Advantages of Using Children’s Literature

• provides a motivating introduction to complex curriculum topics

•mathematical vocabulary can be reinforced and connected to the world outside the classroom

Advantages (cont’d)

• engages different learning styles

• provides opportunities for cross-curricular activities

• supports the key mathematical processes: communication, connections, and visualization.

5 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Children’s Book for

a Mathematics Class

• Are the concepts presented in the book accurate?

•Do the illustrations and text engage the reader?

Questions (cont’d)

• Can the reader or listener find real-world connections in the way the concepts are presented?

• Are the concepts presented in a way to engage a specific audience?

Questions (cont’d)

•Does it have the “wow” factor, drawing the reader to new heights, stirring new ideas, and rich, multilayered connections to existing knowledge?

Most Important Questions to Ask

Is this a worthy piece of literature on its own merit?

Does this book meet the same standards you would apply in choosing a book to use in Language Arts?

The Inquiry Process

Model developed by George Polya (1887-1985)Stage 1: Understand the problem.

a) make sure you understand all the words and phrases in the problem;b) identify the important information and the unimportant information;c) determine if any information is missing;d) write the problem in your own words; e) state the question that must be answered to solve the problem.

Stage 2: Make a Plan.

a) identify possible strategies that apply to the problem;

b) decide which main strategy you are going to try.

Most problems will involve more than one strategy but there is usually one that is more dominant than the others.

Stage 3: Carry Out the Plan.

a) work through the problem until you get an answer using the selected strategy;

b) record your work as you progress so that you can see at a glance what you have completed;

c) if necessary, select a new strategy to be able to continue solving the problem.

Stage 4: Look Back.

a) reread the problem and check the solution to see that it meets the conditions stated in the problem and that it answers the question;

b) ask yourself if the solution you’ve arrived at is logical and reasonable.

Characteristics of Good Problems

A good problem:

• requires a student to connect new ideas to previously learned ones;

•can be solved in many ways;

• piques a student’s curiosity.

Some Reasons for Teaching Through Problem Solving

The math makes more sense as it allows students to build connections between what the math is, why it is needed, and how it is applied.

Problem solving builds perseverance as students learn that not being able to answer a question instantly does not mean it can’t be done.

Reasons (cont’)

It introduces the student to the idea that creativity and choice has its place in Mathematics in the same way as it does in other disciplines such as Art and Music.

Good problems allow students the opportunity to practice the use of concepts and skills that are often taught in isolation.

Performance Tasks

What Are They?

• activities designed to allow students to demonstrate their acquisition of particular learning outcomes.

• activities designed to focus on higher order thinking skills such as analysing, evaluating, and creating as described in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.

• activities designed to evaluate outcomes in one or more learning domains--affective, cognitive, psychomotor.

Performance Tasks

Why Use Them?

• allows for assessment of procedural knowledge for which “pencil and paper” testing is inappropriate.

• contributes to transferability of learning/skills to “real world” situations.

• allows for the application of knowledge and skills in a relevant context.

Performance Tasks

Disadvantages

• designing performance tasks is time consuming.

• parents and students sometimes do not appreciate the validity of performance tasks as assessment instruments.

• using performance tasks is time consuming.