PRIME – Title II Partnership Subgrant
PRIME is a two year $200,000 federally funded grant. The purpose is to
train teachers in the use technology and active learning to transform how
geometry is presented in the classroom. There will be two 2 week workshops (one
in summer 2004 and the other in summer 2005).
2004 – 2005 Workshops: This gives a description of both geometry workshops as submitted for the PRIME grant proposal.
Draft: Maryland High School Core Learning Goals and
Assessment Limits: Geometry
MATH
590: SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN MATH
2004 Workshop:
Dates: July 26
– July 30 and August 2 – August 6.
Time: 8:30 –
3:30 daily
Location:
Worcester County Board of
Approach for 2004: This workshop will cover a variety of topics relevant for middle and high school teachers of geometry with an emphasis on pedagogy. Many “hands on” activities using both technology and manipulatives will be included. Historical notes as well as their use in the classroom will be woven into the workshop. Language and other communication issues (e.g. constructed response item, use of vocabulary, visual metaphors) for students will be addressed. The second Maryland Core Learning Goal, which addresses geometry and measurement, and the NCTM standards will be used for both content and pedagogy. The “hands on” activities will address the content in items from the Maryland Geometry assessment on which Worcester County students exhibited the poorest performance.
The primary framework for teacher instruction will be a cycle that consists of five stages. First, we will consider sample student responses on problematic items from the Worcester County geometry assessment with the teachers by attempting to evaluate the responses and hypothesize what the student’s difficulties with the material were. This will then lead to a “hands on” activity (with manipulatives or GSP) designed to enhance student understanding of the content item. Next, we will reflect upon the activity with all of the participants and provide sample questions, teacher prompts, and further work the participants could do with their students. Fourth in the cycle is a break out session amongst the participants while the instructors circulate and facilitate discussion. During this stage, the participants will develop new hands on activities or adjust the one given, develop appropriate teacher prompts and associated follow-up work that could be done with their students. They will align these items with the indicators in CLG 2. These materials will then be shared with the class as a whole.
This instructional cycle with a new content item will be repeated as time allows. Before the activities with GSP are included in the above instructional cycle, we will have several sessions in which the participants are instructed on the use of the program.
In addition to the instructional cycle, there will be daily sessions during which each participant will take part in either Praxis preparation or textbook assessment (depending on whether the participant has already passed the Praxis II exam).
The Praxis preparation sessions will be guided by ETS literature and test preparation materials, including their publication, "Mathematics Content Knowledge; Pedagogy; Proofs, Models, and Problems, Part 1 Study Guide." In these sessions we will focus on several of the content areas assessed by the Praxis exam. For the content area of interest, we will first consider a few sample test questions that address this area, and then we will discuss the content area in more generality. Possible directions of discussions include: the significance of the content area being assessed (from a pedagogical point of view), consideration of "the big picture" (that is, other content areas addressed indirectly by the sample questions, and/or how other content areas are connected to the one being considered), and designing our own sample questions and/or activities.
Problematic Content Items Work:
Web Sites:
Euclid's Elements by D.E.Joyce at Clark University
MDK12
– Activities for Indicators:
Voyage 200 and Geometer’s Sketchpad