I am a strong believer that every child is different, and therefore learns differently. In order to meet the needs of every child it is important to use differentiated instruction in order to appeal to the different learning styles. As educators, it is our responsibility to give our students every opportunity to become successful. Of course, that may mean spending extra time in the classroom, but our students deserve our time and attention. Parents entrust their children to us, so I believe it is our responsibility to provide students with an environment that they are comfortable in. A classroom is a place where children not only learn curriculum such as math and reading, but they also learn important life lessons and skills such as communicating with their peers. Therefore, I believe we need to foster an environment that promotes such learning experiences.
As a math teacher I strongly believe that students need to practice, practice, and practice some more. In my classroom I provide my students with lots of examples, and not just the ones from the book. I then assign a lot of homework, which is of course then followed by moans and groans from the students. I know that some teachers have strayed from giving as much homework as they have in years passed, but I strongly believe that homework is vital to students understanding and also in assessing the students. In saying all of this, I also understand that some people struggle with math or just plain do not like the subject. I get it, I struggled with history when I was in school. But I don't send the students home with all of this work and expect them to know how to do every little bit without any problems. I try to provide my students with any help or assistance they may need.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Reading Logs: Math Books
Rationale: Growing up and going through junior high school and high school I don’t remember my math teachers incorporating a lot of trade books into our lessons. We used our textbook, our calculators, and A LOT of paper, but that was it. There was not really anything very engaging to our lessons. Well, except maybe getting to play with the graphing calculators. That always seemed to be a treat. The books I have chosen will benefit elementary and junior high school students more than high school, but I believe that some of the activities that go along with each book could be great learning points for high school students, particularly geometry and algebra I students.
My certification area is 7th grade through 12th grade math, so I chose books that could be used at that level, but also at a younger level as well because I do intend on eventually getting certified in those areas as well. I think it’s important for a teacher to be very flexible in subject areas or grade levels that they can teach. I also chose the books I did because they offer a variety of learning topics for math. I chose topics that cover algebra, geometry, and finance (which is very useful for consumer math in high school).
1 Title: Spaghetti
and Meatballs for All!
2 Author:
3 Illustrator:
4 Publisher: Scholastic
Press
5 Copyright: 1997
6 ISBN # 0-590-94459-2
7 Genre: Fiction
Library: Cornette Library
Summary:
In this book, Mr. and
Mrs. Comfort throw a dinner party for a family reunion. Mr. Comfort is making
his famous spaghetti and meatballs. Mrs. Comfort has set up 8 tables to
accommodate 32 guests. When guests begin arriving at the party they start
rearranging the chairs and table into one big group so that it will allow
everyone to sit together. However, as more and more guests arrive they realize
that they will have to break the chairs and tables up into smaller groups in
order for everyone to have a seat.
Personal Comments:
I
thought this was a really fun book to read and look at, the illustrations were
great. I loved that the illustrations were easy to understand because for math
purposes, it helps to be able to visualize the problem and what is happening. This
would be a great book for students ranging in age from 4th grade to
junior high age.
Suggested Use in Classroom:
After having a lesson on area and perimeter, and then reading
this book as a class, students could break up into groups to analyze area and
perimeter a little more closely. For example, they could be grouped together
and given a set of squares or tiles (to symbolize tables), and rearrange them
into groups to see how many people you could fit in different seating
arrangements. This will help students understand that shapes with the same area
can have different perimeters and vice-versa.
1 Title: Sir
Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
2 Author:
Illustrator:
4 Publisher: Charlesbridge
Publishing
5 Copyright: 2003
6 ISBN # 1-57091-601-2
7 Genre: Fiction
8 Library: Amarillo Public Library Northwest
Summary:
This book comes from a
series of other books, also containing Sir Cumference. This book is a play on
the original story of the “Sword and the Stone.” King Arthur challenges the
knights to find Edgecalibur. Sir Cumference and Lady Di of Ameter’s son,
Radius, and his friend, Vertex, venture out on the search for the sword. Throughout
their quest, they cut out 2-dimensional shapes and fold them into solid figures.
They then form a data table in order to compare the relationship between the
vertices, edges, and faces of the shapes. Vertex is finally able to uncover the
location of the sword after discovering the last two conditions in King
Arthur’s clue.
