Page 1
Curriculum Brainstorm (part two)
February 13, 2004
P600
Proposed activities & ideas
Meet the class at end of Block I as an early introduction (pending scheduling)
Send class a welcome message via Oncourse and post an extended personal profile,
include family/pet photos
Ask students to write a personal profile (with photos) and post it on Oncourse
Teacher’s Apple- similar to Coat of Arms
Use Have You Ever Questions, they will find out new information about each other
Use Psychic Massage after breaks to start new activities on a positive note
Ask students to write a personal autobiography about their experiences with
mathematics (easy first assignment and it would provide me with early information
about the students’ feelings and beliefs about mathematics)
Have students make holiday cards (e.g Valentine’s day) where they creatively use
mathematics language when writing the message (e.g. you are a ray of sunshine)
Have Dress Up day when students (& instructor) have to dress according to a math
theme of their choice and can give a quick explanation of their choice
To continue the community in the field have students collect samples of work from
the schools and display them on posters for their peers
Expectations charts: ask students about their expectations/goals for this course
Motivate students to do the required readings, by allowing 15 min. for small group
discussion about the readings highlighting and clarifying, then classroom sharing
using the Talking String
Change the constitution of the small groups to avoid cliques, encourage more
openness, and a wider viewpoint (use cards, numbers, first letters in names, birthday
signs, etc.)
Connect Children’s literature with possible math lessons and unfold the lesson in
class with student’s participation
Prepare appropriate math games and have groups of students present them to the class
as a lesson (Role Reversal) and lead a discussion
Have a mix of short and medium length activities, as well as movement in the
classroom (afternoon classes are tough)
Social
Content
Semester
Time
Prior
Prior
Difficulty
Karma
I S
IS
Motivation
Motivation
Hard
Medium
+
++
S IS
S IS
S IS
SS
SI
Motivation
Motivation
Motivation
Motivation
Modeling
(prior
knowledge)
Practice
(creativity)
Practice
(creativity)
Modeling
(Sharing)
Motivation
Prior
Week 2
Week 3
Weekly
Medium
Easy
Easy
Medium
++
++
+++
+++
Week 1
Easy
++
Once-Per
holiday
Week 4
Medium
++
Medium
++
Week 14
Hard
+
Week 1
Easy
+
SS
Motivation
Biweekly
Medium
+
SS
Cooperation
Once per
session
Easy
+++
IS
Modeling
(creativity)
Medium
+
IS
Motivation
Medium
++
S IS
Motivation
Hard
++
SI
S IS
S IS
SS
2-3 times
per
semester
Once per
semester
Weekly
Page 2
Curriculum Brainstorm (part two)
February 13, 2004
P600
Proposed activities & ideas
Have the students use the Metaphor activity and share reflections
My ideal classroom is like a _____________
Problem solving is like ________________
Students produce a list of all the possible strategies to start solving a math task
without actually solving it (focus on process)
Have the class debate the pros and cons of teaching mathematics algorithmically vs.
teaching for understanding
Brainstorm with the class the characteristics of a good math teacher, write them on
cards and divide the cards among the class, have small groups discuss why the
characteristics are important, how they can be achieved, and the possible obstacles to
this achievement
Always provide the positive before the negative (but constructive)
feedback/comments
Provide the students with more ownership of their education
Introduce more collaboration in assessed assignments
Social
Content
Semester
Time
Difficulty
Karma
S IS
Modeling
(creativity &
cooperation)
Once per
semester
Medium
+
weekly
Medium
No
effect
Once per
semester
Hard
No
effect
S IS
SS
S IS
I S
&
SS
I S
Practice
(divergent
thinking)
Practice
(critical
thinking)
Modeling
(cooperation)
Once per
semester
Medium
No
effect
Motivation
Always
Medium
+++
Motivation
Always
2-3 times
per
semester
2-3 times
per
semester
Medium
+
Medium
++
Easy
++
Weekly
Easy
++
SS
Cooperation
I S
Motivation
SI
Motivation
Include homework that provides feedback but is not graded
Collect feedback each class, use cards at the end of each class. Students write two
positive aspects of the class and a wish OR how they felt the class went and one thing
they learned that day OR list one thing your teacher, colleagues, and you did well
today.
Page 3
Curriculum Brainstorm (part two)
February 13, 2004
P600
First Task II
Curriculum Brainstorm (part one)
January 31, 2004
P600
The purpose of my brainstorm list is to generate ideas to enhance my math methods courses for preservice elementary teachers. I usually teach Block II students. These block courses are designed for
cohorts that meet for two full days a week throughout the semester. Hence, upon entering Block II interns
have been through Block I together and are an established community. This has some positive and
negative aspects to it. On the positive side the students seem to cooperate and communicate with each
other. However, this often takes place within class groups, seldom across the entire classroom community.
Subsequently, whole classroom discussions are difficult to facilitate and the interns often miss important
conclusions. The class seems to focus more on being correct rather than on the process of learning.
