Learning from Teaching Cases SummaryMonday - Friday, July 9 - 13, 2007Monday July 9, 2007 SSTP Participants: Nicole, Connie, Kelley, Bree, Mitch, Amy, Angie, Rey, Sarah, Joe, Sandy Visitors: John Schweig from Math for America Daily Summary:
Summary by: Angelica Vega Tuesday July 17, 2007 SSTP Participants: Nicole, Connie, Kelley, Bree, Mitch, Amy, Angie, Rey, Sarah, Joe, Sandy Visitors: n/a Daily Summary: What instructional choices did you notice? What was their purpose? What are the "group worthy" features of the Tile Pattern Task? Summary by: Joe Rice Gonzales Thursday July 12, 2007 SSTP Participants: Nicole, Connie, Kelley, Bree, Mitch, Amy, Angie, Rey, Sarah, Joe, Sandy Visitors: Melissa Smith from Horizon Research, Inc. Daily Summary: We began the session with a discussion on status. Everyone had the opportunity to comment on their personal perception of their status at the assigned table groups in the morning sessions. We have become keenly aware of status and its effects since it was presented to us in our Case Study Group. It was mentioned that there is no cure for status even though status is not necessarily considered a disease. Adults have a greater ability to deal with status issues than children. Consequently, what can educators do to alleviate negative status issues in their classrooms?
The video was entitled "Where is the 10?" The events in this teaching extract take place in a ninth grade sheltered Algebra I class where students are taking the class for the first time. The lesson plan instructions include finding the perimeter of an arrangement built with Lab Gear blocks. Students are to combine like terms in their answer. A short discussion in relation to the obervation questions followed the video presentation. The discussion will be continued on Monday, June 16. Homework for Monday includes thinking of more ideas for our Case Study project. Tomorrow, Friday, June 17, we are to attend Aki's teaching demonstration from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Case Study sessions will resume on Monday, June 16. Summary by: Sandra Peterson Nesbitt Friday July 13, 2007 SSTP Participants: Nicole, Connie, Kelley, Bree, Mitch, Amy, Angie, Rey, Sarah, Joe, Sandy Visitors: John (Math for America), Melissa (MSP) Daily Summary: We had the opportunity to observe Akihiko Takahashi's teaching lab. He is guiding a group of 11 students (5th and 6th graders) through lessons he has prepared to emphasize the process of learning through problem solving to develop formulas for parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. Aki has post-it posters all along the walls illustrating the progression of their sessions on discovering ways to develop formulas for parallelograms. The kids were engaged and excited and most were eager to struggle through the tasks. Aki encouraged the students to use scissors and tape to cut their parallelograms into puzzle pieces that could be manipulated to form a rectangle. I loved seeing the direct application of what Aki has been teaching us in our morning groups. He celebrated with the kids as they discovered ways that didn't work and ways that did work. He encouraged each student to come up and share their method with the class. At the end of the class the students took time to write down what they had learned that day. I enjoyed observing the way he interacted with his students as well as the way he assessed their performance. He walked around with a clipboard, and I brainstormed things that he might be writing down. What would I be interested in knowing about what each group was working on? Ways that worked/didn't work, correct/incorrect math sentences, how many times I talked to each group/individual ... When I peeked over Aki's shoulder, I was surprised. He was drawing pictures of what each student had created. I have so many thoughts: Will I be able to set-up and maintain healthy working groups? Will I be able to motivate my students to delight in discovery? Can I hold my tongue and refrain from leading my students by the nose? Do I have the resources available to complete such tasks? Do I start the first week of school? Is it something that the kids need to be eased in to? Who's to say what the perfect method of approaching this in a classroom is? I plan on jumping in the first week of school and learning with my students. We will practice and practice, and I hope that this idea of teaching through problem solving will eventually become a procedure that my students are used to. I want to eliminate initial confusion so that we will be able to have maximum time to engage in discovery lessons. Summary written by: Amy Bateman ![]() PCMI@MathForum Home || IAS/PCMI Home ![]()
With program support provided by Math for America This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under DMS-0940733 and DMS-1441467. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. |