Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Shaunda Wood
March 3 2018
Bafumo, M.W. (2006). Best Practices – Making Math Relevant. Teaching Pre K-8, 26(4), 10.
This article focuses on the fact that if we want children to succeed in math, teachers need to do as
they do in every other subject and that is to make subject materials relevant to students and
present them in a context they can relate to. Math can be especially abstract and just been like
numbers and formulas, but when taught with purpose, students can see that their entire world
exists in math, it should not be a mystery. Students should be confident using mathematical
language and be given many opportunities to use and practice terms. In my classroom, I want
every child to feel like they can succeed at math, and by giving it context I believe this is
accomplishable.
Bezanson, C., & Killion, J. (2001). Moving math outdoors. Green Teacher, (64), 31.
This article addresses the ever so popular question many students have with math – “when am I
ever going to use then?” in a forward-thinking way that involves activities outdoors to add
context to math in their natural environment as well as promote physical activity. Students are
connected to their school yard and spend a lot of their young life around the schools campus, and
are therefor very connected to that space making it a great use for math surrounding number
sense, patterns and relationships, measurement, estimation, geometry, statistics and probability ,
in order to connect math the students “real world”. This article has so many fun and practical
ways you I can incorporate math into outdoor activities! I look forward to finding creative ways I
This article encourages teachers to plan fun, engaging, effective and self-motivating activities
that encourage the computational fluency of children. It suggests several math games that can be
adjusted for different levels and grades. When children are playing, they are engaged, and
learning can come naturally. Students love familiarizing themselves and mastering their favorite
games and most enjoy playing with and against their peers. As they master the games, they are
practicing and mastering essential math skills! Returning to games that students are familiar with
and can play independently provides a good opportunity for observing and assessing the class
and individuals, as well as can provide time for conferencing with certain students for extra help
or enrichment.
Richardson, K. (2004). Designing Math Trails for the Elementary School. Teaching Children
different levels, ages, or grades that simultaneously accomplishes problem solving, making
connections, communicating, and applying skills in a meaningful context. A math trail guides
students along a pre-planned route outdoors with stops along to way to solve and explore math
concepts in their environment. Students can learn to navigate their environment and apply their
mathematical knowledge to the outdoors through enjoyable and interesting activities! Students
can become familiar with following math maps designed by the teacher, and eventually could
design their own for other student in the class to complete! This is a great way to get students
active outside, having fun with math, and creating a practical connection from math to their
world!
Van de Walle, K. Folk, S. Karp., Bay-Williams, J., & Mcgarvey, L.M. (2016). (5th Canadian
ON: Pearson.
This textbook was our Elementary Mathematics textbook in my university Education degree, and
it has become my essential handbook for revisiting concepts, learning effective teaching
methods, and developing interesting and successful activities for Mathematics in my classroom.
No beginning Mathematics teacher is properly equipped without the Elementary and middle
school mathematics: Teaching developmentally textbook written by Van de Walle et al. Each
chapter covers every part of the math curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 8. Careful
consideration is given to deeply explore every topic to ensure every teacher with this text is
prepared to offer the best learning experience in Mathematics for their students.
Xiaofen Zhang, M. A. (Ken) Clements, & Nerida F. Ellerton. (2015). Engaging Students with
Fractions are an area in math many students find difficult and this has always been surprising for
me, because I find they can be applied to such practical situations. Creative teaching is essential
here. This article focuses on the fact that it is important for students to experience many
representations of fractions, so they will soon discover what a necessary and common focal point
fractions are in our lives. Some great examples are given in this article of activities for upper age
elementary students to explore fractional concepts. Having multiple models if s important for
learning fractions but the same can be said for every other area of math. The more hands on
experiences and practical representations of math students are exposed to, the better success they