Description of Assessment 3: Situated Learning Unit and Lesson Planning
1. Standard 7 Disposition, and Standard 8 Knowledge of Mathematical Pedagogy
Candidates are required to take EDSC 4378, Teaching Mathematics in 8-12 Classrooms. The
focus of the course is on how to teach various mathematics content areas appropriate for grade
8 – 12 students. They are required to submit two lesson plans, develop a unit plan, and
conduct a micro-teaching event in the form of an exhibition. The exhibition occurs near the
end of the semester. They are to use what they have learned about teaching a particular
concept through course activities and finding research-based strategies. For this activity, the
candidates are required to select a concept and prepare a brief lesson presentation. They are
required to model effective teaching practices such as, cooperative learning, the use of
manipulatives and/or technology, and problem solving. Candidates are also required to
develop a unit plan that focuses on real-world application of mathematics. The unit is to
include an assessment plan and tasks for assessing students. Moreover, the students are asked
to describe how they would modify the unit for students with different needs such as a learning
disability or language issue.
Exhibition Description
This exhibition is a mini-lesson presentation. You are to apply what you learned from the
research paper i.e., teaching ideas and remedies for student difficulties with the topic. The
mini-lesson should follow the teaching mathematics for understanding observation form, which
will be distributed by the professor. The mini-lesson should be 20-30 minutes in length,
address standards-based instructional practices, provide a meaningful and relevant task that
allows students the opportunity to explore and do mathematics in the real-world or in the
mathematical world. Table 1 presents the Exhibition’s rubric, which is applied to the whole
performance, the micro-teaching episode. The Exhibition is aligned with the NCTM SPA
Disposition standards: 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, and Pedagogy Standards: 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4,
8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9
2. Situated Mathematics Learning Unit Description
This is a major project in the course EDSC 4378 Teaching Mathematics in 8-12 Classrooms. The
unit incorporates the following NCTM SPA indicators:
7.1 Attention to equity
7.2 Use of stimulating curricula
7.3 Effective teaching
7.4 Commitment to learning with understanding
7.5 Use of various assessments
7.6 Use of various teaching tools including technology
8.1 Selects, uses, and determines suitability of the wide variety of available mathematics
curricula and teaching materials for all students including those with special needs such
as the gifted, challenged and speakers of other languages.
8.2 Selects and uses appropriate concrete materials for learning mathematics.
8.3 Uses multiple strategies, including listening to and understanding the ways students
think about mathematics, to assess students’ mathematical knowledge.
8.4 Plans lessons, units and courses that address appropriate learning goals, including
those that address local, state, and national mathematics standards and legislative
mandates.
8.6 Demonstrates knowledge of research results in the teaching and learning of
mathematics.
8.7 Uses knowledge of different types of instructional strategies in planning mathematics
lessons.
8.8 Demonstrates the ability to lead classes in mathematical problem solving and in
developing in-depth conceptual understanding, and to help students develop and test
generalizations.
Description of the Task:
This is a group project. The unit will be evaluated as a group grade, and each lesson, developed
by each team member, will be evaluated as an individual grade. So, each member of the team
is to develop a lesson(s), which then becomes a part of the unit. The group unit grade will be
40 percent and the individual’s lesson will be 60 percent of the grade. There must be a
situational based assessment with rubrics as a very important feature of the unit. So, you may
work backwards from the assessment to the unit.
What is a situational mathematics-teaching unit?
Using situations from the world around us serves to engage and motivate students. These may
be thought of as particular contexts, problems, or other real-world events. A situation is
something that students could encounter in daily life. You may choose one that helps students
understand the world around them. It is similar to a thematic unit, where in a thematic unit,
that cuts across different mathematics topics or other content areas like science, social studies,
language arts. Another way to think about it is as a “scenario.”
For example, “health” could be a broad situation-going to a doctor’s office or health clinic and
reading a brochure; understanding the nature of nutrition, reading food labels, diet and
exercise the idea of calories burned. In this region, immigration into the United States is an
issue. How can mathematics help students understand this? Environmental concerns can be a
source of different situations routes for picking up trash, the social consequences of landfills
expressed mathematically. The impact of fishing on an area’s businesses like tourism,
restaurants, baits stands. Or think about the context/situation of birds, or sea-turtles, or
history like the Spanish Missions, for example, La Bahia Mission in Goliad. The strength of this
type of unit is the opportunity to make connections to subjects other than mathematics.
Where do I get information?
You may look for information to use in your unit from various websites, like the Texas Water
Development Board, The National Weather Service, newspapers, books, magazines, or other
state agencies’ websites the list is endless.
What is the goal?
The goal is to teach mathematical concepts in an engaging and motivating way. The focus
should be, of course, on the mathematics, do not get lost in the situation.
What is the process?
You may start in one of two ways, either think of the mathematics concept(s) that you want to
teach and select a situation that lends it self to teaching the concepts, or you may choose a
situation and determine the mathematics concepts that are inherent to the situation.
1. Research the topic, gather information and data from various sources, including the
NCTM’s website, keeping in mind what you know about students.
2. Determine, goals, purpose and objectives (these may evolve).
3. Think of a title, like ‘”love your heart.” This is for a health related situation.
4. Identify special needs of students.
5. List intended learning outcomes(objectives).
6. Develop a concept map of your unit.
7. Develop lesson plans, incorporate technology, and concrete manipulatives.
8. Develop a situated assessment task to assess student knowledge of objectives.
Structure of the unit
Each group selects situation that is used as the matrix for scenarios in which mathematics
concepts will be embedded.
Each team member will design a lesson based on the situation/scenario.
Each lesson is to be developed using the 5-E model.
Each lesson must be connected to each other.
Situation-based Mathematics Unit should be approved by the professor prior to starting work
on the unit.
Provide Background information designed to introduce students to the situation/scenario. The
problem with using real-world situations is that not all students share the same experiences or
interests. The point of the background information is to familiarize the students with the
situation so that all students will have the same level of knowledge about the situation. For
example, in the health situation, students may not know about fat, cholesterol, protein,
carbohydrates, or calories. The background also is to help motivate or engage the student with
the situation. Table 2 presents the Unit’s rubric.
3. Assessment 3 Evidence of Lesson Planning
During the Fall, 2010 semester and Spring of 2011 semester, there were no 8-12 student
teachers during this period. In the Fall of 2011, there were three student 8-12 mathematics
teachers. In the Fall of 2012, there were no 8 – 12 mathematics student teachers. The course
was not offered in the Spring of 2013.
Student teachers are required to submit four lesson plans. These lesson plans were evaluated
using the above rubric. There is no lesson plan data available for the Spring of 2010. For the
Fall 2010 to Spring 2011 groups, their lesson plans were evaluated ex post facto. The Fall 2011
and Spring 2012 student teachers were aware of the rubric for rating their lesson plans. The
rubric was revised in the Spring of 2012 to include a separate categories for rating Classroom
Discourse and the Use of Tools and/or Technology. Below are tables that present the average
and SD for each of the rubric’s components. The rubric has a three point Likert-scale, with the
category-Task weighted twice as much as the other two levels. Each cell in the table is an
average of the four lessons.