|
October 2016
In this edition of the News you will find:
Lilydale High School Year 7 Algebra
The End and The Beginning
Are Tasks Still Available?
Get to Know a Cameo ... Angle Estimation
Historic Record ... Michael Ymer in Little Rock
Please feel free to distribute this information.
|
Email News Services
If you would like to subscribe please send an email request to: doug@blackdouglas.com.au:
- In the subject line write Subscribe Maths.
- In the body of message state which divisions you want to subscribe to, or simply write Subscribe All.
- Add your name and preferred email address.
Update messages are sent from:
Mathematics Centre monthly
Calculating Changes each term
Maths300 monthly
Working with Mathematics Centre
will help you find your way around our site
Browsing Hint
Use the View/Zoom options of your browser to 'move' the page closer or further away. Ctrl +, Ctrl - and Ctrl 0.
|
- Lilydale High School Year 7 Algebra
Hi Doug,
I know you like success stories, so I figured I might share a web site with you that my Year 7s created based on Maths With Attitude Year 7 & 8 Pattern and Algebra kits. Feel free to have a look at each of the student's work and share it with others. I was blown away by what they were able to achieve.
Regards,
Tom Moore, Head of Mathematics, Lilydale High School
It's not the first time since its publication in December 2003 that this kit has been complemented by teachers for the way it fascinates, captivates and absorbs students. But it is interesting that in 2016 it is still being credited with contributing to student success under expectations of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.
Perhaps learning to work like a mathematician is indeed the core curriculum regardless of what systemic documents may reign for now where you teach.
We have accepted Tom's invitation and had a look. We strongly encourage you to do the same. Teachers from Years 5 - 12 (at least) could make this 'look' the focus of a maths meeting. To research and discuss will take at least half an hour.
You will be stunned by:
- the use of a Google site to facilitate students talking and writing mathematics with their cohort and their teacher.
- the use of video by students and teacher.
- the depth and breadth of mathematical content command reflected in the students' work.
- the fact that every student was involved and was able to get into algebra at their level.
- the background work that must have been done by staff to produce this varied, confident and competent output from students.
See Link List below.
- The End and The Beginning
The first Maths With Attitude kit, Number & Computation Years 3 & 4, was published in March 2002. It's interesting that Tom's email arrived this month, the month when all but the very last Maths With Attitude kit was sold. The only kit left is ... Number & Computation Years 3 & 4.
It's a bit like the last Falcon off the production line. Perhaps a collector will buy it and put it in a glass case.
However, it is also the month when Maths With Attitude (MWA) eManuals are available for the first time.
- MWA eManuals are teachers' manuals.
- They are exactly the same content as the previous print versions.
- We publish them for your school and deliver them to you by email.
- You use them from your server and/or print them for staff use.
They are $22 each and there are 16 manuals in total - four at each of Years 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 9/10. The four content strands at each level are Chance & Measurement, Number & Computation, Pattern & Algebra, Space & Logic.
- If you have both Mathematics Centre Tasks and Maths300 membership
you will make best use of MWA eManuals.
- If you have one of Mathematics Centre Tasks and Maths300 membership
you will make good use of MWA eManuals.
|
If you have neither tasks nor Maths300, MWA eManuals may be interesting as an example of a curriculum structured around working like a mathematician by juggling time spent on:
- modelling the work of a mathematician
- inviting students to work like a mathematician for themselves
- practising the skills of a mathematician.
Which pretty much brings us back to the Lilydale web site.
- Another example is the work in Space & Logic from Wade High School.
|
- See Link List below for more on Maths With Attitude, the latest Order Form and the Wade High School link.
- Are Tasks Still Available?
Yes. However, several hundred of the remaining stock were sold during October, so it's getting to be now or never. Ina says she can still make up sets of 20 or 50, but not 100. Some tasks specific to MWA kits are available, but there are no complete sets.
- Get to Know a Cameo ... Angle Estimation
Task 214, Angle Estimation, like so many other measurement activities, captures students by asking them to estimate rather than measure. Estimating is something everyone can do and you can't be wrong ... you can only be closer. Which means that you want to find out how close you are ... and so the need for measurement is created.
