Homework Assignments Weekly Summaries
In addition to the webassign exercises, I will collect weekly homework summaries every Tuesday beginning September 3rd. These will generally be just a paragraph or two, either typed or handwritten neatly, summarizing your understanding of the homework and the material presented in class. Make sure you indicate in your summary any topic or problem that you remain unsure of. Describe your difficulty. Also include anything you found particularly interesting.Some weeks, I will assign an extra problem, that I want you to complete and turn in with your summary.
For these you
should focus not only on solving or completing them but on noticing how you do so. Keep notes, while
you are working on them, of anything that presents a block, any false starts, what
makes you think of trying a certain approach, and whether and why (if possible) that
strategy works or does not work. When you are finished completing the assignment (or
alternatively, if you are convinced you will not be able to complete the assignment) write a
narrative telling the story, in detail, of the process you went through to reach that
point. Your audience for this narrative is another student in the class, not a particular
student but assume this student is confused by the problem and how you solved it, or that
the student has not yet tried to solve this particular problem.
The purposes of these assignments are:
1. To enable you to recognize, and remember, strategies that are successful and those that
are not.
2. To help you to develop your own approach to problem solving, one that works for you.
3. To help me to understand the problems you are having and to develop ways to assist you
in learning the material and acquiring the skills this course is designed to teach you.
4. To provide a mechanism for you to share your insights with the rest of the class. You
can learn from each other as well as from me. It may be that the approach another student
takes may be more instructive, for you, than the one I take.
Math is not a spectator sport! You must practice in order to learn. Homework will be
assigned after every class, however, at times you may need to work more of the
problems. You are encouraged to work together, make use of the tutors and see me outside
of class if you are having any trouble. I caution you, however, to remember that on the
tests you will be required to work alone. The ability to watch and understand while
someone else solves a problem is not the same as the ability to do it yourself. Make sure
you work enough problems yourself. Enough problems should be worked in class (see entry slip assignment) so that
students will be able to check their understanding of concepts. If this is not the case
for you, please make use of office hours!!