Points & Angles Newsletter of the Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago Volume XLIV No. , Jan 2015 The Problem With Problem Solving January Speaker Ismael Zamora From I-90 & Southbound I-294: Exit at I-190 West to O’Hare; Exit onto North Mannheim Rd.; Take Mannheim Rd. North 2.25 miles. From Northbound I-294: Exit at West Touhy Ave.; Take Touhy Ave. to Mannheim Rd.; Turn right on Mannheim Rd. Public Transit: Take the CTA Blue Line to the Rosemont Bus Terminal; Take Pace Bus #223 to Touhy Ave. & Lee Rd.; Walk East on Touhy to Mannheim Rd. Friday, January 9, 2015 5:30 PM Doors Open, 6:00 PM Social Hour 7:00 PM Dinner & Talk Fountain Blue Banquets & Convention Center 2300 Mannheim Rd., Des Plaines (847) 298-3636 $43 for Members, $49 for Nonmembers Reserve by Noon, Monday, Jan. 5 Online at www.//mmcchicago.org/ or by phone at (630) 907-5023 Be sure to join us for the MMC Dinner on January 9, 2015. Our own Ismael Zamora will share thoughts on “The Problem with Problem Solving”. Ismael will share some of his personal beliefs about student learning, such as • Students have a deeper understanding of mathematical ideas than we give them credit for. • A single activity can be used to introduce and begin to anchor an entire unit of mathematical ideas. • As educators, we must create the time to do really good mathematics. • Students deserve to see how we use math every day. Based on these beliefs, Ismael will share ways to teach problem solving. We’ll look at some interesting old problems in a new way and see how we can develop ideas in students. We will also see some creative ways to get students to see patterns. We will work on finding as many problem solving methods as possible on a single problem. We will also look at math tasks that introduce and develop concepts. Ismael will also share thoughts about frontloading the math class so we start with great activities that are then supported by student’s questions and motivated by what students see. Ismael Zamora has been teaching since 1997. He has taught 7th grade math through AP Calculus and everything in between. He has started the AP Statistics class at 2 different districts. He has been math department chair at Rich South HS, Rich Central HS, Hinsdale South HS, and is currently the Math/Science Division Chair at Lyons Township High School in charge of 70+ teachers and staff. Ismael has expertise with educational technology. He has been a member of Casio CTAC since 2010. He has presented at USACAS, ICTM, MMC, NCTM, NCSM and various local and national conferences. He has been selected to be the US representative at Casio’s Global Teachers Meeting twice, representing the United States in product research and development. He has served as MMC President and is a member of NCTM and ICTM. Points From The Interior By John Diehl I have just read the President’s Message from Diane Briars, NCTM President, at www.nctm.org. The month the message is “Curriculum Materials Matter! Evaluating the Evaluation Process”. I highly recommend reading the entire message. There are very many good points. After reading the message, I reflected on my own experience from 33 years of teaching and a couple of terms as Department Chair. I often felt that the temptation was to let the material drive the curriculum, especially with the primary textbook. The process was to decide which chapters /sections we can include, given the number of days that we have. However, I think that process is backwards. The real approach should be to design the overall curriculum, then the content for each course, and finally select the materials for each course. I believe this is even more important for those making a sincere effort to adopt the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. I also have to add this. Changing materials is not easy. It will likely be met with some resistance. We’ll all agree that teachers are very busy. Life is easier when this year is a lot like last year, and lessons, materials, and assessments won’t need big changes. However, I don’t accept “it will be easier” as a reason why changes are not made. If newer materials will improve student learning, we must consider them. Again, I hope you will read the entire message, but I’ll try to provide some motivation with a few highlights. Statements in quotes are, of course, directly from the message, otherwise they are my own comments. First “Focus on the central evaluation question: What curriculum materials best support students’ learning of the standards?” Student learning is central, and it includes both what we teach and how we teach it. Our materials should include what we plan to teach, but also help with how we teach it. Here are a few ways that they should do so: “The development of students’ problem solving, reasoning, and other mathematical habits of mind—the set of processes identified in the CCSSM Standards for Mathematical Practice—receives explicit and regular attention” and “To what extent do lessons regularly feature tasks that engage students in problem solving, reasoning, and making sense of mathematics as core instructional activities…”. Our session at the MMC December dinner certainly reinforced that our teachers believe these habits are very important. Our materials must help us develop these habits. Also “Recognize that additional content is less problematic than gaps that are difficult to fill.” Publishers want to sell books. Sometimes they hear that a book wasn’t adopted because in didn’t have topics K, Q, and Z. So those topics get included in the next edition. Books get longer. Often there is material we won’t need. Don’t reject for that reason. Focus on the content you do need. Find a way to “Try out your top choices in the classroom.” This is a great suggestion. At a minimum, if you believe you have a top choice, use a pilot. Select at least one teacher with a couple of sections, or even better, if possible, two teachers. They can support each other during the pilot and you get two sets of opinions. The CCSSM are helping us take a serious look at what we teach and how we teach it, and to review and possibly replace the materials we use. Let’s make choices for the right reasons. Don’t forget that January is a bonus month. We have both a dinner and our Saturday Conference of Workshops. See details elsewhere in this issue. 