Write all group member names and numbers on ½ paper and bring to front table.

Curriculum Barriers to Instruction and Making Instructional Decisions

CEP 802AAshley Shahidullah

Think about this -

453 x 24453X 24

You have…• 2 students who don’t know their

multiplication facts• 1 student who does not remember what x

represents• 2 students who have no idea what this

means or where to begin but do know some multiplication facts

Brainstorm With your table partners, brainstorm

words or phrases to describe…• “A successful math student”

You have 5 minutes!

Chapter 6• 5 curriculum/instructional approaches

that may negatively impact the mathematics learning of struggling learners.

5 Barriers to Learning Math

1. Spiraling curriculum2. Teaching to mastery3. Teaching understanding vs.

algorithm driven instruction4. Reforms that are cyclical in nature5. Lack of implementation of effective

teaching practices for struggling learners

1. Spiraling Curriculumo Why might this be problematic for

struggling learners?

o Limited time to devoted to each conceptoMay never truly be able to master concept or skilloWithout opportunities to develop understanding of

concepts in meaningful ways, may only partially acquire an understanding of concept or skill

o Struggling learners need frequent and prolonged opportunities to “practice” skills in meaningful ways

2. Teaching to Mastery • Requires that both the teacher and the

student monitor the student’s learning progress.– RTI requires that teachers routinely monitor

progress for struggling learners “progress monitoring”

– By involving students in monitoring their own progress as they learn, teachers activate metacognition, which enhances students’ ability to think about what they are learning as they continue to make connections between ideas

– Intervention Central | CBM Warehouse

3. Teaching understanding vs. algorithm-driven instruction

o Struggling learners spend most of their math time learning and practicing particular computational procedures – steps to memorize

o Struggling learners have difficulty accurately performing multi-step computations learned in this way because…

o IEP’s have become standards-based to address this issue – no longer focusing primarily on computation

4. Reforms that are cyclical in natureo Reforms in mathematics instruction can

swing from a primarily skills-based emphasis to a primarily meaning-based emphasis – depending on philosophical and political trends

o Change is difficult for struggling learners

o They require support for learning the “procedural” and “conceptual” aspects of math

5. Lack of implementation of effective teaching practices for

struggling learners

o Teachers are often more focused on the product than on the process

o Use a teacher-centered approach to learning math – unaware that students think about math differently than adults

Related Research?

Chapter 8

How do teachers make instructional decisions?

Importance of Teacher decision-making

o For the selection and implementation of effective mathematics instruction for struggling learners

o 2 phases:1. Making decisions about how to incorporate

student interests and experiences in mathematics instruction to make it meaningful and relevant

2. Making decisions about what and how to teach on the basis of students’ learning needs

• Research clearly supports the effectiveness of anchoring instruction by integrating students’ interests and experiences (Gersten, 1998; Schumm et al., 1995; Whemeyer, Palmer, & Agran, 1998)

• Doing so creates meaningful learning contexts for students, and meaning affects learning in several positive ways:– Enhances memory retrieval– Increases attention– Helps students with diverse backgrounds find

relevance in learning

Student Interest Inventory• Teacher asks students to describe the kinds of

things that they do in various situations (e.g., at home, with friends, in neighborhood, etc.)

• Then teacher reviews all responses and organizes them in a functional, user-friendly way

• Finally, teacher thinks about the type of authentic contexts that can be created given selected mathematics concepts

Discussion1. What is the age of the students?

2. What grade?

3. What questions did you ask? How many?

4. Was it a struggle to get the inventories completed?

5. What did you find interesting?

6. Did your mentor teacher give a similar inventory this week?

Project 2: Class/ Small Group Interest Chart

Period/Class:School Year:

Interests Relevant Mathematics Concepts/Skills/Strategies I Teach That

Match My Students’ Interests

Ideas for Creating Authentic Concepts

Individual/Peer Activities

1.

2.

3.

4.

o 2 phases:1. Making decisions about how to

incorporate student interests and experiences in mathematics instruction to make it meaningful and relevant

2. Making decisions about what and how to teach on the basis of students’ learning needs

Importance of Teacher decision-making

video

Project 3 & 4• CRAA provides students the opportunity

to demonstrate their knowledge of a mathematical concept or skill at any of the 3 levels of mathematical understanding (concrete-representational-abstract)

• The tasks should allow student to demonstrate receptive and expressive understanding in C-R-A ways

Practice Using the CRAA Planning Form on

page 95 of your course text, develop an assessment for the following:• M.TE.04.07 Find one dimension of a

rectangle given the other dimension and its perimeter or area.

6 P = 28A = 48

Why is this important?• 6 primary pieces of info:– Student interests/experiences– The level of structure and explicitness

(teacher support) required by students– The level of understanding (C-R-A) that

students have regarding a target concept–Whether students have receptive or

expressive response abilities–Where to begin instruction–What misconceptions students might have

For next week…

Course Text: Ch. 5 & 7

Conduct 2nd math observation

Bring hard copy of Project 2

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