This weeks focus was on learning about the Ontario Math curriculum. One topic that I found particularly interesting in this class was the focus on verbs! Going through the curriculum documents, we identified the verbs that were included in the specific expectations, indicating to us as teachers how our students should be engaged and involved in the learning.
Some of the more common verbs included were: determine, solve and simplify. All of these make sense for a math class.
The ones that I found most interesting to be included were the ones that I do not immediately associate with math. For example: create, construct, illustrate, and develop. My memories of high school math classes definitely do not involve a lot of creating, constructing, illustrating or developing but I am excited to be able to change that for my future students. Adding more “doing” into our math lessons provides engagement for students.
 |
|
http://www.myastrologybook.com/Pythagoras-proof-Pythagorean-Theorem.htm |
Why is this something important to remember as a teacher candidate? As stated in class, it is easy to look at the curriculum documents and teach to the topic addressed in the expectations. However, as teachers, it will be important to recognize that verb too! For example, grade 9 applied math states to “relate the geometric representation of the Pythagorean theorem to the algebraic representation. That is much more than an indication to start a lesson on the board about Pythagorean theorem.
Another topic discussed in class was estimation. Estimation can be a difficult topic for some students to see the value of.
Why is estimation important to teach in the math classroom? Without estimation student’s will not know if their answer is reasonable. I found this article on teaching estimate and accuracy to interesting and supports the idea of teaching estimation.
I will end this post off with a Would You Rather... math problem. We did this style of question last week and I thought it was a great idea to incorporate into the classroom.
Would you rather...
Have a million dollars now or a penny doubled every day for 30 days?
The answer, along with some different methods to solving this problem can be found here.
I like the article on estimation that you linked to. I believe that if we spend some time working on thinking about reasonable answers before students start problems, the more we will expose their actual understanding of the math involved. Your "would you rather" is a nice one. Some things to think about are: what class(es) could you ask this question in? What different strategies do you think students would use?
ReplyDeleteHi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up the exact criteria from the curriculum related to Pathagorean Theorom. I'm currently collaborating with a peer to develo a lesson using that particular expectation! When we first looked at the curriculum we thought of doing the lesson algebraically would be sufficient. After a more careful read we realized that we needed to include the geometric representation. From herder we were able to brainstorm a few difference, creative, engaging ideas.
I believe this example speaks volumes to how important it is to read the curriculum carefully and ensure you are following what the expectations correctly. It is very easy to skim over the expectations and ignore the importance of those verbs!
Thanks for some great insight, it's always great reading your blog posts!
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about your own high school experience lacking verbs like creating, and illustrating. I too often found myself in a repetitive cycle which only included verbs such as solve, and explain. I believe that mathematics in our schools today does not include an opportunity for our students to be creative. Furthermore, I think that creativity maybe the key to promoting interest and passion in our students in the subject of mathematics.
I hope you, along with me, strive to bring creativity back into the math classroom! Thanks for a great blog post!
Laura,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really like your analysis of the verbs used in the curriculum and how you discussed adding more "doing" in our Math classrooms. I think that verbs like "construct, create, develop" hold a very important part in the engagement of students in mathematics. I enjoyed your specific example as we are able to see the importance of recognizing how we want our students to be engaged with the topic as opposed to being strictly focused on content.
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent post, I really think this post summed up the importance of verbs in lesson planning as well as estimation. I do believe that estimation is extremely prevalent in many aspects of the workplace. Whether you are working in a skilled trade or in an office we must constantly make estimations in order to complete our work. These skills save us time and allow us to become more confident in our ability to use our math skills in everyday situations. Moreover, similar to your statement, estimation becomes very important in test taking as it allows students to determine if their answer is acceptable with the given parameters.
ReplyDelete