Keywords: Technology, ,
Ref: Lotze1
Author(s): Dias, Laurie B.
Date: 1999
Title: Integrating Technology: Some Things You Should Know.
Journal or Publisher: Learning & Leading with Technology:
serving teachers in the classroom.
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 27, No. 3. pp. 11-13, 21.
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 3.13.00
Review. Integrating Technology: Some Things You Should Know.
This article basically tells you, the teacher or future teacher some troubleshooting for using technology in the classroom. The four questions that the author suggests you ask before using technology are:
The author basically uses these questions to guide a teacher in how to use technology in the classroom. I felt that her main point was to use the technology as a tool to further the under- standing in the classroom, not as an add-on, like a overhead or a blackboard.
Another important point that she makes is that the teachers must be knowledgeable before using the technology, or else it won't be as effective. With down time and inefficiency the students get restless and actually less learning occurs.
Finally, using technology in the classroom is a great idea and
should and will have to be implemented in the curriculum. Just be
wary of the barriers and ideas that go along with using technology
in the classroom.
Keywords: Tests, Issues,
Ref: Lotze2
Author(s): Wantanabe, Ted
Date: 2000
Title: Japanese High School Entrance Examinations
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 1 January 2000. pp.30-35
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 3.19.00
This is an article about the high school math testing going
on in Japan. It says a little bit about the structure of the
tests and how they are given and taken, and then proceeds to
give some sample problems. 7 sample problems are given and it
is up to the reader the determine what he/she thinks of these
problems. However at the end of the article the author warns us
of some of the common misconceptions of just seeing the problems
and not knowing the context of them. But with all this aside I
thought that the problems were very difficult. I would agree
that for almost any student coming straight out of high school
in the United States, that they would almost surely fail these
sample problems given in this magazine. I don't think that I
would even do spectacular on it. Although I do agree with the
when he says that we have a lot to learn from the Japaneses
system of schooling. Especially mathematics. This isn't to
say that we should do it exactly like them, but to use some of
their strategies and ideas would be helpful, I think.
Keywords: Curriculum, Technology,
Ref: Lotze3
Author(s): NCTM
Date: 1997
Title: Teams Integrate Math and Vocational Courses
Journal or Publisher: NCTM
Volume, Issue, Pages: May/June 1997. pp. 1,5
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 3.19.00
This is an intersting article about the integration of math
and vocational studies in high schools. I really thought that
this was a really interesting idea and that it gets a lot of
students involved in math that normally wouldn't. Not only that,
but it gets students to see the part of math most students don't
get to see, the application part. They get to see what their
math is doing for them and how they can use it in the real world.
In my opinion, this is a large step for mathematics in the U.S.
and I believe that this should keep going on all over the country.
There were also some good examples given in this article which
made it easy to see what successes where coming from this idea.
Keywords: Standards, Activities, Assessment
Ref: Lotze4
Author(s): Copes, Larry
Date: 2000
Title: Messy Monk Mathematics: An NCTM Standards-Inspired
Class
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 4. pp. 292-298
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 4/3/00
This article was the almost word for word summary of a lesson that a guest mathematics instructor gave to a class. He posed a problem to the class which goes as follows:
There is a monk. Precisely at sunrise on the last day of every month, he leaves his hut at the bottom of the mountain. He walks up a path to the top of the mountain, timing it so that he arrives at the top precisely at sunset. The next morning, the first day of the next month, he leaves the top of the mountain precisely at sunrise. He walks down exactly the same path to the bottom of the mountain, arriving back at his hut precisely at suset.
Is there necessarily a point on the path at which the monk arrives at the same time of day on both days, both on his trip up on the last day of one month and on his trip down on the first day of the second month?
This was the problem posed. Then he did something extra- ordinary with the students. He first asked then their gut feelings. Then they started to think about it and hypothesize some possible complications. Then they started to make charts and talk with one another. Then he split them into groups and had them get their own answers. All this time he was not telling any of them the answers, they were finding them out themselves and proving and disproving eachothers ideas.
I thought it was great how he went about 'teaching' this lesson
and how the students really got into it, and started thinking
for themselves. The outcome was really interesting to see.
