions for articles discussions

• Article 1 - "Helping Students become Mathematically Powerful" by Robin Ittigson, in Teaching Children Mathematics. October, 2002 (v9 i2).
• Article 2 - "Representation: An Important Process for Teaching and Learning Mathematics" by Francis Fennell and Tom Rowan in Teaching Children Mathematics. January, 2001 (v7 i5).
• Article 3 - "What I Learned from Teaching Second Grade" by Marilyn Burns in Teaching Children Mathematics. November, 1996. (v3 n3).
• Article 4 - "Teacher as Architect of Mathematical Tasks. (Implementing the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics) by Barbara J. Reys and Vena M. Long in Teaching Children Mathematics January, 1995. (v1 n5).
• Article 5 - "Alternative Assessment in Elementary School Mathematics" in Childhood Education by Thomasenia L. Adams. Summer 1998 (v74 n4)
• Article 6+ - "The Miseducation of America's Youth: Ignoring Scientific study in Education. Phi Delta Kappan February, 1999. pp 425-433. Michael T. Battista"

Major Readings - An additional 600 pages from books and journal articles are required. The Constructing Algebra book may be included as 200 of these 600 pages. You are encouraged to read the books as soon as possible. Ideas about teaching and learning mathematics are interwoven in the readings. The ideas such as representation, problem solving, proof and reasoning, mathematizing, and others are importance to putting students into a role that empowers and connects their ways of doing math to valuing interpreting the world with mathematics, and developing their mathematical self-efficacy. Simultaneously the role of the teacher must be one of facilitating. Any other role will inhibit, retard, or stop students from becoming mathematically literate. Therefore, begin or continue to incorporate these ideas into your thinking, planning, and discussions. Many ideas must be joined together to get a BIG POWERFUL PICTURE of what outstanding mathematics teachers know and do to facilitate students to mathematize for the - joy of it - or as the Japanese would say - to attain satori.

Reading 1 (200 pages) - Fosnot, Catherine Twomey; & Dolk, Maarten. (2010). Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Algebra. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.(Main audience Preschool - adult) image

Reading 2 (### pages) - Select one - Image, table of contents, and annotations
Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Number Sense, Addition, and Subtraction.
Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Multiplication and Division.
Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Fractions, Decimals, and Percents.

Reading 3 ( pages) - Select an article from the Journal of Research in Mathematics Education (JRME)

Reading 4- ( pages) - Additional suggestions

Books and Article Readings -

Course Activity Sheet or Annotated List - Doumentation of your activities for the class. List the activity and describe what you did and what goals or benefits you achieved. Sample

Research investigation - Select a topic and find at least one article from the "Journal for Research in Mathematics Education". If you can't find a copy of your article, email the professor sufficient reference information so that he may locate the article and email it to you, After reading the article post a plan (one page) on how it will change the way you teach, and write appropriate comments on the discussion boards during the class that include ideas from what you learned and what you planned.

Position paper for mathematics education - Describe how mathematics in your classroom should be. Include ideas for each of the focus questions in the paper, but the main topic of the paper is the tasks that students will do and how you will facilitate their learning of mathematics. (NO LONGER than four-five double spaced pages). Chose your words carefully and be sure that each is defined or explained in context so its meaning is communicated. Words and phrases like "hands on", "concrete", "abstract", "basics", and "problem solving" have been defined by different people sometimes in direct opposition to each other. If you are talking about Piaget and discuss "formal operational" that is good enough, but be careful, because Piaget defined "abstract thinking" and "formal operational thinking" as different terms. If you aren't sure about a word or phrase, try it out on the discussion board or send me an email and we can discuss it. Believe it or not I enjoy that kind of discussion and look forward to it.

Curriculum or Independent project which may include any information used for any other class assignment. This can be in any format. Think of what you would really like to accomplish by taking this class and try to create the independent project around that. Reviewing a year's curriculum, updating it, changing it, creating one... What ever you believe will increase the value of this course and improve students' learning of mathematics. If you are taking this course for certification requirements or are looking to review teaching of mathematics, you should select a text, read it, and discuss with me what might be done beyond that. Planning Steps and Sample process... Completing this work sheet is optional. Even though it is kind of corny, it isn't time consuming, if you have a good idea of what you want to do and why. If you don't, then that is an excellent reason to struggle through with it. If you choose to do it, then you may email it to me as your plan.

More detailed information for class Activites and Discussions - are in the-> Professor's Notes

Due dates - Schedule

Robert Sweetland's Notes ©