ED218_Arcadia_Fall2010

8/2/2019 ED218_Arcadia_Fall2010

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ED 218: Developing Mathematicians: Thinking Teaching and Learning in ElementaryMathematics

FALL 2010

COURSE SYLLABUSInstructor Dr. Erica DvilaOffice: 310 C Taylor HallOffice Phone: 773-636-1554E-mail [email protected] Hours Mon 2-4p and Wed 5-7p

Class Hours TR 10:20a-12pClass Location Taylor 316

Course Description: Through class investigations, field applications and commonassignments with other co-requisite education courses and field work in area schools,students will develop a working conception of mathematics as an evolving literacy, notionsof how to integrate mathematics with other subjects in the school curriculum, acomprehension of the expectations that people hold for mathematics K-6, and effectivestrategies of achieving the first two goals through or in spite of the third. Particular attentionis paid to issues of social justice and diversity related to mathematics education.

Required Texts:Several required readings will be provided in class.

Seeley, Cathy. 2009. Faster Isnt Smarter . Math Solutions.

Whitin, David. & Robin Cox. 2003. A Mathematical Passage: Strategies for promoting inquiry in grades 4-6 . Heinemann.

Conference Fee $25: Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice

Good Resources for this course:

Burns, Marilyn. 2000. About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource . Pearson Learning. ISBN: 094135525XCathcart, W. George, et al. latest edition. Learning mathematics in elementary and middle schools . Pearson.Van de Walle, John A. latest edition. Elementary school mathematics . Longman.Wake Forest University. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice. http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/ Whitin David and Wilde, Sandra (1992) Read Any Good Math Lately? Childrens Books for Mathematical Learning,K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ISBN: 0435083341

Learning Outcomes/ Expected Student Competencies:a. Students will demonstrate competencies in the following state certification

standards:
mailto:[email protected]://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/mailto:[email protected]://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/


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I.D. Mathematics instruction at the elementary level in accordance with the Pennsylvania AcademicStandards including:

Prenumber concepts, number sense, whole numbers, fractional numbers,measurement, algebra, geometry, estimation, probability, statistics, reasoning, and

problem solving Use of developmentally appropriate manipulatives, calculators, computers, and emergent technologies

II.B. Planning of instruction based upon knowledge of the subject matter, learning theory,classroom environment, students, the community and the Pennsylvania Academic Standardsincluding:

Alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment Multidisciplinary curriculum integration Collaborating with appropriate subject area specialist

II.D. Selecting, implementing and adapting effective instructional strategies, curriculum resourcesand technologies in collaboration with other educators to meet the needs of diverse learnersincluding:

Assessing, identifying and building on the students prior knowledge, experiencesand skills in each content area Problem analysis, creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making skills Inquiry, direct instruction and cooperative learning

II.E. Developing, utilizing, and communicating appropriate measurement and evaluation proceduresin the instructional program

II.F. Monitoring students understanding of content, providing feedback to students and adjustinginstructional strategies as neededIII.A. Professional organizations and professional journalsIII.C. Establishing and maintaining collaborative relationship with basic and higher educationcolleagues, families and the community agencies to meet the needs of diverse learnersIII.D.Communicating effectively with parents/guardians, other agencies and the community at largeto support leaning and elementary education

b. Students will also demonstrate the following Arcadia goals for this course:i. The ability to make informed choices among approaches to mathematics teaching and

learning, including:1. direct instruction2. focusing on the links among conceptual, procedural, and factual knowledge

through models of concepts3. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a patterns context4. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a problem-solving context5. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a problem-posing context

ii. The ability to plan educational experiences that enable the teacher and students to act asmathematicians, according to the theories of:

1. Georg Polya (problem solving)2. John Mason (specializing and generalizing)3. Marion Walter and Stephen Brown (problem posing)

iii. The ability to use a variety of alternative assessment strategies to inform pedagogicaldecisions, including:

1. anecdotal observation records2. clinical/flexible interviewing3. analysis of student work samples4. mathematician colleague letters5. performance assessment

iv. The ability to make connections between mathematics and social justice issues, includingthe following:

1. helping students use mathematics to analyze social justice issues2. describing the ways that school mathematics experiences and success/failure has

social justice implications


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3. understanding the role of mathematics from an international perspective infostering dominant models of knowledge and intelligence, and the implications for children learning mathematics

Course Requirements:

Co-requisite enrollment in ED 221/ED221L as a field component along withother professional cohort experiences.