Keywords: Activities, Geometry,
Ref: Lotze5
Author(s): Kolpas, Sidney J. & Massion, Gary R.
Date: 2000
Title: Consul, the Educated Monkey
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 4. pp. 276-279
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 4/3/00
This article is about a mathematical toy that was made in 1916 to teach students their multiplication, division, subtaction, addition and squares.
The toy is set up in such a way that if you point the feet of the monkey at the number you need to multiply, divide, etc., the tail will show the answer desired. What this article looked at was how the toy worked and why it worked. The toy was set up in such a way that it used right isoceles triangles, and the numbers set up in a certain way to find the right answers to the problems. I thought it was pretty interesting.
However, the article went further to give tips on how you could
use this example in your classroom. They suggested that after
understanding this problem, you can have the students make their
own model, they can change it to further understanding. This is
a great tool to use if you are studying geometry, because in order
to prove how the monkey works you have to use quite a bit of
geometry, and the rules applied would be a good problem for the
students to work on in an extensive goemetry lesson. It also
gives students a hands on math experience which is alwasys a good
opportunity.
Keywords: Teaching Strategies, ,
Ref: Lotze6
Author(s): Murphy, Stuart J.
Date: 2000
Title: Teaching Math, Reaching Kids
Journal or Publisher: Teaching pre K-8.
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 30, No. 4, 50-52
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 4.12.00
This article is basically concerned with helping students who do not learn from the conventional methods of math in the elementary school and how to help them learn it better. The option that the author poses in how to solve some of these problems in in using story books that have math content to help these students learn math.
The author tells ways that using story books helps overcome barriers in math such as visual learning, language issues, societal barriers, minority constraints, and math anxiety.
I thought that this sounds like a good idea. People have been talking
about how to teach math differently for the visual learners for years
but this issue has gotten deeper and many different considerations
need to be thrown into the boiling pot.
This is a good idea, but not solely by itself. This mixed with
regualer teaching, exploratory and other ways to help students
learn is the best of all situations.
Keywords: Assessment, Tests,
Ref: Lotze7
Author(s): Kimmelman, Paul; Kroeze, David; Schmidt,
William; van der Ploeg, Arie; McNeely, Maggie; Tan, Alexandra
Date: 1999
Title: A First Look at What We Can Learn from High
Performing School Districts: An Analysis of TIMSS Data from the First in
the World Consortium
Journal or Publisher: Report: SAI-1999-3011
Volume, Issue, Pages: Aug 1999, p96
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.1.00
This article concentrates on the First in the World Consortium and
how these schools dealt with the TIMSS and how and what we as the
US are doing to deal with the TIMSS results.
This article deals with our teacing style against other internat-
ional countries that were First in the World on the TIMSS. Also
this article deals with socio-economic effects, teaching contexts,
and considers some actions that might be taken by the FiW to help
deal with these problems.
Keywords: Games, ,
Ref: Lotze8
Author(s): Barta, James; Schaelling Diane
Date: 1998
Title: Games we play: connecting mathematics and culture in
the classroom.
Journal or Publisher: Teaching Children Mathematics
Volume, Issue, Pages: v4, n7, pp.388
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5/10/00
This article basically deals with using cultural specific games
in the classroom. This not only helps create cultural awareness
in the math classroom, which doesn't happen very often, but also
gives the students a chance to do more discovery learning than
sit and listen to lecture.
What this article talked about was having the students not only
play these cultural math games but help create them. This article
makes the point that not only do games help us relax and have fun,
but they also increase our learning, our intelect and importantly
our problem solving skills. We realize that mathematics is heavily
involved in games and this can be integrated into the classroom.
Also having students relate mathematics to games where they
are having fun, helps the students make a connection between the
mathematics they are using and some real life applications, and this
helps the students remember the information better.
This article also gives some examples of games and how to involve
students. It is a good article and a great idea.
Keywords: Games, ,
Ref: Lotze9
Author(s): Gardner, Martin
Date: 1998
Title: A quarter century of recreational mathematics
Journal or Publisher: Scientific American
Volume, Issue, Pages: v279 n2 pp.68
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.10.00
This is an article which revels in the amazement of recreational
mathematics. It looks back on the last 25 years and sees what
value recreational mathematics has had for us, our culture and
our education.