Personal Comments:
This book has great
visuals to help support the students understanding of geometrical shapes. I
like the use of math manipulatives in the classroom to aid understanding, but I
think this book would be a great supplement to a geometry lesson. I also think
this book will also be very interesting to the male gender because of the
background of the story.
Suggested Use in Classroom:
After reading the book, I think the kids would have a lot of
fun if they were allowed to go on their own quest to find Edgecalibur. They
could be placed into groups and then be given a set of clues. Another activity
would be to make my own mapping nets and have the students construct figures
from that. For older students, they could make their own mapping nets and then
construct from there. This will help guide them in their understanding of how
to use the mapping nets.
1 Title: The
King's Chessboard
2 Author:
3 Illustrator:
4 Publisher: Puffin Books
5 Copyright: 1988
6 ISBN # 0-14-054880-7
Genre: Fiction
8 Library: Cornette Library
Summary:
This tale takes place in
a palace in India. The king offers a reward to a wise man for his services. The
wise man wishes that his reward be as follows: "Tomorrow, for the first square of your
chessboard, give me one grain of rice; the next day, for the second square, two
grains of rice; the next day after that, four grains of rice; ... for
each square give me twice the number of grains as the square before
it, and so on, for every square of the chessboard." After a while of the
wise man receiving this reward, the king realizes that he has been outwitted
and that the royal granary is struggling to keep up with the constantly
increasing amount of rice.
Personal Comments:
This story is a great
lesson on exponential growth and patterns. It would be a great book to read
starting anywhere in 5th grade and on. It would be good to implement
when covering algebraic expressions also. The visuals in this book are also
wonderful and would be very interesting and appealing to the younger students.
Suggested Use in Classroom:
Students could work alone or in groups to make a chart
showing depicting how much rice the wise man received on days 1 through 12. Through
the use of the chart the students should be able to see a pattern forming. For
older groups of students or more advanced students, you could have them predict
how much rice the wise man would receive on a later day, such as day 15 or 16. This
also allows an opportunity for students to practice converting between ounces,
pounds, tons, etc..
1 Title: One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale
2 Author:
Demi
3 Illustrator: Demi
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright: 1997
ISBN # 0-590-93998-X
Genre: Fiction
Library: Cornette Library
Summary:
This book is very similar
to “The King's Chessboard.” This story is
about a girl named Rani who receives an award after a very good deed. She
requests that she receives one grain of rice, doubled each day for 30 days. In
other words, she will receive one grain of rice on day 1, 2 grains of rice on
day 2, 4 grains of rice on day 3, and so on so forth. She does this in order to
help feed her village and to hopefully outsmart the greedy raja and teach him a
valuable lesson.
Personal Comments:
I really enjoyed this
book. It provided more visuals and illustrations than “The King's Chessboard” did. It would be really easy to
incorporate with the younger students, even younger than 5th grade. It’s
a great way to introduce concepts of patterns and exponential growth.
Suggested Use in Classroom:
This book would be great to use along with “The King's Chessboard,” especially if the students are
struggling on understanding the concepts of patterns and exponential growth.
You could read this book along with the other one and do the same activities as
described earlier. The students could make charts of the amount of rice
received each day in order to analyze it and recognize patterns.
1 Title: How Much Is a Million?
2 Author:
3 Illustrator:
4 Publisher: Harper
Trophy
5 Copyright: 1985
6 ISBN # 0-688-09933-5
7 Genre: Fiction
8 Library: Cornette Library
Summary:
This book introduces the
concepts of money to the readers. It starts off depicting many different forms
of money, such as coins, cash, and checks. The book also gives examples of
equivalent forms of money. For example, 10 dimes is the same as 100 pennies, 20
nickels, 4 quarters, and 1 dollar. The book then explains the role of banks,
how checks are used, and how the banks can transfer money between individuals. Savings
and interest are also explained along with borrowing money and paying interest
back.
Personal Comments:
I think this is a great
book to introduce the concepts of money to any age group. The visuals are
intended more for elementary and junior high, but I think that high school
students could even benefit from the explanations provided throughout the book,
especially when it comes to borrowing money and the concepts of interest and
savings. I like how this book introduces real world concepts.