After School Programs: Math at AB DayIn pairs, you will be developing, running and evaluating an after school programs for K-6students at AB Day school in Philadelphia, you will be keeping a weekly field notes. Youcan choose the day of the week for your program (Mon-Fri) but the program must run 3:30-4:30p or 4:30-5:30p. The programs run 12 weeks. You will also choose the grade level of your program although we will have to flexible depending on the schools needs.

100 Points: Fieldwork as Final Project: Designing and Evaluating an After School Program Focused on MathematicsIn pairs, you will design an after school program and submit a proposal on week two of class. Theprogram will take place at AB Day school: http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/ in collaborationwith After School Activities Partnership (ASAP) which will provide an orientation. I will work with all youin preparing your programs and evaluating them. For the final, you will submit your plan, a weekly

journal and a final reflection paper.

100 Points: Participation and Effort . A classroom community is made by people who domore than show up. The nature of this course requires that you get involved and try things . Just beinghere is not enough. You must throw yourself into the experiences, and share your thoughts. Only bytalking to others about what you are thinking about, and by listening to the ways that others arethinking, will you begin to articulate for yourself and others what the complexities are, what the issuesare for you , how other people might interpret what you would like to make possible for young people.Now, some people are not comfortable talking in class, and others think it unfair to put someone else"on the spot." So we need to expand our notion of "participation and contributions;" this might entaillooking over this week's television guide and coming to class with a printed list of good shows to watchthis week; or videotaping a news segment that we can watch together; or clipping an article out of thenewspaper; or just making sure to ask the questions you want answered -- as many times as necessaryin order to get us to address the important points. Feel free to suggest ways that people can contributeother than just talking a lot, even though talking a lot will be a good thing. We also need to think aboutnot talking and listening : how to help each other to facilitate somebody else's developing idea, as thiswill be a valuable skill in teaching.

25 Points: Reflection on Talking MathStudents will draft a 1-2 page reflection of the reading Talking Math by Fleming Amos. The reflectionshould be written from the students perspective on the topic addressed in the article. Some questionsto consider: What is the author saying? Do you agree with the author or not? On what grounds, what are the implications of this in the classroom? How does this relate to other readings in this and other courses? How does this material relate to your experience ineducation?

100 Points: Childrens Books and MathStudents will be assigned a grade range and they will choose an area of mathematics stated in thestate standards. Then the student will choose three childrens books to present in class that helpreinforce that area of math. Groups will submit a one- paragraph proposal that will the development of ideas and book choices. The student will provide the class with a 1-2 page handout with the citationsfor all three books as well as a brief summary of the math in the book and how to best use these books
http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/


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in fieldwork and/or future classrooms. The student will be assessed on their handout and their presentation. A rubric will be provided. We will do some practice activities in class to help prepare for this project.

100 Points: Choose one of the following Midterm assignments from the options. A) Media Project You analyze media presentations of mathematics & society in order toprepare an exhibition for our class to learn from. Possible projects include: watch andvideotape kids TV and create a montage emphasizing key representations in theseprograms; listen (watch)/(video)tape contemporary music videos and create a presentationthat effectively demonstrates the representations in contemporary music; research a casestudy of mass media reporting on a current mathematics topic (e.g., newspapers, televisiondocumentaries, etc.) and prepare a report or presentation. This asks you to go beyond theregular expectation that you view some suggested educational programs. A good referencefor this assignment is Peter Appelbaums Math in the News webpage.

B) Math Tour You carefully research a local ecological location, your home town, or someother appropriate site, through library research and natural observation. Then you create aguide for a mathematical walking or driving tour. The tour should include a map and sites for a person to stop and read about the mathematics of what they can see and do along thewalk; either pose a small project or mathematical investigation at each site, or facilitate thetourists' own creation of problems that they can submit for other visitors. Your guide shouldbe good enough to donate copies to your town library or municipal building to promotetourism. The types of activities at each stop should reflect the kinds of ideas about teachingand learning mathematics that we have been learning about in our course.

