Over the last year, Dr. Lisa Lunney Borden and I have been working on a model for integer operations that she introduced me to a while back. Our goal is to amplify her research for classroom mathematics teachers. Right now, the idea consists of three pieces, each at varying stages of development.
Rationale: Create a game that embeds the skills of adding and subtracting integers into a conceptual decision making structure.
Objective: Insert a set of integers into a 4-by-4 grid so that the sums of the rows and columns is a minimum.
Game Set-up:
All the students need is the game board and the list of sixteen numbers.
Let it be known that Sadie Estrella is a Hawaiian treasure.
She made her way north for SUM2015 in Saskatoon and I got the opportunity to learn from her about counting circles (as well as share an eventful dinner).
It is probably good to understand her work on counting circles before reading a couple of ideas I had during her session.
I went to her blog and searched for #countingcircle, and the results can be read here.
I joined a middle years math community organized by my school division. I have a growing interest in the transition of students from middle school to high school because many of the tasks I use or create get at middle years content. I’m wondering what knowledge students come to my room with and what atmosphere it was learned in. Both have huge impacts on how students operate in my room.
I was surprised to hear that middle years teachers lamented that students could not use number lines. I use number lines as a support in my high school classes because I (ignorantly) assumed that this was an accessible tool from their elementary days. As it turns out, what I thought was making things easier for kids to conceptualize, probably was causing cold sweats and night terrors.
Math 9 poses the specific challenge of pre-assessment. The wave of administrative details (lockers, fees, photos, textbooks, tryouts, etc.) creates a logistical whirlwind for teachers. On top of that, you have no clue who (most) of these new students are, or what their mathematical history is. Our department gives a short pre-skills exam to help with this process, but I like to use the first week to work on integer tasks to really see how the newbies move mathematically–beyond a number on an exam.