ED 218: Developing Mathematicians: Thinking Teaching and Learning in Elementary Mathematics FALL 2010 Instructor Office: Office Phone:

E-mail Office Hours Class Hours Class Location COURSE SYLLABUS Dr. Erica Dvila 310 C Taylor Hall 773-636-1554 davilae@arcadia.edu Mon 2-4p and Wed 5-7p TR 10:20a-12p Taylor 316

Course Description: Through class investigations, field applications and common assignments with other co-requisite education courses and field work in area schools, students will develop a working conception of mathematics as an evolving literacy, notions of how to integrate mathematics with other subjects in the school curriculum, a comprehension of the expectations that people hold for mathematics K-6, and effective strategies of achieving the first two goals through or in spite of the third. Particular attention is paid to issues of social justice and diversity related to mathematics education. Required Texts: Several required readings will be provided in class. Seeley, Cathy. 2009. Faster Isnt Smarter. Math Solutions. Whitin, David. & Robin Cox. 2003. A Mathematical Passage: Strategies for promoting inquiry in grades 4-6. Heinemann. Conference Fee $25: Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice Good Resources for this course:
Burns, Marilyn. 2000. About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource. Pearson Learning. ISBN: 094135525X Cathcart, W. George, et al. latest edition. Learning mathematics in elementary and middle schools. Pearson. Van de Walle, John A. latest edition. Elementary school mathematics. Longman. Wake Forest University. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice. http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/socialjustice/ Whitin David and Wilde, Sandra (1992) Read Any Good Math Lately? Childrens Books for Mathematical Learning, K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ISBN: 0435083341

Learning Outcomes/ Expected Student Competencies: a. Students will demonstrate competencies in the following state certification standards:

I.D. Mathematics instruction at the elementary level in accordance with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards including: Prenumber concepts, number sense, whole numbers, fractional numbers, measurement, algebra, geometry, estimation, probability, statistics, reasoning, and problem solving Use of developmentally appropriate manipulatives, calculators, computers, and emergent technologies II.B. Planning of instruction based upon knowledge of the subject matter, learning theory, classroom environment, students, the community and the Pennsylvania Academic Standards including: Alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment Multidisciplinary curriculum integration Collaborating with appropriate subject area specialist II.D. Selecting, implementing and adapting effective instructional strategies, curriculum resources and technologies in collaboration with other educators to meet the needs of diverse learners including: Assessing, identifying and building on the students prior knowledge, experiences and skills in each content area Problem analysis, creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making skills Inquiry, direct instruction and cooperative learning II.E. Developing, utilizing, and communicating appropriate measurement and evaluation procedures in the instructional program II.F. Monitoring students understanding of content, providing feedback to students and adjusting instructional strategies as needed III.A. Professional organizations and professional journals III.C. Establishing and maintaining collaborative relationship with basic and higher education colleagues, families and the community agencies to meet the needs of diverse learnersIII.D. Communicating effectively with parents/guardians, other agencies and the community at large to support leaning and elementary education

b. Students will also demonstrate the following Arcadia goals for this course:
i. The ability to make informed choices among approaches to mathematics teaching and learning, including: 1. direct instruction 2. focusing on the links among conceptual, procedural, and factual knowledge through models of concepts 3. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a patterns context 4. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a problem-solving context 5. placing mathematics learning and assessment in a problem-posing context ii. The ability to plan educational experiences that enable the teacher and students to act as mathematicians, according to the theories of: 1. Georg Polya (problem solving) 2. John Mason (specializing and generalizing) 3. Marion Walter and Stephen Brown (problem posing) iii. The ability to use a variety of alternative assessment strategies to inform pedagogical decisions, including: 1. anecdotal observation records 2. clinical/flexible interviewing 3. analysis of student work samples 4. mathematician colleague letters 5. performance assessment iv. The ability to make connections between mathematics and social justice issues, including the following: 1. helping students use mathematics to analyze social justice issues 2. describing the ways that school mathematics experiences and success/failure has social justice implications

3. understanding the role of mathematics from an international perspective in fostering dominant models of knowledge and intelligence, and the implications for children learning mathematics

Course Requirements: Co-requisite enrollment in ED 221/ED221L as a field component along with other professional cohort experiences. After School Programs: Math at AB Day
In pairs, you will be developing, running and evaluating an after school programs for K-6 students at AB Day school in Philadelphia, you will be keeping a weekly field notes. You can choose the day of the week for your program (Mon-Fri) but the program must run 3:304:30p or 4:30-5:30p. The programs run 12 weeks. You will also choose the grade level of your program although we will have to flexible depending on the schools needs.

100 Points: Fieldwork as Final Project: Designing and Evaluating an After School Program Focused on Mathematics
In pairs, you will design an after school program and submit a proposal on week two of class. The program will take place at AB Day school: http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/d/day/ in collaboration with After School Activities Partnership (ASAP) which will provide an orientation. I will work with all you in preparing your programs and evaluating them. For the final, you will submit your plan, a weekly journal and a final reflection paper.

100 Points: Participation and Effort. A classroom community is made by people who do
more than show up. The nature of this course requires that you get involved and try things. Just being here is not enough. You must throw yourself into the experiences, and share your thoughts. Only by talking to others about what you are thinking about, and by listening to the ways that others are thinking, will you begin to articulate for yourself and others what the complexities are, what the issues are for you, how other people might interpret what you would like to make possible for young people. Now, some people are not comfortable talking in class, and others think it unfair to put someone else "on the spot." So we need to expand our notion of "participation and contributions;" this might entail looking over this week's television guide and coming to class with a printed list of good shows to watch this week; or videotaping a news segment that we can watch together; or clipping an article out of the newspaper; or just making sure to ask the questions you want answered -- as many times as necessary in order to get us to address the important points. Feel free to suggest ways that people can contribute other than just talking a lot, even though talking a lot will be a good thing. We also need to think about not talking and listening: how to help each other to facilitate somebody else's developing idea, as this will be a valuable skill in teaching.