Suggested Use in Classroom:
For elementary students this book could be used to introduce
the basic concepts and forms of different types of money (coins, paper, etc.). The
students could then determine different equivalent amounts of money. Junior
high students could use it to start learning how to calculate interest.
Website Evaluations
1) Name of Web Site: Math N Stuff
2)
Web Site Address: http://www.mathnstuff.com/
3)
Copyright date and/or last update: 12/13/11
4)
Author/organization credentials: Agnes (A²) Azzolino
5)
Web site design and ease of navigation: To be honest, the website design is not that appealing. It is
apparent that an organization or foundation did not make this site. When you
first go to the link, it doesn’t look like anything professional or anything
that you would think would have a lot of good information. However, I am
pleased to say that this website has a wealth of information to look at. There
are many different math manipulatives that you can download and use. All you
need is Excel, Word, Adobe, and other common computer software programs. There
is also information for all different levels of learning. There are things for
elementary students to use all the way up to Algebra and Pre-Calculus students.
Thankfully, the navigation on this website is
much better than the look and design of it. The links are very descriptive of
what you will find if you click on it. After you go to each of the possible
links on the homepage, you will find many more links that you can click on that
relate to that heading. Those links are also clearly marked on what you can
find there.
I can’t get over just how much information there
is on this website. There are so many different links to take you to all sorts
of different information. It takes a while to look through everything, but it
is definitely worth it to find all the different topics and information that
can be accessed.
6)
Your response and recommendation for use: I
particularly like the “Good Stuff” link on the homepage. There are fun games
and activities for students to use. They are clearly split up into different
levels (elementary, middle school, and high school). These would be fun to use
on a “Fun Friday,” to give the kids a break from lecture, or to help reinforce
a lesson.
There are also a couple of links on the homepage, “Lessons”
and “Algebra Notes and Lessons” that would be particularly helpful to the
teacher. There is even a link for his semester schedule. You can view his
schedule and also enter in your personal information to send him an e-mail.
There is a link to an algebra and pre-calculus
dictionary. I think this could be used in a math lesson by having the kids use
the online dictionary to look up and define the particular terms that will be
in that day’s lesson, or maybe even tomorrow’s lesson.
There is also a link on the homepage called
“Term Tiles.” It provides a visual, auditory, symbolic, and kinesthetic
approach to algebra. I think this is wonderful because everyone has different
learning styles, and this provides a way to reach each one of those different
styles. There are tutorials, quizzes, examples, vocabulary, and a few other
things with each topic under this link.
1) Name of Web Site: Math Pages
2)
Web Site Address: http://www.mathpages.com/
3)
Copyright date and/or last update: There isn’t a copyright date or date of last
update.
4)
Author/organization credentials: I cannot find an author.
5)
Web site design and ease of navigation: This website is very simply and not overly designed, which is
nice. It makes it easy to ready and navigate. There are not a lot of colors or
pictures to distract from the purpose of the web site. The design allows you to
determine exactly what the web site provides. When you click on the topics from
the homepage, the links on the following page are also easy to read. Those
pages are also not overly designed or distracting with lots of colors or
pictures. The only critique I have of the design of this site is the links on
the bottom of the page are in picture format and it is a little difficult to
read what exactly you’re clicking on. If you do end up clicking on it, you will
find out that the pictures are actually the cover of mathematical and science
books. When you click on the picture, it takes you to a website where you can
order that specific book.
This website is very easy to navigate. When you
select on any of the topics from the homepage it takes you to more links within
that topic. For example, if you click on “Geometry” it takes you to a page with
several links to subtopics within geometry, such as “Thinking Outside the
Triangle” and “The Orbit of Triangles.” Once you click on these subtopics there
is a lesson over it with examples.
6)
Your response and recommendation for use: For my classes specifically, I could use the links to “Geometry,”
“Algebra,” “Calculus and Diff Eqs,” and “Probability and Statistics.” I think
the information provided within these topics could be used to supplement my
lectures and lessons. The students could be taken to the computer lab to read
over the lesson and go over the examples. I could also put the lesson up on the
projector from my laptop and go through the lesson and examples with the class.
