I just got back from NCTM, and as usual, absorbed some great math and bought some potentially useful books. I loved Steve Leinwand's talk. He made several good points. For example, he does (did?) 5 minutes of cumulative review EVERY day. That adds up to 15 hours of instruction a school year, and his argument was that no one learns a topic after 2 lectures and 2 homework assignment. They need refreshers. He also uses the review to pause and point out meanings of various vocabulary terms, indicating that the really low-performing students are stunted by their lack of knowledge of what you're talking about (meanings of math terms).
I also learned a great calcululator trick. To graph a piecewise function, you can do it all in Y1 as:
Y1 = (x+1)( x<2)
+ (3x-7)(x>2)
all on one line to graph x+1 for values less than 2 and 3x-7 for values greater than 2.
A North Dakota teacher discussed how she teaches polar graphing of limacons and lemniscates and flowers so that it sticks in the students' heads.
I bought books on differentiating instruction for high school math (woot woot, you never find it for this level and this topic) and a "share & compare" strategy book for math. There's also a math joke book from Nasco for calculus I had to have.
Someone shared with me that the fun math ladies (?) instead of always putting name_____ on the top of tests vary it like:
math star ______
_______ loves fractions
future mathematician _______
etc.
So all in all, useful conference.
I'd love to hear your reviews about the differentiation books, and how they impact your classes. Differentiated curriculum/assessment is a concept I have yet to tackle (and really be sold on).
ReplyDeleteI found a lot of the things I was doing with my classes was considered differentiated instruction - tiered assignments, menus, think boxes; and I always start a year using the VARK with my students to determine their learning styles. Those little pieces of knowledge DO seems to make a difference in reaching the students.
ReplyDeleteBut that has been with the concepts of middle school math (which in Georgia now includes concepts in geometry that I didn't have until the 10th grade!). Next year, I'll be in a collaborative classroom at the high school level, so I'm interested to hear what you've picked up in the way of book for that level.
Enjoy your blog, BTW!
I, too, had a great time in Atlanta at NCTM. One idea I picked up there to reinforce number sense was a game that I liked so much I made a website out of it last week. Check it out: Number Challenge.
ReplyDeleteCaptain,
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool idea. I hope I win :).
Ms. Cookie
Ms. Cookie, please share the titles of the books you found on differentiating instruction in math at the secondary level. I am an instructional coach at the high school and need more information about DI in math. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMs. Cookie, PLEASE share the titles of the books you obtained on differentiating instruction in secondary math.... I'm having difficulty finding anything that really hits the high school math! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteMs. Cookie, PLEASE share the titles of the books you obtained on differentiating instruction in secondary math.... I'm having difficulty finding anything that really hits the high school math! Thanks!!
ReplyDelete