25 Points: Reflection on Talking Math

Students will draft a 1-2 page reflection of the reading Talking Math by Fleming Amos. The reflection should be written from the students perspective on the topic addressed in the article. Some questions to consider: What is the author saying? Do you agree with the author or not? On what grounds, what are the implications of this in the classroom? How does this relate to other readings in this and other courses? How does this material relate to your experience in education?

100 Points: Childrens Books and Math

Students will be assigned a grade range and they will choose an area of mathematics stated in the state standards. Then the student will choose three childrens books to present in class that help reinforce that area of math. Groups will submit a one- paragraph proposal that will the development of ideas and book choices. The student will provide the class with a 1-2 page handout with the citations for all three books as well as a brief summary of the math in the book and how to best use these books

in fieldwork and/or future classrooms. The student will be assessed on their handout and their presentation. A rubric will be provided. We will do some practice activities in class to help prepare for this project.

100 Points: Choose one of the following Midterm assignments from the options. A) Media Project You analyze media presentations of mathematics & society in order to
prepare an exhibition for our class to learn from. Possible projects include: watch and videotape kids TV and create a montage emphasizing key representations in these programs; listen (watch)/(video)tape contemporary music videos and create a presentation that effectively demonstrates the representations in contemporary music; research a case study of mass media reporting on a current mathematics topic (e.g., newspapers, television documentaries, etc.) and prepare a report or presentation. This asks you to go beyond the regular expectation that you view some suggested educational programs. A good reference for this assignment is Peter Appelbaums Math in the News webpage.

B) Math Tour You carefully research a local ecological location, your home town, or some
other appropriate site, through library research and natural observation. Then you create a guide for a mathematical walking or driving tour. The tour should include a map and sites for a person to stop and read about the mathematics of what they can see and do along the walk; either pose a small project or mathematical investigation at each site, or facilitate the tourists' own creation of problems that they can submit for other visitors. Your guide should be good enough to donate copies to your town library or municipal building to promote tourism. The types of activities at each stop should reflect the kinds of ideas about teaching and learning mathematics that we have been learning about in our course.

C) Creative Project You pursue a creative form of expression for representing an area
of concern or interest developed during this course. Examples from past semesters: an interpretive dance, a painting, a documentary video, a spoof video, an environmental studies lab in a school, a quilt, a collection of storytelling performances, a mathematical novella; a collection of poems. Along with your work, provide some written program/guide that helps others understand what to look for in the work that you have created.

D) Take-Home Midterm Exam You type responses to essay questions that ask you
to apply, synthesize, and critique issues of this course.

E) Analyzing Math Texts and Curriculum for Cultural Competence

In pairs, students will find either a math textbook chapter/unit or a lesson plan to: Evaluate and critique from a multicultural lens (e.g., What is missing from the material that would make it more multicultural? What is in the material that is stereotyped, Eurocentric and/or biased in specific ways?); Create an alternative text that articulates your ideal multicultural lesson and reflects issues raised in the course (e.g., What could be changed or added to enhance the material? To make it more inclusive and reflective of multicultural ideals?). Everyone will be responsible for sharing his or her results from their midterm projects and a rubric will be provided.

50 Points: Conference Reflection

October 22-24th Brooklyn, NY (One day attendance required) Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice: Join
educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-day conference to explore the connections between math education and social justice. http://creatingbalanceconference.org/

25 Points: Web-based Teacher Portfolio As a way of organizing your work during the
semester, and making your process transparent, you will build your electronic portfolio.

(Tentative ) Course Schedule

Date 9/2 9/7 and 9/9 Topic Assignments and Readings Due on Date Listed

Introductions and Syllabus How do we start talking about mathematics?

Sign up for After School program fieldwork READ: Talking Math by Fleming Amos (Distributed in class) Discuss After School program proposals 1-2 page reflection due on Talking Math READ: Seeley Part One (Messages 1-13)

9/14

School Mathematics for the 21st Century

9/21

9/28 10/5

Discuss Grade levels for Childrens Books and Math projects AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS BEGIN! 9/14 through 12/9 NOTE: WE WILL ONLY BE MEETING THURSDAYS DURING THIS TIME Literacy and Math Selected chapters from Read Any Good Math Lately?: Children's Books for Mathematical Learning, K-6 by Whitin and Wilde Presentations on Childrens Books and Math Education Reform and Math Education Seeley Part Two Messages 14-18 Prep for midterm Education Reform and Math Education Seeley Part Two Messages 19-27 Midterm Project Presentations and Projects Due Submit on Taskstream Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Math Education and Social Justice: (ONE DAY ATTENDANCE REQUIRED)
October 22-24th Brooklyn, NY

10/12 10/19

Join educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-day conference to explore the connections between math education and social justice. http://creatingbalanceconference.org/

10/26 11/2 11/09 11/16 11/23 11/30 12/7

NO CLASS in lieu of conference (NOTE: You should still be running your program) Posing Problems Whitin & Cox Introduction, Ch1 and Ch2 Going Beyond the Data and Inventing Tools Whitin & Cox Ch3 and Ch4 Patterns and Relationships Math Workshop Real Students and Real Teachers Whitin & Cox Ch5 Whitin & Cox Ch6 and Ch7

Seeley Part Three Messages 28-41 (JIGSAW) Individual Meetings with Dr. Davila regarding Final

12/16 12/21

Closing Reflections and Connections to ED221 FINAL: Present Final Projects

9a-12p