I could also use this in the classroom by having
the students read over the information if I happen to be gone. What I have
noticed is that if I am gone and need a sub, it is difficult to provide the
students with something new to learn. I know that I will just end up going over
that same lesson again the next day. By having the students read over the
lessons on days that I am gone, it will give them a head start on the lesson
the following day.
1) Name of Web Site: Cool Math
2)
Web Site Address: http://www.coolmath.com/0-math-help-lessons.html
3)
Copyright date and/or last update: 1997-2013
4)
Author/organization credentials: Coolmath.com, Inc.
5)
Web site design and ease of navigation: When first accessing this website, the layout and brightness of
the colors are a little overwhelming. There is so much information and links on
one page that it’s hard to determine what to click on first. Luckily, I am
already familiar with this website because my students already access it in my
classroom. The design can be hard to get used to, but I can see how it would
attract the attention of younger students because of the colors and fonts.
This web site provides math lessons, math
practice, a math dictionary, math puzzles, and more math games than you can
think of. There is even some finance and science information to access as well.
This web site all provides a link specifically just for students, parents, and
teachers.
At first, navigation can be a little difficult.
Like I said before, once you become familiar with the web site it is easy to
get to where you want. The good thing about the navigation on this site is that
the links state specifically what it is; it is short and sweet and to the
point. For example, some of the links on the homepage are “Math Lessons,” “Math
Practice,” “Algebra,” “Pre-Algebra,” etc.. It’s not hard to get to where you
want to go once you find it.
6)
Your response and recommendation for use: I could use this with any of my math classes, including
pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus. My geometry and
pre-algebra classes use this more than any of my other classes. I let them access
this website when they have finished all their work and have free time at the
end of class.
You could also use this in a classroom by
letting the students play the games on “Fun Fridays” or if they have free time
at the end of class. You could set up a rule that once they finished a certain
lesson they could play a corresponding math game. Any time the students can get
on the computers whether to play games, do research, or complete lessons they
are usually pretty excited about it.
Another way this website could be used is in a
way I stated for the web site before this one. On any day that I may be gone or
out of the classroom the students could be taken to the computer lab to work on
lessons that we will be starting soon that way they will have some background
information once we get to that topic.
1) Name of Web Site: AAA Math
2)
Web Site Address: http://www.aaamath.com/
3)
Copyright date and/or last update: 2011
4)
Author/organization credentials: J. Banfill
5)
Web site design and ease of navigation: When first accessing this website you notice that it is very
simply designed, almost dated, and easy to navigate. The colors are not
distracting and don’t take away from the font, therefore everything is easy to
read. The topics are laid out in a column to the left of the page, clearly
stating what you will learn about in each link.
When navigating the site, in the column to the
left of the page, you notice there are link with information outside that of
math, such as “Spelling” and “World Nations” that take you to other AAA
websites. For example, if you click on “Spelling” it takes you to http://www.aaaspell.com. Or, if you click on “World Nations” it takes
you to http://www.aaawhere.com.
Navigating the site is very easy to do. There is
a row of links at the top of the page that allows you to find information by
grade, including Kindergarten through 8th grade. There is also a
column of links at the left of the page that allows you to find information by
subject topic, such as “Addition,” “Algebra,” “Comparing,” etc..
There is also a Spanish version of this website.
You can also find the links for math resources for students, parents, teachers,
and home schooling.
6)
Your response and recommendation for use: As of right now, I could only use this for my 8th grade
class, but I am also certified to teach 7th grade, so maybe I could
use this website for that class in the future.
I think it would be great to use this website to help
reinforce any lessons the students may be struggling with. I could take the
students to the computer lab and have them each work individually on the
computers. The lessons provide examples and practice. They could work through
the lessons and then do the practice problems. Or I could project it on the
screen in the classroom and have them do it as a class together. It may work
better individually because the practice questions can be turned into a game.
You can play the game of how many can I get right in 60 seconds, or you can
play by being rewarded extra time for each right answer, or you can play how
quickly can you get 20 right answers.
I think this would also work really well to help struggling
students. If any students have to come in for tutoring they could work on this
website. I believe it would be motivating to them to allow them to play the
games after the lesson. It would give them a reason to not have a bad attitude
towards tutoring.
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