2 Points & Angles Vol. XLIV No. 4 December Meeting Summary By Peter DeCraene Get Ready! Get Ready! Helping Students Prepare for Success in AP Calculus and AP Statistics This December’s meeting provided us with a panel discussion by Lynn Bond (Plainfield HS, AP Stats), Ruth Dover (IMSA, AP Calculus and Test Development Committee), Greg Hill (Hinsdale Central, retired, AP Calc), and Tim Sirois (Highland Park HS, AP Stats) on how to better prepare students for AP Calculus and AP Statistics beginning in earlier classes. The panel also connected the topics and instructional strategies to helping students meet the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice. The panel answered some prepared questions as well as some questions posed by audience members during the talk. Here are some responses from the panel. Teachers can help students build confidence in their thinking skills in any class prior to an AP class. The panel also encouraged teachers to help students develop their abilities to compare and contrast ideas and problems, write to display their thinking, and learn from mistakes. In discussing how to develop these habits in all students, the panel suggested encouraging them along the way, providing guidance through questioning and feedback, looking for opportunities for praise, and giving them enough practice so they can feel confident. Encouraging a classroom culture that sends students the messages that they can become proficient and that the teacher will support them is also important helpful; teachers may need to review their grading practices to be in line with this culture. Teachers should be intentional about establishing the classroom as a safe place where students are encouraged to work together, use each other as resources, and ask questions. Key topics which the panel felt students should experience prior to taking an AP class included basic algebra skills, particularly in the area of working with functions, and an understanding of vocabulary, with the ability to use it correctly in explanations. Over time, the CCSSM will help prepare students by incorporating more explanations and probability and statistics into prior courses. In terms of specific details, working with piecewise functions before calculus should be encouraged, along with a visual sense of transformations of functions. Communication skills in explaining student thinking in these areas should also be encouraged prior to AP courses. In terms of calculator and other technology skills, the panel suggested focusing on: setting an appropriate window by thinking about the behavior of the function, using parentheses correctly, and working with lists, regressions, and scatter plots. It was also suggested that calculators and technology in general should be used to help students explore ideas and develop concepts themselves, looking for patterns and generalizing. When talking about assessment, the panel agreed that the students need to be challenged with interesting problems and encouraged to explain their thinking. Feedback is also important; formative feedback without a grade can be part of an ongoing process of helping students develop their thinking. Students need to have practice answering multiple choice questions that are not just calculation-based, and questions that provide challenges and opportunities for explanation. Whether or not you teach an AP class, the thoughts and ideas presented by the panel can all become part of our daily routine to strengthen all of our students’ abilities to reason and think. November Board Report By Lynn Bond The Board of Directors met on November 10, 2014 at ECRA Group in Rosemont. Thanks to a generous donation from the Filliman family, MMC will again be able to offer three $1500 scholarships for high school seniors who will pursue a mathematics teaching career. More information about the scholarships is available at the MMC website, mmcchicago.org, The first Saturday Workshop was well-received, and another will be planned in the near future. The Board will meet before the January 9th dinner meeting. The next regular Board meeting will be Wednesday, February 11th at 6:00 at ECRA Group in Rosemont. MMC members are welcome to attend any board meeting. Please contact Kevin Wiland at [email protected] if you plan to attend. Jan 2014 Points & Angles NCTM Charter 1 Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago MMC Scholarship By Laura Kaplan 1913 Officers John Diehl, President Patricia Trafton, President-Elect Kevin Wiland, Past President Lynn Bond, Secretary Carol Nenne, Treasurer Directors Stacy Ambrozich (2013-2016) Lyons Township H.S., La-Grange Lynn Bond (2012–2015) Plainfield Central H.S., Plainfield Peter DeCraene (2014–2017) Evanston Township H.S. Evanston John Diehl (ex officio 2013–2016) Hinsdale Central H.S. (retired), Hinsdale Michelle Eggerding (2013-2016) Schaumburg H.S., Schaumburg Dan Hall (2012–2015) York Community H.S., Elmhurst Sheila Hardin (2014–2017) Oak Park & River Forest H.S., Oak Park Laura Kaplan (2014–2017) Chicago Academy for the Arts, Chicago John McConnell (2014–2017) ECRA Group, Rosemont Matthew Moran (2013–2016) Whitney M. Young Magnet H.S., Chicago John O’Malley (2014-2017) Glenbrook South H.S., Glenview Richard Stalmack (2012–2015) Illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora Patricia Trafton (2012–2015) The Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago is offering a $1,500 scholarship for a high school senior who will pursue a career in the teaching of mathematics. In addition, up