MATH MATTERS
Volume 3, Issue 1
May 2015
Welcome to Math Ma ers! Our goal is to support administrators with improving mathema cs in DPCDSB schools by providing connec ons to news, research, resources and more as well as crea ng opportuni es for collabora on and inquiry. “Spa al thinking at age 3 predicts math thinking at age 5”.
Nora S. Newcombe is the James H. Glackin DisƟnguished Faculty Fellow at Temple University Mathema cal Leadership: Leading From Within
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Come out and immerse yourself in mathema cs leadership learning! By observing mathema cs instruc on within a summer school se ng, par cipants will be able to observe student learning in a public lesson style. This unique experience will include opportuni es to co-debrief in order to further develop mathema cs leadership. Discussions will highlight key elements such as: the establishment of the learning environment and the community of learners, the responsive planning of lessons based upon ongoing assessment, key lesson components (e.g. big ideas, learning goals, manipula ves, rich tasks, ques oning…) the inten onal focus on student well-being the explicit focus on eleva ng student voice CALCULATING
CalculatingCONVERSATIONS...
Conversations...
h p://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/
Spa al Reasoning is a complex topic that spans many areas of the curriculum such as geometry and measurement and requires problem solving skills. The image taken from the Ministry document depicts what spa al reasoning can involve (p. 4). As we con nue to research spa al reasoning we are coming to an understanding that the environment we provide can impact the development of student’s mathema cal understanding in this area. Copy the link into your browser to discover more: Visit:DPCalculatingConversations
(http://goo.gl/ZqSc0j)
PAYING ATTENTION TO SPATIAL REASONING K‐12
HIGHLIGHTS IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION Whatareyouwonderingaboutwithregardstoeffectivemath
instruction?Wewantyourvoice!Eachissuewilladdresssome
ofyourquestions.
WHAT’STHEBUZZ???
Classroom Look Fors… You don’t have to go very far to generate a list of “look fors” when you do classroom visits. The verbs in the math curriculum expecta ons provide variety to take with you on your walk! Chris Suurtamm
At OAME 2015, Dan Meyer discussed different tools for increasing student engagement in the mathema cs classroom. Student engagement cannot be simply making real-world connects or weak career connects. He argues that real-world problems are actually problems that require intui on and are part of the student’s world. He makes four sugges ons for engaging the learner: 1) First, students need to ask ques ons (e.g. I wonder when the area will be the same for the square and circle.) 2) The teacher needs to ask ques ons about the ques ons (e.g. What informa on do you need to solve this problem?) 3) Students need to make predic ons. 4) Students need to have a construc ve controversy. By implemen ng these sugges ons, students will begin to value and appreciate the process of mathema cs, value mistakes, and understand that ge ng the answer is not the most important part of learning! For more tasks, please visit his blog: h p://blog.mrmeyer.com/ h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfDBghSv9wI&index=9&list=UUEkyNRTcpwY68VEVepd9qYQ Thinking Propor onally with Marian Small (Propor onal Reasoning)
 Instead of asking to see 4, we could ask young kids to show us two 2s  Why is 12 an even number?...Two ways to decide: Is it a lot of 2s?...Or
is it 2 of something? 
The 8 in 128 is worth 1/100 of the 8 in 812.

3 x 5 means “stretch 5” to be 3 times as big.
 • 2/3 x 4/5 means “stretch 4/5” to be 2/3 as big
 If 2 x [] = 8, that means 2 units of [] is 8, so 1 unit is 4.

The reason that 2/3 = 4/6 is because 2 is 2/3 of 3, just like 4 is 2/3 of 6.  0.24 compares 24 to 100.
“If you do not get frac ons you cannot go further in math.” N. Newcombe