Natasha's Article Reviews, 2007

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Keywords: Assessment
Ref: Natasha1
Author(s): Sowder, Judith; Wearne, Diana
Year of publication : 2006
Title: What Do We Know about Eighth-Grade Achievement?
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol.11, No. 6, pg 285-293
Reviewer: Natasha
Date of Review: February 14, 2007

This article was about the National Assesment of Educational Progress, it discusses scores between 1990 and 2000. The tables in the article show a steady growth over the entire decade from one half of eighth graders to two-thirds of them, which were achieving at the Basic and above level. The level of students performing at the Proficient level almost doubled, however there is still only a fourth of students that perform at the Proficient or Advanced levels.

It describes how over the past decade every ethnic group has increased their scale scores by a significant amount. However, the gap between the two higher performing groups and the three lower performing groups has not narrowed over the period. The article also highlights how specific math areas have increased over the past ten years. The areas they discuss are number sense, measurement, geometry, data analysis, and algebra. Every area has increased scoring wise from 1990 to 2000. It goes into detail discussing how percentages have changed from 1990 to 2000 with specific problems in each of these five subject areas in math.

It concludes by stating that regardless of what people are saying that math results are growing over the years and that the results should be encouraging. However, it is still important to focus on other things in math because even with these improving results there is still one-third of students who are below the Basic level in these test scores.

I think this article is encouraging, because it does show that there are many improvements that have been made over the last decade and if we continue in the rate that we are going, maybe all students will be at or above the Basic level at some point near in the future. I feel that it is important to note that not all students are at this level and that we do need to continue working as teachers to ensure that all students have an understanding of what is being accomplished in the classroom. It was good to see the actual problems printed in the text to visualize exactly what problems children are still struggling with and what they are finding easier to do over time. If a teacher could spend more time focusing on questions like these in the classroom and relating them to work that is currently being done, it may have an overall effect on the test scores.

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Keywords: Teaching Strategies
Ref: Natasha2
Author(s): Reinhart, Steven C.
Year of publication : 2000
Title: Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 5, No. 8 pgs 478-483
Reviewer: Natasha
Date of Review: February 28, 2007

Reinhart's article discussed ways to teach math effectively in a middle school setting. He explained how he viewed his classroom and how he approached teaching from a new perspective every year. He said specifically that he tried to change 10 percent of his teaching each year. All of his tips that he gave on how to run a classroom truly focused on the student talking and being able to explain and do everything for him or herself. His model of teaching tried to focus more on the student's learning and less on the teacher's lecturing.

I think that there are a lot of good ideas in this article, however I think it would be difficult to run a classroom in this manner day in and day out. I really liked the part where he talked about truly affirming a child that they are right and then having them explain the answer to the classroom or writing the answer on the board. I do believe the more that you affirm students and the more courage you can give them, the better off they will be later on in life. There were a lot of other good ideas in this article, however I feel that at some point or another, the teacher will actually have to teach a lesson. I think it would be hard to consistently remember all of these ideas while you are in front of a classroom, because many of these are second nature. However, if some could be implemented into the lesson everyday or at least kept in mind, I do feel that it would lead to a more interactive classroom.

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Keywords: Curriculum
Ref: Natasha10
Author(s):
Year of publication :
Title: Core-Plus Book 2
Journal or Publisher:
Volume, Issue, Pages: Unit 1: Lesson 2 Multiplying Matrices
Reviewer: Natasha
Date of Review: April 25, 2007

This article was from a textbook, which described how to multiply matrices. It set up real world problems and then presented matrices that were associated with these problems. From that point, there were questions that had the students multiply matrices together and then equate the answers with a real world situation. It gave a reason for finding the answer to the problem rather than simply multiplying the matrices simply for the sake of finding a solution.

I felt that this curriculum would help a middle school student learn how perform problems with matrices. The way that they explained the problems helped set up a real world situation for the students, which made it easier to understand what you were doing rather than just giving numbers and telling the students what to do with them. Most times, I feel that students need a real world situation in order to really understand why it is that they're doing what they are supposed to be doing. While it did take many steps to get to the point of multiplying the more complex matrices, I feel that it would be beneficial for students who are falling behind or do not understand, because this would break it down to the point that hopefully they would be able to interpret what is going on in the problem. And help them to understand why multiplying matrices is a beneficial thing to learn.

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Keywords: Planning, Teaching Strategies
Ref: Natasha11
Author(s): Fosnot, Catherine; Dolk, Maarten
Year of publication : 2002
Title: Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
Journal or Publisher: Heinemann
Volume, Issue, Pages: pgs 1-35
Reviewer: Natasha
Date of Review: May 2, 2007

I read the first two chapters of this book. The first chapter discussed how to integrate fractions into a real world problem in the clasroom. It gave an example of a classroom that was discussing fractions and then gave a short response to what the class went over. However, it also discussed how a teacher should try to make math stay alive as opposed to teaching it dryly and without any interaction. I assumed that this meant more use of being able to apply math to a student's everyday life. It also emphasized being aware of the student's learning level so you accomodate their needs before pushing forward on a lesson. The second chapter continued on with an example. It described how interrelated teaching and learning are, and how you should not be able to do one without the other. It also described how learning and teaching will never be linear, you have to develop a knowledge of all of the different depths you have to explore within teaching.

While I did enjoy what this book had to say about the basics behind teaching and the message it was giving to teachers, I felt that the examples were very lengthy. I, personally, do not like long examples of a classroom setting, because it is very rare that your classroom will follow the exact situation. I would have liked it better if it just would have described the problem and said these are the different paths you could take and why, and this is what some children are known to do rather than making a dialogue of the actual "classroom." Even with this though, I did enjoy the majority of the points that the book made.

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