Recreational mathematics expand the mind for those who have an
interest in math and have the urge to challenge themselves and feel
good about an accomplishment. Recreational mathematics also
brings an aspect of fun to mathematics which is so very lost in
todays society in school and through the media. It makes math fun
for everyone and this is something that needs to be done more often.
People see the reading that is pushed in all the schools, and all
the slogans of the sort "it's fun to read" and t he like, but where
are those for math. You never hear anyone talking about leisure
mathematics, but leisure reading happens all the time.
Maybe it is a good time to find out that mathematics can be fun
and that people need to take advantage of what is out there for
them in terms of math.
Keywords: Algebra, Geometry,
Ref: Lotze10
Author(s):
Date: 2000
Title: Group symmetries connect art and history with
mathematics
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Volume 93, number 5 ; pp364-370
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.11.00
This is an article that discovers the relationships between
ancient art, mainly from Cyprus and Ethiopia, and realtes it
to mathematics using symmetries.
This article takes a look at a lot of pattern and designs created
by these ancient people and helps discover rotational and reflec-
tive symmetries.
The thing that I really like about this article was where it went
in the end. It didn't stop at explaining what symmetries are and
the different kinds, but it went on to discover groups and their
properties. Using the different kinds of symmetries, we discover
and look at inverses and identities, as well as closure and
associativity, which are the four requirements for a group.
It is really great that there are many examples to feed off of, and
there are also diagrams that are more explicit than the pictures
of the designs from ancient times.
Another thing I liked about this article is it gives some tips on
how to integrate this in the classromm. The author suggests that
some ideas for an advanced class, talking a little bit about groups,
and also connecting art, history, and math all in one.
Overall I think that it is a very complete article and very
resourceful for using in the classroom.
Keywords: Assessment, Research, Tests
Ref: Lotze11
Author(s): Hannafin, Robert D.; Scott, Barry N.
Date: 1998
Title: Identifying critical learner traits in a dynamic
computer-based geometry program.
Journal or Publisher: The Journal of Educational Research
Volume, Issue, Pages: Sept-Oct 1998; Vol. 92; num. 1; pp. 3
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.15.00
This article researches memory capacity among 8th grade students
in mathemaics classes. 210 students were sampled, 105 boys and
105 girls. What they did was learn throught Geometer's Sketchpad,
and then were tested at the end. There was an accelerated class,
a lower end class, and the rest were at about the right grade level,
for a total of 12 classes involved.
The original hypothesis were:
1. Students who have high working memory capacity will perform
better on both factual and posttest items (lo-test) and on concep-
tual understanding posttest items (high-test) than lower students,
with ability controlled.
2. Students who prefer a greater amount of instruction will perform
better on the lo-test items, than those who prefer less instruction,
with ability controlled.
3. Students who are better spatial problem solvers will perform
better on the hi-test items than students that are poor spatial
problem solvers, with ability controlled.
4. Students who have high mathematics grades will perform better
on the lo-test than students with lower grades, with ability
controlled; students who have low mathematics grades will perform
better on the hi-test than on the lo-test items, with ability
controlled.
The results were very interesting to me. You would think that all
of the hypothesis of this article would be intutively true. But in
fact it turned out that only the 4th hypothesis was true. The rest
turned out to not be proved by the sample space.
This type of research can be very helpful to teachers who are
planning on teaching an accelerated math class, or a vocational
career bound class. These results are very informative and
interesting.
Keywords: Research, Issues,
Ref: Lotze12
Author(s): Sherman, Malcolm J.
Date: 2000
Title: Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics:
Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United
States.
Journal or Publisher: American Scientist
Volume, Issue, Pages: vol88 issue1 pp. 86
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This was a very interesting article that compared United States teachers to those of China. In the beginning the researchers thought that the United States teachers would be much better at the tests they would give them, since the United States teachers have had much more schooling. In fact they found out that the teachers from China had only had the equivalent of a high school education in years, while most of the U.S. teachers were going for their masters.
