METHODS 328 - Math

Course Description, Procedure, and Grading

Course Description

Math Methods is a course designed to teach prospective teachers a variety of approaches to helping young people of elementary and middle school age to understand the concepts of math and learn the skills of mathematics appropriate to their age level.

Materials

  1. Text book: Teaching Mathematics to Elementary School Children, Chruikshank and Sheffield, Merrill Publishing Co., fourth edition
  2. Access to the Internet
  3. Transportation to planned sites for teaching math lessons.

Procedure

Chapters 1-10,13 and 15 in the textbook Teaching Mathematics to Elementary School Children will be summarized by each student in typed form  or covered by means of a chapter study guide and then discussed in class. Some examples from the textbook Error Patterns in Computation will be completed outside of class and the results will be discussed in class. Each student will be presenting informal class demonstrations, presenting formal class lessons and completing micro-teaching sessions at an area school. Students will be doing additional outside reading and reviewing a mathematic curriculum in writing. Several items will be prepared by students for use in their classroom later on. Those items being developed and compiled will be a list of mathematics manipulatives, a collection of class warm-ups, a list of web sites useful to teaching mathematics and a Learning Project. These student developed materials will be shared with all members of the class.

Content of Textbook

Chapters 1-4 begin developing the philosophical view that mathematics is a science of pattern and order. Understanding of the relationships between these identified patterns is what the student needs to master so that he may be able to transfer these relationships on to his future students. To that end, the student is introduced to problem solving and technology in mathematics in chapters 2-4.

Beginning with chapter 5 and continuing through chapter 14, all areas of elementary mathematics instruction are introduced and studied following this general format.

bulletNational Council of Teachers of Math Standards are presented for the concept
bulletThe concept and various algorithms are introduced
bulletA multitude of activities pertinent to the concept are presented
bulletA chapter wrap up that includes ideas for grouping students, methods for students communicating what was learned in the elementary classroom, and methods of assessing the particular concept.

It is hoped that the students will use these texts in their future calls as Christian day school teachers as a reference source for activities and as a refresher summary of correct mathematics instruction.

Assignments

  1. Students will read and outline or complete a chapter study guide for each chapter covered.
  2. Students will prepare activities from selected chapters and present these activities to the class.
  3. Some sections from the work text Error Patterns in Computation will be prepared in advance by the students and discussed in class. These sections will be provided by the instructor.
  4. Students will prepare and demonstrate various mathematics manipulatives informally with methods of incorporating these manipulatives into class presentations. The student will relate the name of the manipulative, the grade levels for which the manipulative can be useful, as well as various uses for the manipulative. As the semester progresses, the student will become relaxed and comfortable in using manipulatives in his lessons.
  5. Formal in-class presentations will be made by each student, videotaped and reviewed with the instructor.
  6. Lessons will be presented by each student at Messiah Lutheran School.
  7. Students will submit one page summaries of articles from magazines regarding mathematics instruction. Some summaries will be presented in class.
  8. Students will direct the class in browsing math web sites that would be useful for mathematics instruction. This site will be reviewed in writing and handed in.
  9. Students will play and review current math software.
  10. Students will gather or create class warm-up activities.
  11. The student will develop an online learning project.

Grading

All graded work will be assigned a point value. Following is a list of intended assignments and their point value.

bulletManipulatives presentations 10 pts. each
bulletTextbook activities presentations 5 pts. each
bulletFormal in-class lesson presentation 20 pts. each
bulletMicro-teaching lessons 30 pts. each
bulletLearning Project development 40 pts. each
bulletError Patterns workbook 5 pts. each
bulletChapter summaries and reviews 20 pts. each
bulletOutside reading of articles 5 pts. each
bulletSoftware evaluation 10 pts. each
bulletTextbook evaluations 15 pts. each
bulletCollection of class warm-up activities 1 pt. each
bulletWeb site presentations and review 5 pts. each
bulletMaterials list 10 pts.

Total points earned divided by total points assigned = %

Letter grades are assigned based upon the percentage of the total points gained through the assigned work. Letter grades will be determined on the basis of the following per cents:

96-100%  A 84-86%  B- 72-74%  D+
93-95%  A- 81-83%  C+ 69-71%  D
90-92%  B+ 78-80%  C 66-68%  D-
87-89%  B 75-77%  C- 0-65%  F

Page last updated 01/08/2007