St. Francis Xavier University

P.O. Box 5000

Antigonish, Nova Scotia

B2G 2W5 

 

Middle School Mathematics Methods - Education 468

 

B.Ed.

Fall, 2010

Class time: Mondays and Wednesdays 10:40-12:30

 

Instructor: Lisa Lunney Borden

Office: Xavier 311

Office Phone: 867-5132

Email: lborden@stfx.ca

Web: http://people.stfx.ca/lborden/

Office Hours:

Monday 1:00 - 3:00

Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 – 12:00

Other times available by appointment

 

Broad Course Outcomes:

In this course students will:

 

Materials:

In this course we will use the text from Math 412, Small, M. (2008). Making Math Meaningful for Canadian Students, K – 8 Nelson: Toronto. If you do not have one, there is one on reserve in the resource centre. Additional readings will be provided throughout the course. These will be made available electronically or placed on reserve in the resource centre.

 

A schedule of readings and course topics will be posted on the class website and updated regularly.

 

Nova Scotia Curriculum Documents for Grades P to 9

These documents are available to be borrowed from my office and are also available in the resource center. Many students may wish to have copies of their own. These can be ordered for free from the Nova Scotia Department of Education on their website at www.ednet.ns.ca (Click on Document Depot Curriculum & Textbooks Curriculum Documents for NS Schools Curriculum Documents: MATHEMATICS (Download/ Order On-line) and choose the ones you want to add to your cart, put in your information and they should arrive in a reasonable amount of time). You may also want to order copies of A teaching resource: Grade 7, A teaching resource: Grade 8, and A teaching resource: Grade 9 also available through this site.

 

The new texts being used in grades 5 to 8 in the province are on reserve in the resource centre. You should take some time to familiarize yourself with these new resources.

 

University Policy on Academic Integrity

St. Francis Xavier University values academic integrity. Please familiarize yourself with the policy in section 3.9 of the academic calendar. Any infractions will be dealt with according to this policy.

 

Attendance

Students are reminded that attendance is mandatory for all B.Ed. classes. If you are unable to attend class and have a legitimate reason for doing so, you should send an email prior to the class advising me of the reason why you are unable to attend. You will be expected to make up any missed work. If you accumulate two or more unexplained absences you will be reported to the B.Ed. chair.

 

Classroom Equity Policy
For all members of our class to learn effectively, this classroom must be a safe learning environment.  To ensure safety for all students, the policy in this class is that no one shall be discriminated against or harassed on the basis of age, race, colour, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, physical disability or mental disability, an irrational fear of contracting an illness or disease, ethnic, national or Aboriginal origin, family status, marital status, source of income, political belief, affiliation or activity, an individual's association with another individual or class of individuals having any one or more of the characteristics referred to in the list above. Whether a person intended their words or actions to be discriminatory or harassing does not matter; it is the effect of words and actions that is the focus of equitable treatment.

Discrimination is the distinctive treatment of a person with one or more of the above characteristics which, in the view of a reasonable person, has the effect of imposing a burden, obligation or disadvantage or limits and withholds benefits and advantages to an individual or a class of individuals. Harassment (including sexual harassment) is offensive or objectionable conduct or comment toward another person or persons that is known or ought to be known from the perspective of a reasonable person in the position of the complainant to be intimidating, offensive or unwelcome.

Please feel free to discuss with me any questions or concerns you have about discrimination or harassment.  If I cannot help you resolve your problem, you may discuss the matter further with the Human Rights and Equity Advisor, Marie Brunelle (mbrunell@stfx.ca)

 

Assignments

Note: Submitting assignments on time is an important part of developing your professionalism. It is important to make plans to begin working on assignments right away so as not to get bogged down mid-semester. If you anticipate a delay in submitting an assignment due to unforeseen circumstances please contact me as soon as you possibly can to discuss this and make arrangements for a completion plan. All course assignments must be submitted in all classes before individual students are permitted to begin practicum. While individual excellence will be rewarded, it is expected that the class average of marks will normally fall between 78 and 84.

 

 

My Math Journal/Blog (3 x 10 % = 30%)

These may be submitted electronically or in paper format and are due on: Friday Sept. 24, Friday Oct. 15, and Monday, Nov. 8.

 

Three times throughout the course you will be expected to submit your math journal or electronic blog. Each submission should contain the following:

1.     At least one problem that you have worked on with an appropriate write-up explaining what you did in your attempts to solve the problem.

2.     One reflection on a reading from class (no more than 500 words) that raises questions about or makes connections to practice. Dont tell me what the reading was about; tell me what it means to you in your practice.

3.     One comment or question about something you have learned in class with a rationale for the question or comment that connects to your practice (no more than 250 words).

 

PLC Group: Assessing a Unit (40%) Due dates vary; see sections below.

