Math Education Newsletter

Here are links to posts on my Math Education Blog that you might find interesting.
If you are so moved, you may comment on the posts, and/or subscribe to the blog.

The Assessment Trap

In this eight-part series, I analyze the legitimate uses of assessment, its problematic uses, the meaning of grades, and the perils of so-called "backward design". A guest post by Sarah Clowes surveys some of the research on grades. Based on all this, I recommend de-emphasizing grades, and propose some tools and strategies to get the most out of assessment, while minimizing its often negative impact on curriculum and pedagogy. Finally, I propose a forward design strategy. Start here.

In Defense of Algebra 2

Algebra 2 is a favorite target of American anti-intellectualism. It is often used as evidence that learning math beyond the basics is pointless, as Algebra 2 is often about mindless manipulation of symbols and ineffective memorization of techniques — all of it divorced from meaning, and only relevant to future mathematicians. Unfortunately, the traditional course and the version favored by (e.g.) New York State, includes a random assortment of too many topics, taught too fast, which can end up supporting those arguments. In this post, I argue that Algebra 2 can be a great course, and propose an approach to make that happen.

NCTM Is Its Members

I've been a member of the National Council of Teachers of Math for decades. During that time, I have been a speaker at more than 80 conferences of NCTM and its affiliates. I have written and reviewed articles for The Mathematics Teacher. I edited the "Student Activities" department in that journal for a couple of years. I was excited and impressed that in his recent message “NCTM Is Its Members”, Matt Larson, the new President of the Council asked for suggestions. I took him at his word. I wrote to encourage him to get rid of the wall between the NCTM journals and the Web, and to launch a nationwide conversation on the strengths and weaknesses of the Common Core. Read my letter here.

New or new-ish on my Web site.

Fractions

A new launch page about fractions, with links to:

• my grid paper approach to fraction arithmetic;
• how to make connections with angles, time, and money by way of the "pie" representation; and finally,
• the wonderful Egyptian Fractions Challenge, which I recommend to you as a fun summer exploration.

Shrinky Dinks

An excellent Shrinky Dinks activity about scaling, by Rachel Chou, a teacher and department chair at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. I link to it in my Geometry Labs page, as it is very compatible with the book both in its subject matter (Section 10) and in its hands-on approach.

Algebra and Precalculus

In preparation for my summer workshops (see below), I made some improvements to three activities:

• I improved the worksheet on deriving a proof of the quadratic formula based on translating a parabola so its vertex is at the origin. Prerequisites are on my Parabolas and Quadratics page.
• I improved the worksheet on Graphing Square Roots, which among other things leads to the formal definition of absolute value as a piecewise function.
• I improved the worksheet on Perspective, and added teacher notes and a GeoGebra applet. It is a good way to introduce inverse variation by way of a real-world lab.