Math Matters

Illuminations is a project designed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics that works to serve teachers by increasing access to quality standards based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support for teachers.

The site contains a searchable database of lessons and interactivities you can use with students, including over 600 lesson plans and over 100 lessons. Also including are virtual manipulatives, applets, and games.

Students can also play 13 online games through Calculation Nation and there are online and mobile learning apps as well for both Android and iOS devices.

As a teacher, this site is one I bookmarked and used it regularly when planning. You will LOVE all the resources you can find.

How are you using TTM in your classroom to maximize learning in the TEKS? Post a comment on this newsletter or send me an email with some of your good ideas to share with others so we can all learn too!

This pairs or table team activity works great for mastery learning, developing thinking, and fostering communication.

1. Cooperative teams are given one paper and one pen/pencil to use.

2. The teacher poses a problem or provides a task to which there are multiple possible answers, steps, or procedures.

3. The teacher provides an example and checks for understanding. A time limit is set.

4. The teacher selects a student to begin in each team (lettering or number off students works best)

5. The starting students quickly write the first step, first procedure, first word or phrase, etc and then pass the paper to the team member to the left.

6. The paper continues to go around the table as each student adds to the solution process or the list (whatever applies).

7. The teacher calls time. All pencils are placed down on the table.

8. The teams take turns sharing their responses with the rest of the class and celebrate successes.

In this formative assessment technique students are asked to compare their ideas at the beginning of a lesson or instructional sequence to the ideas they have after competing the lesson. Both parts of the reflection occur after the instruction. The technique enables teachers to hear or read the students' down accounts of how their understanding of math changed for them as a result of their learning experiences.

Provide students with a copy of a recording sheet, or have them make their own, or to write down and fill in the sentence: I used to think ______, but now I know ______. Provide time for a quiet think and write. Explain to students that they should describe how their ideas changed or how they became more detailed compared to what they know at the beginning of instruction. Use Think-Pair-Share, Partner Speaks, or other pair strategies to have students read and share their reflections with a partner.

One example: "I used to think multiplication always made larger numbers, but now I know it makes smaller numbers when I multiply by a fraction or a decimal number between 0 and 1."

There are several types of supplementary materials that can help students remember what they learn while listening to a teacher. Some types are better than others. A study compared the effect of graphic representations (such as flowcharts with keywords) versus colorful pictures on students' memory. The results of the study shows that students remembered more when they were given graphical representations instead of colorful pictures. Pictures actually can inhibit memory of knowledge given auditorily. The complexity of a picture takes too mich visual attention and stresses the capacity of intellecual processing.

Graphic Representations can include:

Flowcharts, rough structural sketches, continuums, number lines, matrices, Venn diagrams, tree diagrams, concept maps, and problem-solution charts.

See examples below

Why is _____ important?

How could you find out more about ____?

How is ____ like _____?

What patterns can you find ... ?

How could you draw .... ?

What steps are involved in ... ?

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