A coherent understanding of operations is a critical element of preparing students for success in mathematics in middle and high school. edWeb community, Implementing Common Core Standards in Math, held its final webinar of this series in May. Webinar presenter, Dr. Sara Delano Moore, Ph. D., Director of Mathematics and Science at ETA hand2mind, shared connections between the operations understanding students build in elementary school and the mathematics to be learned in middle school and secondary school.
In the edWeb.net Blended Learning community’s latest webinar, Dr. Francis (Skip) Fennell and Dr. Tim Hudson discussed important topics in mathematics education. They shared insights about current trends and issues in mathematics education related to curriculum, assessment, and instruction that are applicable in all states and schools.
Rigor is driven by a balance among conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. After focusing on conceptual understanding of the operations, teachers must help students use their conceptual understanding to build procedural fluency, both with basic facts and a variety of algorithms.
Non-traditional forms of assessment, such as peer-to-peer learning, can produce useful information for the teacher. Another idea is to include an assessment component in warm-up, group, and closure activities during class. Teachers can make students more responsible for their own learning through technology-enhanced self-assessments.
Empower students to publish one-of-a-kind books using photos, text, drawings and audio with Shutterfly’s Photo Story for iPad App. This free app is ideal for Project Based Learning and enriching your classroom literacy program, while enabling students to achieve many of the College and Career Readiness Standards in English Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies.
Trends come and go, but quality education will last a lifetime. In edWeb community, Blended Learning’s, latest webinar, attendees learned what best practice blended learning trends are, and how they can help support personalization of learning for each unique student. Webinar presenters, Tom Vander Ark, author of “Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World” and CEO of Getting Smart, an education advocacy firm, and Tim Hudson, experienced educator and Senior Curriculum Designer for DreamBox Learning discussed effective blended learning approaches that benefit students and teachers.
The largest, most difficult, and most impactful “shift” in Common Core and other “Next Generation” learning standards is the recognition that students must be able to perform at a deeper level of cognition – literally, “depth of knowledge”.
The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics describe eighteen different varieties of math problems which can be solved by multiplication and/or division. In a typical textbook, only a handful of these problem varieties are addressed.
Dan Levin, President and Founder of EducAide Software, demonstrated how to turn ordinary skills-based questions into the kinds of multi-step questions and tasks which are at the heart of the Common Core math standards. The discussion was practical and based on real-world examples