C) Creative Project You pursue a creative form of expression for representing an areaof concern or interest developed during this course. Examples from past semesters: aninterpretive dance, a painting, a documentary video, a spoof video, an environmental studieslab in a school, a quilt, a collection of storytelling performances, a mathematical novella; acollection of poems. Along with your work, provide some written program/guide that helpsothers understand what to look for in the work that you have created.

D) Take-Home Midterm Exam You type responses to essay questions that ask youto apply, synthesize, and critique issues of this course.

E) Analyzing Math Texts and Curriculum for Cultural CompetenceIn pairs, students will find either a math textbook chapter/unit or a lesson plan to:Evaluate and critique from a multicultural lens (e.g., What is missing from the materialthat would make it more multicultural? What is in the material that is stereotyped, Eurocentricand/or biased in specific ways?);Create an alternative text that articulates your ideal multicultural lesson and reflects issuesraised in the course (e.g., What could be changed or added to enhance the material? Tomake it more inclusive and reflective of multicultural ideals?).

Everyone will be responsible for sharing his or her results from their midterm projectsand a rubric will be provided.

50 Points: Conference ReflectionOctober 22-24 th Brooklyn, NY (One day attendance required)Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice: Joineducators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-dayconference to explore the connections between math education and social justice.http://creatingbalanceconference.org/
http://gargoyle.arcadia.edu/appelbaum/ed426.2004.htm#Assignment%20Options%23Assignment%20Optionshttp://gargoyle.arcadia.edu/appelbaum/newsproject.htmhttp://creatingbalanceconference.org/http://gargoyle.arcadia.edu/appelbaum/ed426.2004.htm#Assignment%20Options%23Assignment%20Optionshttp://gargoyle.arcadia.edu/appelbaum/newsproject.htmhttp://creatingbalanceconference.org/


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25 Points: Web-based Teacher Portfolio As a way of organizing your work during thesemester, and making your process transparent, you will build your electronic portfolio .

(Tentative ) Course ScheduleDate Topic Assignments and Readings

Due on Date Listed

9/2 Introductions and Syllabus Sign up for After School program fieldwork9/7and9/9

How do we start talking aboutmathematics?

READ: Talking Math by Fleming Amos(Distributed in class)

Discuss After School program proposals1-2 page reflection due on Talking Math

9/14 School Mathematics for the 21 st Century

Discuss Grade levels for Childrens Booksand Math projects

READ: Seeley Part One(Messages 1-13)

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS BEGIN!

9/14 through 12/9NOTE: WE WILL ONLY BE MEETING THURSDAYS DURING THIS TIME

9/21 Literacy and Math Selected chapters from Read Any Good MathLately?: Children's Books for MathematicalLearning, K-6 by Whitin and Wilde

9/28 Presentations on Childrens Books and Math

10/5 Education Reform and Math Education Seeley Part TwoMessages 14-18Prep for midterm

10/12 Education Reform and Math Education Seeley Part TwoMessages 19-27

10/19 Midterm Project Presentations and Projects DueSubmit on Taskstream

Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice:Join educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-day conference to

explore the connections between math education and social justice. http://creatingbalanceconference.org/ (ONE DAY ATTENDANCE REQUIRED)

October 22-24 th Brooklyn, NY10/26 NO CLASS in lieu of conference (NOTE: You should still be running your program)11/2 Posing Problems Whitin & Cox Introduction, Ch1 and Ch2

11/09 Going Beyond the Data and Inventing Tools Whitin & Cox Ch3 and Ch411/16 Patterns and Relationships Whitin & Cox Ch5

11/23 Math Workshop Whitin & Cox Ch6 and Ch7

11/30 Real Students and Real Teachers Seeley Part ThreeMessages 28-41 (JIGSAW)

12/7 Individual Meetings with Dr. Davila regarding Final
http://creatingbalanceconference.org/http://creatingbalanceconference.org/http://creatingbalanceconference.org/http://creatingbalanceconference.org/


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12/16 Closing Reflections and Connections to ED22112/21 FINAL: Present Final Projects

9a-12p

ED218_Arcadia_Fall2010

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