In addition, I feel I am the “outsider”, the interns all know a great deal about each other and nothing
about me and vice versa. I have found this frustrating because by the time I am able to establish a rapport
with the class it is too late. The interns begin their field experience the second half of the semester and any
group relationship built thus far is by then a mute issue. The class meets four hours a week for the first six
weeks, then the interns are in the field for eight weeks, the final week or two of the semester is spent back
on campus for wrap up.
Therefore, one of my goals for this assignment is to brainstorm possible strategies that will enable me
to build an inclusive cooperative classroom community that is motivated to the learning process. A second
goal is to motivate the interns to think creatively about teaching mathematics. Most of my students’ vision
of teaching mathematics is worksheets for practicing skills. Through my course I would like to empower
them to go beyond this limited vision. My goal is to create meaningful opportunities for the interns to learn
and teach mathematics through inquiry, problem solving, critical thinking, and reasoning. I believe if they
experience this model in my course, then they are likely to adopt it as their own when teaching their
students.
















Meet the class at end of Block I as an early introduction ( maybe hard to do since classes get
switched through last minute scheduling)
Send class a welcome message via Oncourse and post an extended personal profile, include
family/pet photos
Ask students to write a personal profile of their own (with photos) and post it on Oncourse
Expectations charts: ask students about their expectations/goals for this course
Teacher’s Apple- similar to Coat of Arms
Use Have You Ever Questions, maybe they will find out new information about each other
Use Psychic Massage after breaks to start new activities on a positive note
Motivate students to do the required readings, by allowing 15 min. for small group discussion
about the readings highlighting and clarifying, then classroom sharing using the Talking String
Ask students to write a personal autobiography about their experiences with mathematics (easy
first assignment and it would provide me with early information about the students’ feelings and
beliefs about mathematics)
Have the students use the Metaphor activity
o My ideal classroom is like a _____________
o Problem solving is like ________________
Brainstorm with the class the characteristics of a good math teacher, write them on cards and
divide the cards among the class, have small groups discuss why the characteristics are important,
how they can be achieved, and the possible obstacles to this achievement
Collect feedback each class, use cards at the end of each class. Students write two positive aspects
of the class and a wish OR how they felt the class went and one thing they learned that day OR list
one thing your teacher, colleagues, and you did well today.
Provide the students with more ownership of their education
Introduce more collaboration in assessed assignments
Include homework that provides feedback but is not graded
Have the class debate the pros and cons of teaching mathematics algorithmically vs. teaching for
understanding
First Task II










Always provide the positive before the negative (but constructive) feedback/comments
Change the constitution of the small groups to avoid cliques, encourage more openness, and a
wider viewpoint (use cards, numbers, first letters in names, birthday signs, etc.)
Have students make holiday cards (e.g Valentine’s day) where they creatively use mathematics
language when writing the message (e.g. you are a ray of sunshine)
Have Dress Up day when students have to dress according to a math theme of their choice and can
give a quick explanation of their choice
Students produce a list of all the possible strategies to start solving a math task without actually
solving it (focus on process)
Prepare appropriate math games and have groups of students present them to the class as a lesson
(Role Reversal) and lead a discussion
Have a mix of short and medium length activities, as well as movement in the classroom
(afternoon classes are tough)
Utilize math activities involving the use of manipulatives/models
Connect Children’s literature with possible math lessons and unfold the lesson in class with
student’s participation
To continue the community in the field have students collect samples of work from the schools
and display them on posters for their peers
Curriculum Brainstorm (par three)
February 13, 2004
P600
As I categorized my initial brainstorm list I reflected on my two primary goals namely, creating an
inclusive cooperative classroom community that is motivated to learning and the learning process, and
motivating the interns to think creatively about teaching mathematics.
I used the Social category to indicate the social interaction direction the proposed activity would
promote. For example, SI indicates the students’ providing personal information or interaction to the
instructor, while SI S indicates that social activity is taking place from student to instructor to
student and back, a community sharing. This is important to me when planning to facilitate my entry
into this classroom community and to reinforce the positive social aspects the students already
cultivated.
Next, I thought of the reasons behind the activities and categorized them into modeling, practice,
motivation, and cooperation. The modeling and practice categories pertained to the instructor’s goal
for the students. For example, a goal for modeling creativity is for the students to internalize the
usefulness of such activities as using literature with mathematics and adopt such activities in their own
classrooms. Also, a goal for students practicing critical thinking is to experience critical thinking
within the context of mathematics. On the other hand the categories of motivation, and cooperation
pertain to the instructor’s social and pedagogical goals for such activities. For example, motivating the
students to provide constructive feedback to each other, or motivating the students to engage in
mathematical exploration.
Semester Time helps me find out at a glance the frequency of the various activities, and those I
should include in my weekly lesson plan. The Difficulty category helps me prepare for the activity by
providing the adequate time or mental preparation. Karma is a very important category for me. As I
reflect about my first reasons for this brainstorm list, creating a positive learning environment is really
my paramount goal which the above mentioned primary goals feed into. Hence, it was critical that the
activities I choose have a positive impact of the classroom disposition. I rated the activities using a
range of + to +++, providing some positive karma to providing a lot of positive karma.
First Task II