- Next session:
EDUC 744-914F October 5 – November 27, 2009
- Online Course - no travel to campus required
- 3 semester hours graduate credit
Collaborate with middle school math teachers (Grades 4-8) and discuss best practices for helping students to improve math achievement scores, practical ideas for motivating students to appreciate mathematics, and showing students how math applies to real-life situations. Learn to apply different technologies to make your math classroom come alive.
Math teachers, would you like some practical ideas that you can immediately apply to your classroom? The chance to interface with other math professionals about hot topics and best practice? Then sign up for this course!
This course includes investigation of ratio, proportion, percent, number theory, data analysis, patterns; and connections to algebra and geometry topics in the context of the middle school mathematics curriculum including survey of technologies and educational software to develop mathematical thinking.
Past participants' comments
Learning Outcomes
At completion of the course, students will:
- Analyze research-based practices for improving mathematics instruction. (WI DPI 1; NETS V )
- Design effective standards-based classroom activities for Grades 4-8 students and reflect on student outcomes. (WI DPI 1 ; NETS V )
- Develop varied formative assessment practices and assess mastery of the same essential math concepts in different ways. . (WI DPI 8 ; NETS IV, V )
- Apply instructional strategies and appropriate practices for analyzing student work and modify lessons based on assessment information. (WI DPI 7 ; NETS III, V)
- Apply instructional strategies to promote mathematics learning among students of a wide range of academic diversity including ESL and special needs students. (WI DPI 3 ; NETS V )
- Differentiate math instruction based on students’ learning styles, interests, and readiness levels. (WI DPI 3 ; NETS V)
- Modify lessons based on the synthesis of the relationship between problem solving and communication. (WI DPI 7 ; NETS V )
- Align math classroom environments with real world environments by infusing problem-solving strategies. (WI DPI 1, 7 ; NETS V)
- Apply technology tools in classroom instruction and connect math activities to everyday experiences and the real world. (WI DPI 7 ; NETS III, V )
- Analyze student responses to mathematical problems to detect typical error
patterns and recommend specific approaches that address learning problems of middle grades
math student. Modify lessons based on the synthesis of the relationship between problem solving and communication. (WI DPI 7 ; NETS V )
Alignment
with Wisconsin Teaching Standards
Participants in this class will gain experience that will help them meet the
following:
Wisconsin Teaching Standards:
1, 3, 4, 7, 8
Wisconsin Standards for Administrator Development: 3
International Society for Technology in Education, National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, (NETS-T)
Required Textbook
Readings will be available online or via the university's distance learning library web-based databases.
You will connect to learning modules via the World Wide Web and
interact with other participants and the instructor through email and
a private online class discussion board. Each module provides opportunities for
participants to share ideas and participate in discussion
with the instructor and peers. Participants may work with
one other participant as a team.
By the conclusion of the class each participant will
reflect about their math instruction and develop approaches
for curriculum enhancement.
Conducted online with no on campus class sessions required,
you may participate using your home or work computer without
having to drive to the university campus at set times.
"Changes in the workplace, the demands of effective citizenship,
and the mathematizing of so much of our lives requires that school
mathematics empower all students. Meeting this goal...implies changes
in curricular expectations for students as well as in instructional practices."
~ National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
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Course Content Outline
Recent Research in Middle School Mathematics Instruction
- Why math instruction should capitalize on the learning of core concepts
- The right amount of time to devote to practicing a new procedure
- Teaching standards-based mathematics with a focus on the NCTM process standards
Solving Problems Mathematically
- Problem solving as a key means to introducing new material and building conceptual understanding
- The importance of engaging students in discussing, analyzing, and reflecting on math concepts
- Problem selection and how to help all students develop a problem-solving disposition
- How mathematical representations connect concepts, prompt problem solving and communication
- Helping students understand and move fluently among representations, refine informal models, and understand when and why to move to standard representations
- Using mathematical representations to model real-life phenomena
- Helping students identify and solve problems in contexts beyond the mathematics classroom
Conceptual Understanding - Making Wise Curricular Decisions
- Planning instructional sequences that build on what students already understand about math
- Why student errors are clues to common misconceptions about math
Building Assessment into Instruction
- Using a variety of formative assessment methods to reveal the state of your students’ learning
Making Mathematics Work for All Children - Differentiating Math Instruction in Grades
4-8
- Nurturing positive attitudes about math
- Maximizing the benefits of learning styles and Multiple Intelligence approaches
- Matching the level of task difficulty to a wide range of academic diversity including ESL and special needs students
Number Operations
Algebra
Geometry
Measurement
Data Analysis and Probability
Uses of Technology in Teaching Mathematics Gr. 4-8
- Research related to incorporating technology in the teaching of mathematics.
Literacy Strategies for Improving Math Instruction
- Vocabulary strategies that help students comprehend terms that are critical to understanding math
- Pictorial representations that help students visualize math concepts and personalize their understandings
- Discussion and listening strategies that help students access prior knowledge and communicate about problem solving
Connecting Math
- The interrelated nature of mathematics
- Connecting concepts within mathematics to related science, engineering, technology, and non-technical topics
- Building mathematics from grade to grade and cross curricular as coherent, connected whole
Instructor
Sara Turansky - background information
Hardware and Software Requirements
What are the minimum technology requirements?
Complete the system checkup on this website, https://uwstout.courses.wisconsin.edu/
by clicking on the link that says: Check your system.
Review the list of compatible/recommended browsers and software programs for Learn@UWStout at the Online Help Desk.
If you have any questions about these preferences, please call one of the numbers listed below and indicate that you are a UW-Stout student needing help with Learn@UW-Stout . Help is available 7 days a week.
1-888-435-7589 select option 3
or
1-608-264-4357 select option 3
Take a few minutes to review the Frequently Asked Questions, (FAQs).
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Registration:
Sign Up Soon
Tuition is payable by university billing, MasterCard, or Visa.
Participants may select the payment plan option in fall and spring, but it is not available during summer session. Refund policy
Enrollment is limited to twenty participants; register online .
Check out the list of additional online classes.
Request Information Online
Contact:
School of Education
Online Professional Development
University of Wisconsin - Stout
Menomonie, WI 54751
phone: (715) 642-0209 or 715-232-2253
Orientation Activities
After you are enrolled, review the orientation activities, Student Expectations and Responsibilities and Academic Expectations and Dishonesty Policy.
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