Why am I so annoyed that they're all trying for an "Advanced" the first time they assess a skill? It's a good goal to have... I suspect the goal is not about the advanced level of mastery, but the requirements for getting in "A" in the course, which is some of what bothers me.
I think the other part of the problem is how long they take to do the assessments. They're writing novels instead of a concise explanation. They're trying the shot-gun approach to getting an advanced. You know, "if I just keep writing, maybe I'll mention all of the important things I need to mention for an advanced," instead of "Here are my reasons, and here's how I know they're right."
The length of time concerns me, because (1) it takes away from instruction/exploration time and (2) I have the belief that if you don't know it quickly, you don't have the understanding you should.
For example, I gave a 4 problem quiz on piecewise graphs today, where they either had to sketch the graph of a given function, or figure out the function from a given graph. I gave them 40 minutes to do the quiz. 10 minutes per problem. Is it really so unreasonable to expect them to be able to do these problems in that time?
I agree: in math, brevity counts. If you can't explain it succinctly, you probably don't get it. In math where there are alternative approaches, the quickest is often referred to as "elegant". If your student solutions are really getting too worthy, maybe you can ask them to "Explain in 25 words or less ... " and say they will lose credit for excessive words.
ReplyDeleteJerry Tuttle
onlinecollegemathteacher.blogspot.com
Hi, Katrina,
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog via David Wees, and as a fellow mathematics educator I thought you might be able to help in spreading the word about an educational TV show for preteens about math that we're putting together. "The Number Hunter" is a cross between Bill Nye The Science Guy and The Crocodile Hunter -- bringing math to children in an innovative, adventurous way. I’d really appreciate your help in getting the word out about the project.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/564889170/the-number-hunter-promo
I studied math education at Jacksonville University and the University of Florida. It became clear to me during my studies why we’re failing at teaching kids math. We're teaching it all wrong! Bill Nye taught kids that science is FUN. He showed them the EXPLOSIONS first and then the kids went to school to learn WHY things exploded. Kids learn about dinosaurs and amoeba and weird ocean life to make them go “wow”. But what about math? You probably remember the dreaded worksheets. Ugh.
I’m sure you know math is much more exciting than people think. Fractal Geometry was used to create “Star Wars” backdrops, binary code was invented in Africa, The Great Pyramids and The Mona Lisa, wouldn’t exist without geometry.
Our concept is to create an exciting, web-based TV show that’s both fun and educational.
If you could consider posting about the project on your blog, I’d very much appreciate it. Also, if you'd be interested in link exchanging (either on The Number Hunter site, which is in development, or on StatisticsHowTo.com which is a well-established site with 300,000 page views a month) please shoot me an email. We're also always looking for input and ideas from other math educators!
Thanks in advance for your help,
Stephanie
andalepublishing@gmail.com
http://www.thenumberhunter.com
http://www.statisticshowto.com
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/564889170/the-number-hunter-promo