In end however they found that the teachers from China were not
only better mathemaitcally, but in their understanding also. One
good example of this is that the researchers gave all the teachers
a fraction division problem. They asked them to solve it and then
come up with a word problem to use in their classroom using the
division problem. Surprisingly not even all of the U.S. teachers
came up with the correct answer! And only 1 out of 23 came up with
a word problem that would work. On the other hand the teachers
from China ALL came up with the right answer and aa word problem.
In fact many of the teachers from China came up with more than one
example to show different ways of using the division.
This was just one example from this article, but the question still
remains why this is the case. The Americans have had more schooling,
then why is it that the Chinese teachers are more comprehensive and
aply their math so much better?
That is the question to be answered.
Keywords: Issues, ,
Ref: Lotze13
Author(s): Darling-Hammond, Linda
Date: 1999
Title: America's Future Educating Teachers
Journal or Publisher: The Education Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Volume 64, No. 9; pp. 19
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article basically slams the American college education system. For the first part of the article it gives all the wrongs of the stereotypes of the American education system, and the realities that aren't very impressive.
For the second half of the article she gives some good examples of 5 year programs that are very good and have a lot of good things going for them. Also it says that the students that go through these programs are almost as good in the the classroom as a lot of more experienced teachers.
It is a really interesting article that gives us insight on where
our teachers are coming from.
Keywords: Teaching Strategies, Activities,
Ref: Lotze14
Author(s): Ciaccio, Joseph
Date: 2000
Title: Helping Kids Excel on State-Mandated Tests
Journal or Publisher: The Education Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 65; No. 5; pp. 21
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article is about motivating students and getting them to do work that is not expected of them. This teacher came out of a year where his test scores in social studies were very low,and vowed to do something about it the next year. He decided to take the class that he knew would be struggling and implement a new method of teaching. He threw out his old curriculum and decided to do his whole social studies program based on activities.
He used games, puzzles, videos, etc. and really got the students involved. Likewise, he noticed that the students were not only enjoying their education better, but they scored much higher on the standardized tests, in fact they scored the highest in the schools history of taking the tests; 4 years.
His conclusion is that activity learning proves to hold much more
learning and memory in students and they enjoy learning more. Something
that all us future teachers are looking for.
Keywords: Assessment, ,
Ref: Lotze15
Author(s): Friedman, Stephen J.; Frisbie, David A.
Date: 2000
Title: Making Report Cards Measure Up
Journal or Publisher: The Education Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 65; No. 5; pp. 45
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article basically talks about the importance of report cards, what is on them, how they look, and how they are presented. It praises the elementary report card system where grades are not used and all the comments are personalized by the teacher, unlike the middle and high school reports cards which most times use electronic comments to tell the students how they are doing.
The authors also point out that a lot of report cards are not clear and consice about what the grades given mean. These are the things that they think educators can do to improve report cards for middle and high schoolers.
1. Provide thorough definitions of all the symbols that can be used.
2. Strive for consensus among faculty about the legitimate compon-
ents of an academic grade.
3. Consider the number of symbols being used.
4. Determine if the method of sharing nonachievement is adequate.
5. Consider limitations to communication imposed by physical size
of the current report card.
6. Because the communication in a report card is intended to be
two-way, involve parents and students in the process of reviewing
the effectiveness of the current reporting system.
This is a good article for new teachers to get a grasp on what is
important in a report card and to taket he time to do a bang up
job on them.
Keywords: Conjecturing, ,
Ref: Lotze16
Author(s): Schwartz, Arthur E.
Date: 2000
Title: Axing Math Anxiety
Journal or Publisher: The Education Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 65; No. 5; pp. 62
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article basically gives some pointers on how to deal with students who don't get math, have been told they don't get math, don't take test well, or other various problems in the mathematics classroom. The 5 categories he focuses on are:
1. Working on attitudes
2. Going back to the basics
3. Learning the language of math
4. Taking tests
5. Having support systems
He talks about many issues within these categories and addresses
many issues that I think can be taken out of he math classroom and
putin any classroom in a school building. There are definitely
some great ideas here to dwell upon.