to two Filliman Scholarships may also be awarded for the same amount (funded by a gift from the Filliman estate). The selected students, their parents and their sponsoring teachers will be invited to the May 15th MMC dinner meeting at which time the scholarship recipients will be honored. A selection committee of MMC members appointed by the Board will determine the scholarship awards. To be eligible, an applicant must submit the application, have an official transcript sent, and request a letter of recommendation from a member of MMC such that all of the materials are received by March 15, 2015. The committee will establish its own guidelines for evaluating applications, and will make a recommendation to the Board as to the awarding of the scholarship. No member of the selection committee may nominate nor recommend a candidate. The guidelines used for selection shall be: A. Demonstration of overall academic scholarship with an inclusion of at least eight semesters of college preparatory mathematics. (A minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0, where A = 4.0) B. A statement of the intention to pursue a career in mathematics teaching. C. Indication of participation in extra curricular activities, especially those that may have a positive influence on a teaching career. D. Applicants must have a letter of recommendation from a member of the Metropolitan Mathematics Club who is familiar with the applicant’s academic performance and his or her potential as a mathematics teacher. E. Applicants must submit an essay (400-word maximum) explaining why they would like to be a mathematics teacher. ** Up to 3 awards are possible based on candidate qualifications. The organization reserves the right to award fewer scholarships if these are not met. Lincoln M.S., Schiller Park Kevin Wiland (2012–2015) School District U-46, Elgin Mary Wiltjer (2013–2016) Glenbrook South H.S., Glenview Officials Board Chair Sheila Hardin Community Relations and Development Michelle Eggerding Conference Co-Chairs Carol Nenne Mary Wiltjer Finance Committee Chair Matthew Moran Historian Paul Christmas Membership Coordinator Mary Wiltjer NCTM/ICTM Affiliate Representative John McConnell Points & Angles Editor John O’Malley Publicity and Posters Paul Christmas Scholarship Chair Laura Kaplan Social Media Laura Kaplan Webmaster Dan Hall ln(blogs) By John O’Malley At this time of year, I feel like I sometimes get lazy with feedback. With the craziness of the holidays and now many other things going on in my life, I feel like I am not giving my students enough feedback. Michael Pershan has recently been blogging on a series of posts about feedback in the classroom and it is really interesting to read. I am always debating what feedback is appropriate and when to give it. Check out his blog for this interesting discussion (and other great things as well) and join in. This is not a topic that will go away anytime soon. http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/ 4 Points & Angles Vol. XLIV No. 4 COMING SOON: The MMC Conference of Workshops! Registration is now open for the 2015 MMC Conference of Workshops. When? January 24, 2015 Where? Adlai Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL Conference program books have arrived, and the conference program is also available on the MMC website (www.mmcchicago.org) Workshops are filled in the order that registrations are received, so register early! FINAL DEADLINE for registration is December 26, 2014. Don’t Delay - Register Today! NAME PREFERRED CONTACT Check one: STATE ZIP HOME PHONE HOME E-MAIL EMPLOYER WORK ADDRESS CITY STATE WORK PHONE WORK E-MAIL ELECTRONIC-ONLY MEMBERSHIP MEMBERSHIP TYPE Check one: FORM USE Check one: ❐ Electronic-Only Membership ❐ New Membership ❐ Renewal ❐ Former Member ❐ Change of Address * The student and 1st-year teacher memberships are only available as electronic-only. Make check payable to MMC Jan 2014 ❐ 1 year ($32) ❐ 2 years ($57) ❐ 3 years ($80) ❐ student*, 1 yr ($20) ❐ 1st yr teacher*, 1 yr ($20) ❐ retired, 1 yr ($25) MEMBERSHIP COST $ SCHOLARSHIP FUND $ SPEAKER FUND $ DONATIONS TOTAL AMOUNT OF CHECK $ Points & Angles MMC 7339 W. Ibsen St. Chicago, IL 60631 Check the box below for electronic-only membership. You will receive an email with a direct link to each issue of Points & Angles when it is posted on the web site, often before paper copies are mailed. You will no longer receive Points & Angles by mail. ZIP MMC Membership and Change of Address Form CITY Mail completed form and check to: ❐ Home ❐ Work HOME ADDRESS Upcoming Events Index 1 January Meeting Info 2 Points From The Interior 3 December Meeting Summary 3 November Board Report 4 MMC Scholarship Info 4 The Log Of Blogs 5 MMC Conference Of Workshops Info 6 Upcoming Events 6 USACAS Information Fri., Jan 9 Sat., Jan 24 Fri., Feb 6 Fri., Mar 6 Fri., May 15 Ismael Zamora MMC Conference Of Workshops Jaclyn Murawska Bob Horton & Mike Reiners Dave Bock The Problem With Problem Solving Adlai E. Stevenson High School Choosing Tasks For Productive Struggle In Mathematics Mathematical Meanings In Music What’s The Probability You Understand Probability? USACAS Upcoming Event Attend the NINTH U.S. Conference on CAS in Secondary Mathematics Speaker Proposals are being accepted online until January 15, 2015 at http://bit.ly/USACAS9_speakers Saturday, and Sunday July 18-19, 2015 Hawken School, Lyndhurst, OH 44124 More information available at usacas.org. We have preliminary speakers, etc. Organized by MEECAS Send upcoming event items to [email protected] no later than the date of the MMC dinner meeting preceding the issue in which the item should appear. All items are subject to editing. Your membership renewal date appears in the upper right corner of the label. Mailing Label Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago c/o MMC 7339 W. Ibsen St. Chicago, IL 60631 Stamp
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