The task includes a Rotagram for each student - it is not marked with any scale. It is only marked with two line segments - one fixed and one rotating - which can create any angle. This clever tool can be used for digging deeper into angles too and discovering such things as the sum of the angles of a triangle is a straight angle.
Another bonus in this cameo is that is partnered by Maths300 Lesson 133, Angle Estimation, which includes software.
See Link List below.
|
|
- Historic Record ... Michael Ymer in Little Rock
My job was to offer teachers some of the ideas I have used in the management of a Task Centre session. ... I also led the teachers through a typical lesson, from the clinic to the rotating groups, to the lesson reflection. ... As one teacher mentioned: It's great having these wonderful ideas and materials but they're of little use if I can't manage and organise them in my classroom. ... Although some of the teachers initially viewed the tasks as 'games', they soon saw the benefits and excitement generated by the activities.
Read Michael's 1997 article in full from the Link List below.
Keep smiling,
Doug.
Link List
- Did you miss the Previous News?
If so you missed information about:
- Working Mathematically in the Early Years
- Last of the Class Sets
- Get To Know A Cameo ... Travelling Australia
- Historic Record: UK
- World Record Maths & Science Lesson
- ...and more...
|
|
Did You Know?
|
Previous News
August 2016
July 2016 ... June 2016 ... May 2016 ... March 2016 ... February 2016
November 2015 ... October 2015 ... September 2015 ... August 2015
July 2015 ... June 2015 ... May 2015 ... April 2015 ... February 2015
Dec. 2014/Jan. 2014 ... November 2014 ... October 2014 ... September 2014 ... August 2014
July 2014 ... June 2014 ... May 2014 ... April 2014 ... March 2014 ... February 2014
Dec. 2013/Jan. 2014 ... November 2013 ... October 2013 ... September 2013 ... August 2013
July 2013 ... June 2013 ... May 2013 ... March 2013 ... February 2013
Dec. 2012 / Jan. 2013 ... November 2012 ... October 2012 ... September 2012 ... August 2012
June/July 2012 ... May 2012 ... April 2012 ... March 2012 ... February 2012 ... January 2012
December 2011 ... November 2011 ... October 2011 ... September 2011 ... August 2011
July 2011 ... June 2011 ... May 2011 ... April 2011 ... March 2011 ... February 2011
Dec 2010/Jan 2011 ... November 2010 ... October 2010 ... September 2010 ... August 2010
July 2010 ... June 2010 ... May 2010 ... April 2010 ... March 2010 ... February 2010
Dec.2009/Jan.2010 ...November 2009 ... October 2009 ... September 2009 ... August 2009
July 2009 ... June 2009 ... May 2009 ... April 2009 ... March 2009 ... February 2009
Dec.2008/Jan.2009 ... November 2008 ... October 2008 ... September 2008 ... August 2008
July 2008 ... May/June 2008 ... April 2008 ... March 2008 ... February 2008
Dec.2007/ Jan.2008 ... November 2007 ... October 2007 ... August/September 2007
... July 2007 ... June 2007 ... May 2007 ... April 2007 ... March 2007 ... February 2007
Dec. 2006/ Jan. 2007 ... November 2006 ... October 2006 ... September 2006 ... August 2006
July 2006 ... June 2006 ... May 2006 ... April 2006 ... March 2006 ... February 2006
Dec. 2005/ Jan. 2006 ... November 2005 ... October 2005 ... September 2005 ... August 2005
July 2005 ... June 2005 ... May 2005 ... April 2005 ... March 2005 ... February 2005
Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 ... November 2004 ... October 2004 ... September 2004 ... August 2004
July 2004 ... June 2004 ... April/May 2004 ... March 2004 ... February 2004
December 2003 ... October 2003 ... August/September 2003
July 2003 ... June 2003 ... April/May 2003 ... March 2003 ... February 2003 ... January 2003
December 2002 ... November 2002 ... October 2002 ... September 2002 ... March 2002
December 2001 ... October 2001
Continue exploring our history back to July 1992 through the Sense of History link.
|