Keywords: Equity, ,
Ref: Lotze17
Author(s): Peterson, Karen; Sanders, Jo
Date: 1999
Title: Close the Gap for Girls in Math-Related Careers
Journal or Publisher: The Education Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 65; No. 4; pp. 47
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article starts out with some statistics on women in math and math-related careers such as engineering, computer science, chem- istry, physics, and science. Althought it seems that women have been on the rise in math in the sense of bachelors and masters degrees, but women are making almost no ground in the math related areas of study.
This article gives some tips for what to do in the classroom to encourage women to be confident in their math skills and to get girls to further their math education. Some of their suggestions are as follows:
1. Sustain a continuing dialogue with teachers, parents, and
students about the necessary role that professional women must play
in our future.
2. Lead and support teachers in using gender equity principles in
their classrooms.
3. Create time for math teachers to attend gender equity training,
redevelop lesson plans, and work more closely with girls.
4. Work with counselors to ensure that girls are encouraged to
continue with math study in high school.
5. Educate parents to encourage their daughters to explore their
potential in math and science areas, and make parents partners in
your school effort.
6. Initiate and develop programs that will increase awareness of
the wide variety of career opportunities for those with strong math
backgrounds.
7. Provide female role models in math, science, technology, and
engineering careers.
These are just a few things that you can do to try and encourage
girls to further their education in math and science. I believe
that for us to really blossom as a society this need to happen, and
happen fast.
Keywords: Teaching Strategies, ,
Ref: Lotze18
Author(s): Wigle, Stanley E.
Date: 1999
Title: Higher Quality Questioning
Journal or Publisher: The Educational Digest
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 65; No. 4; pp. 62
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.14.00
This article gives a method for questioning that lets you get at the
the whole class. It poses as the problems in a lot of classrooms
is that only a few answer questions, this turns the other people off,
and also since teachers move from one question to the next with none
or little thought and discussion, then students do not believe that
it is important to give the answer that they give much thought.
The idea that he gives is called the "Beam, Focus, Build" technique.
This technique involves the whole class, allows the teacher to
control who responds, and consequently lets there be more than one
answer before the 'right' answer is found.
This gives the class a much more discussion based feeling which is
always better for learning.
Keywords: Issues, ,
Ref: Lotze19
Author(s): Renard, Lisa
Date: 1999/2000
Title: Cut and Paste 101: Plagiarism and the Net
Journal or Publisher: Educational Leadership
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 57; No. 4; pp. 38
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.15.00
This article talks about internet plagiarism and the fact that it is very popular among students these days. Lisa gives three different kinds of internet cheater that she calls, 'The uninten- tional cheater', 'The sneaky cheater', and 'The all-or-nothing cheater.
Although she gives some tips on how to catch internet cheaters, the main point of this article is to prevent the problem. This can start by not giving the students an option to cheat. This can be done by giving assignment that cannot be plagiarized, or more importantly let the students see the importance and glory in writing their own work and the importance of citing work that is not their own.
You do not want to become the enemy of the student. If you do catch an internet cheater, it would be better to make them rewrite the paper than just give them the F.
As a young teacher I am very familiar with the internet and the
resources that are avaliable on it. This does not seem as much as
a threat to me, but it is still something I think we should all look
out for.
Keywords: Problem Solving, Teaching Strategies,
Ref: Lotze20
Author(s): Mittag, Kathleen Cage; Van Reusen, Anthony K.
Date: 1999
Title: Learning Estimation and Other Advanced Mathematics
Concepts in an Inclusive Class
Journal or Publisher: Teaching Exceptional Children
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 31; No. 6; pp.66-72
Reviewer: Lotze
Date of Review: 5.15.00
This article is mainly about teaching 5th grade students in an inclusive classroom situation, complex ideas and having it work well, so that the students learn and retain a lot of the material presented.
The authors taught their 5th grade students who were, all but one from a minority background, 11 were culturally and linguistically diverse, 2 were in ESL, and 6 had learning disabilities. They taught their students about population estimation and credited their success to systematic planning, combining approaches, using prior knowledge to their advantage, team planning, use step-by-step sequences and concrete concepts, group work, and using problem solving and critical thinking skills.
With all these approaches the students learned the material, but also improved their math skills. It was noted in the article that that only 2 of the students in the class failed the district's standardized testing, and 5 students with disabilites passed the test. Good news all around