Freakonomics is a popular book series and podcast where they apply economics and quantitative analysis to society. They recently focused on school mathematics. Listen to this podcast or read the summary about the 21st century mathematics curriculum: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/ (Links to an external site.)
Share your thoughts and reactions. What do you agree with and why? What do you disagree with and why? What did the Freakonomics story fail to consider? Are you glad that Freakonomics is giving attention to issues of math education?
olve the problems contained in the documents below. You can type directly into the DOCX file or you can do handwritten work on the PDF. If you prefer, you can also do a screencast or video recording of your verbal solutions and submit the media here on Canvas.
Parallel curriculum, as outlined in the text (see page 380), is often an essential part of instruction for individuals with OHI/Physical disabilities. Task – Respond to these 2 questions:(1) What is a “parallel curriculum?” (Do not Google this term because it will bring up different information. Instead, be sure to read pages 379-380 in textbook and/or the information linked here
Download the information linked here)(2) Read the scenario below and identify one objective that should be addressed within the parallel curriculum for this student (an objective that is NOT academic) and provide one example of how you may teach to the objective.
Scenario: An 11th grade student with Cerebral Palsy. The student uses a wheelchair and has limited gross motor skills with his hands/arms. This means that he has difficulties holding a pencil to write, buttoning his shirt, and many hygiene practices. He is unable to use a restroom and needs assistance when he needs to be changed. He can feed himself and drink from a cup but does so with great difficulty. He cannot cut food though. His speech patterns are difficult to understand by anyone that is not familiar with him. Further, he has difficulties reading. He does, however, have excellent listening comprehension. With accommodations, he performs well in all academic areas and hopes to attend college upon graduation. He navigates independently in his wheelchair, including using elevators. He pushes buttons in an elevator, as well as on an enlarged keyboard, using a modified gripper.
In the Driscoll text, read Chapter 6 (Fostering Symbol Sense) and Chapter 7 (Linking Multiple Representations).
Use this forum to post thoughts, questions, or disagreements you had with the text. If you have a key thought about Chapter 6 and one about Chapter 7, please post those separately. If you have a synthesizing thought across both, then please post that as a single entry.
You may also respond to one of these prompts:
What is your most common experience with middle-school-aged students in terms of symbol sense?
You will submit your good problem or modified problem set early so that your peers can work on the problems during the unit itself.
For good problems, look online or in books for a good algebra problem, or (as a last resort) you may try to create your own good problem. Your good problem can be on any topic as long as there’s some connection to algebra. “Good” in this instance refers to the criteria from Unit 1. (Links to an external site.)
Goal/Question is clear and concise
Solution is not immediately obvious
Open-ended or open-middle (i.e., there are multiple fruitful pathways toward a solution)
Involves worthwhile mathematics ideas (for this course, it should involve algebraic ideas)
Fun to work on
For modified problem sets, the schedule (Links to an external site.) should indicate your algebraic topic. For that topic, look online or in books for 3 very typical problems or exercises on that topic. The first 3 problems in your modified problem set should be very straightforward and recognizable for middle school and high school algebra. Then, where the modification comes in, is you should create 2 new problems (#4 and #5) to complete your modified problem set. These 2 new problems should be more interesting or creative than the first 3, but they should still address the same topic. See Unit 1 for some strategies for modifying problems:
Reversals
“Solve it two ways”
Roadblock
Remove an element
Other things that you might have seen or you have come up with
Below are two modified problem sets from your peers. (Each student will get one chance to share a modified problem set with the class; see schedule here (Links to an external site.).) Choose at least one of the problem sets (you’re welcome to do both, but you don’t have to) and make a post in this discussion forum that includes the following:
Which problem set you are posting about at the present moment. Clearly indicating A or B is sufficient.
Your thought process and solutions to the problems (probably as an attachment). For this part, you will most likely attach a document to your post, or you may embed an image/video to represent your work. You may have complete solutions or you may just share details about your attempts. As long as it is clear you have given substantial effort, you are fine for this portion of the assignment. (Once you post, you should be able to see the work of others who have posted already.)
Your evaluation of the modified problems (in the body of your post). Compare the last two problems to the first three routine ones, and share your thoughts. This part can be a brief evaluation (bullet points are okay), but please consider what learning opportunities were offered by the items, how the problem set overall was changed by the inclusion of the last two problems, or other thoughts you have about the problem set as a teaching device.
Below are good problems from your peers. (Each student will get one chance to share a good problem with the class; see schedule here (Links to an external site.).) For one problem of your choosing, make a post that includes the following:
Which problem you chose. Simply stating A or B at the top will suffice.
Your thought process and work on the problem. You can type your thoughts, attach a document, or embed an image/video to represent your work. You may have a complete solution or you may just share details about your attempt(s). As long as it is clear you have given substantial effort, you are fine for this portion of the assignment. (Once you post, you should be able to see the work of others who have posted already.)
Your evaluation of the problem in terms of the “good problem” criteria. This should be in the body of your posts (not in an attachment). It can be a brief evaluation (bullet points are okay), but please consider
the clarity and conciseness of the central question,
the obviousness (or lack thereof) of the solution pathway,
the presence (or not) of multiple fruitful pathways,
the relevance or importance of the mathematical substance, and
your subjective experience working on it (was it fun?).
Your text provides this quote from featured teacher Erin Hedges about communication differences versus disorders: “Many of my students speak Appalachian or African-American dialects. Examples include a different use of the “to be†verb (“you was†instead of “you wereâ€), double negatives (“He don’t know no better†instead of “He doesn’t know any betterâ€), and vocabulary differences (“I’m finna [fixing to] go to the store†instead of “I’m planning to go to the storeâ€). I recognize these dialects as differences rather than disabilities.â€
Assignment: Why is it important to obtain language samples from a child in conversation as well as assess interactions with parents, adults, and peers? Further, why should language assessments also be conducted in the student’s native language if that language is not English? You may refer to the teacher quote above when answering the question, and you may also use the textbook to help you. Please respond to these questions with at least 4 sentences.
This week, in replacement of the Chapter Video Summary, you will watch this excellent TED Talk from Dr. Wendy Chung. (Links to an external site.) She discusses the causes of autism, reasons for increased autism prevalence, sex differences in autism, the importance of early detection for the best chance at intervention, and the future of treatments.
You will respond to one question about the TED talk and one question that refers to information from your textbook.1. Using the information from Wendy Chung’s TED talk, what are some of the reasons that have been proposed for the increasing prevalence of autism? (You may also include information from the textbook for this question) Minimum of 3 full sentences.
discusses the popularity of unproven treatments for autism. This is a big problem in the field of special education. Unproven means that many treatments claiming to help children with autism are actually backed backed by little or no scientific evidence. Respond to the following: a. What are some of the strategies used with children with autism that do not have evidence of effectiveness? b. How can we all be more cautious and decrease the popularity of unproven treatments for helping children with autism? (you can take the perspective of a parent, teacher, etc. when answering this question)
What do you think is the best way for a teacher to set up an opportunity for students to notice and express a generalization?
Should generalizations happen as an initial part of concept development or should generalizations follow after concept development as a way to extend or apply the concept?