You will be assigned to a Professional Learning Community and will work as a group on this project throughout the term with various components being submitted at various points in time (see below for details). Each group will examine the curriculum outcomes for a unit of work, identify and summarize relevant research on the concept, create a list of assessment indicators for the outcomes, then devise a list of tasks and tools to assess the unit.  More details are given below for each component.

 

1.     Your PLC group will be assigned a grade level and your first task will be to examine GCOs A, B, and C and create a series of concept maps showing the big ideas, clustered outcomes, and connections between and among outcomes. You will submit these concept maps along with a justification for why you have made the decisions you have (1 -2 pages double spaced). From these concept maps you will identify one big idea to be developed into a unit and list the outcomes for the unit your group has chosen. This is due on Sept. 22nd and will be returned by Sept. 29th with feedback and direction for any changes needed.

 

2.    Your PLC group will develop assessment indicators for the outcomes for your chosen unit. Assessment indicators should be developed for each outcome that clearly state what you would need to see to know that students have achieved that outcome. Be sure to read the elaborations so you know what is expected for the outcomes you have chosen. A write-up of assessment indicators along with any revisions from part 1 will be submitted on Oct. 6th and returned with feedback by Oct. 13th.

 

3.     The final component of this project will involve the development of assessment tools including tasks, rubrics, and data gathering strategies. You should include:

a.      Three product tasks that can be used for on-going assessment throughout the unit;

b.     Three observational tasks with a description of how they will conducted and how information will be recorded;

c.      Three conversation or communication tasks that can be used throughout the unit;

d.      And one final assessment with a scoring rubric.

This will be submitted on October 27th.

 

 

Show Me Your Math! (30%) Due Nov. 1, 2010

Many children believe that mathematics is what you do in math class, but mathematics is everywhere in our world. It can be a powerful tool for understanding and explaining our world.  For this assignment you will work with a partner on a math project that will focus on one of two important ideas: Social Justice and Mathematics or Ethnomathematics.

 

Social Justice and Mathematics

Mathematics often enjoys a false sense of universality and is taken by many to be value-free, but certainly this is not the case. Ubi DAmbrosio has commented that the quadratic equation, taught to virtually every high school student is the very thing that allows one country to bomb another. How can mathematics be applied to real world problems and issues to help us to understand and critically analyse these issues? How might we use mathematics to better understand injustice in our society? Examining the link between social justice and mathematics can help to make mathematics more personally relevant and meaningful to middle years students, and can enable greater connections to be made among mathematics and other subjects.

 

Websites and Videos:

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/math-matters

http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPGPcsVpjMk

 

Ethnomathematics

Alan Bishop (1991) has said that mathematics includes the following human activities:  counting, measuring, locating, designing, playing (with any of the first four), and explaining (any of the first four). Each year many Atlantic Canada First Nation schools participate in an event called Show Me Your Math where they look for mathematics in their everyday lives. You can find some of their work along with helpful links at this website: http://schools.fnhelp.com/math/showmeyourmath/index.htm. The word ethnomathematics is often used to describe the mathematics people use in their everyday lives. Ubi DAmbrosio (2006) has said that

Throughout history and throughout their existence, individuals and peoples have created and developed instruments for reflection and observation, material and intellectual instruments [which I call tics] to explain, understand, come to know, and learn to know and do [which I call mathema] in response to the needs for survival and transcendence in different natural, social, and cultural environments [which I call ethno]. Thus from this derives the name Ethnomathematics.

 

Websites and Videos:

http://blog.ted.com/2007/11/29/ron_eglash/

http://home1.gte.net/ericjw1/ethnomathematics.html

http://www.ethnomath.org/

http://www.prel.org/products/paced/apr03/ed_ethnomath.htm

http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/isgem.dir/links.htm

 

Your Project should consist of the following:

1.     A set of teacher notes that include the following (limited to 3 - 4 pages double spaced):

a.     A rationale for the topic you have chosen: Why would this be of interest to middle years students? How does it relate to big ideas in middle years grades?

b.     Links to provincial curriculum outcomes and EGLs: List mathematics outcomes from one or many grades that could be addressed by this project. Also include how this project supports the development of the EGLs.

c.      Potential cross-curricular implications: How might this project also address outcomes in other subjects? You do not need to list specific outcomes but please state how it addresses some of the broad goals of other curriculum areas.

d.     Project details: List resources, instructions, references, materials, and so on, that a teacher would need to use to repeat this project in their own classroom as well as a description of how your pair completed the project.

2.     The Project Itself: Explore and investigate your chosen issue or idea and prepare a presentation for the class to Show Me Your Math!

a.     Your project can take on any form including a poster presentation, PowerPoint, a video, a website, a comic book, etc. Your presentation should state the problem or issue being explored and what you discovered from this exploration. Be sure to focus on the mathematics that was used or uncovered.

b.     Presentations will take place in class on November 1st and 3rd. Each pair will have 5 to 7 minutes for the presentation and there will be time set aside for sharing and discussion.