Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia
High School Mathematics Institute #2 hosted by the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortiumin June, 2010
Seeing the World Mathematically: Teaching the New Math 10C curriculum
with Dr. Peter Liljedahl
Outline and Discussion Guide
Part 1 (morning)
Video 1 / Introduction of Peter Liljedahl- Who is Peter LiljedahlVideo 2 / Teaching to the New Math 10 -C Curriculum-Agenda
or Teaching to the New Math 10 -C Curriculum Game Plan
Description / Overview of Presentation: How do we successfully connect math activity with curriculum expectations?
Possible Questions / Specific areas to be addressed include:
*How do we link math activity to the curriculum?
*How do we link curriculum to the math activity?
*How do we know if this is working?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 1 - 3
Video 3 / Exploring Activity in the new Math 10-C Curriculum
Description
/ The new curriculum is still about specific outcomes and achievement indicators that have not changed but it is also about the goals for students, the mathematical processes, and the nature of mathematics. A way to envision the curriculum is to understand the difference between context and content.
Possible Questions and Activities / Activity: How Tall Is Conner?One day when my son was quite young he made, what he thought, a startling discovery. He was sitting at our kitchen bar/counter eating Cheerios when he realized that he was exactly the same height sitting on our 24 inch bar stool as he was when standing up. How tall is Conner?Things to watch for* The most beneficial (to our discussions) way to solve this problem is to gather some data from several people to plot the data. If people are trying to do this problem without gathering data please urge them to do so. If they are working alone encourage them to join a group. Try to encourage people to graph their data.Clarifying points*Connor was normally proportioned.*The bar stool was 24 inches in height to the seat.Possible extension* If they solved the problem without graphing any data encourage them to produce a graphand to somehow use the graph to answer the question.*If they solved the problem with a graph, ask them how they could make their graph better.What is the new Math 10C curriculum all about? What is the primary goal of this new curriculum? What is the mathematics we can extract out of this activity? How can you link this activity to the 10C Curriculum? What 3 parts of the curriculum document can we look at to determine how well an activity links to the curriculum?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 4 - 5
Video 4 / Connecting Activity to Core Curriculum
Description / Local Discussion: The new curriculum poses many questions for teachers. In this section we explore the value of connecting content to core curriculum and the consequences of not doing so.
Possible Questions / *What are the implications of the new curriculum for teachers?
*What is the value and feasibility in considering both the specific outcomes and the front matter (goals for students, mathematical processes, nature of mathematics) within our teaching?
*What are the consequences of not doing so?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 6 - 13
Video 5 / Question and Discussion Period that delves into the importance of the pedagogy behind the new Math 10-C curriculum
Description / Question and Answer Period: Teachers ask questions to help clarify and delve into the importance of this pedagogy switch and look for guidance and advice on how to proceed with process focus content.
Possible Questions / *Is it feasible for you to mount a curriculum that addresses goals for students, the mathematical processes, and the nature of mathematics and how will students respond to this curriculum?
*What is the balance between traditional teaching methods and the focus of the new curriculum?
*What is the value in teaching through rich tasks?
*What do we need to instill in students in order for them to be successful in mathematics?
Sub Questions
Q.1. / Is it important for a Problem Solving activity to have a self assessment component?
Q.2. / If the processes are now the content how do we assess that and when do we assess it?
Q.3. / What is the balance of integrating activities with the traditional teaching style of writing notes?
Q.4. / Where do we find all of these great activities?
Q.5. / What do we do to follow up process activities?
Q.6 / How does the new high school curriculum affect post secondary studies?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 14 - 15
Video 6 / Operationalizing thinking into our classroom
Description / Realizing it is important to have thinking students in classrooms how do we operationalize?
Activity 2: How many of each budgie?
Possible Questions and Activities / Activity 2: How many of each budgie?
A boy has $80 to buy 100 budgies. Blue budgies cost #3 each, green budgies cost $2 each, and yellow budgies cost $0.50 each. If he wants to ensure that he has at least one budgie of each colour, how many of each colour does he need to buy? Is there more than one answer? How do you know you have ALL the solution?
Things to watch for:
*If someone is completely stuck encourage them to solve the problem- how close to $80 can you get?
Clarifying points:
*The boy must spend all of his money.
*The boy needs 100 budgies and must have every colour represented.
*He already has food and cages.
Possible extensions:
*There is more than 1 correct answer! As they find one solution encourage them to find additional solutions and then to spot a pattern between them.
What are the building blocks for moving forward?
How do we assess if something is working for you as a teacher?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 17
Video 7 / Assessing the Effectiveness of a Rich Task.
Description / Assessment: How do we assess if something is working as a teacher?
Possible Questions / How do we increase the potential in the questions we are asking in our rich tasks?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 17-18
Video 8 / Linking Activity to Specific Outcomes
Description / Linking Activity to Curriculum: A look at linking a problem such as the above budgie activity to specific outcomes in the Math 10C Program of Studies.
Possible Questions and Activities / Looking at two documents Mathematics 10 -12 POS and Mathematics 10C POS with Achievement Indicators-
How do the specific outcomes in the POS link to the budgie activity?
How do the outcomes in the front matter of the POS link to this activity?
PP Slide Number(s) / slides 19 - 20
Video 9 / Building a Culture of Thinking
Description / When building a culture of thinking, consider what needs to change, how to incorporate this in the classroom, and what deters students from applying thinking skills.
Possible Questions and Activities / What are the seven starting points to build a culture of Thinking?
What are the most important and valuable skills that students can have in a mathematics class?
What are the six items that we need to stop/reduce in order to promote thinking in our classrooms?
Key Analogy: A man loses his key…along comes a bystander who helps the man look for his key...a while later the bystander asks the man if he is sure this is where he lost his key...he says no he lost it over there but the light is better to search here...the analogy applies to assessment
Building a Culture of Thinking Webinar Activity
PP Slide Number(s) / Slides 21 - 22
Video 10 / Tying topics together within Math 10-C
Description / Local Discussion: A look into combining curriculum from different strands/topics together in the classroom setting.
Possible Questions / How do we live with the possibility that some of these activities bring together curriculum from many different topics within 10C?
PP Slide Number(s) / slide 23
Video 11 / How do we get parents on board?
Description / Question and Answer Period: How do we educate parents about this shift in mathematics learning?
Possible Questions / How do we educate the parents so they understand how we are now teaching and assessing their children?
PP Slide Number(s) / Slide 24
Video 12 / Simon Fraser University Homework Policy
Description / Discussion about Simon Fraser University Homework policy.
Possible Questions / How much benefit do students get out of traditional homework?
PP Slide Number(s)