Fernando Miranda

Professor Turner
MTH 3820
December 9, 2019
Annotated Bibliography
In my research to discover ways to help make math more engaging and teaching more
effective, I have discovered methods that not only allow students to understand math, but enjoy it
as well. This includes articles on google, pictures, and some articles found through the AU
library.
First, I found this image where it kind of describes education in the United States as a
whole, and it is on the topic of differentiation. We have all seen the image where it describes the
difference between inequality and equity, where the kids adjust the stack of boxes to see over a
fence. In this image, it shows two more images: reality, where one kid has nearly all the boxes,
and liberation, where there is no fence to look over at all. The fence represents national/state
standards and common core because school curriculum has a “plan” where students must learn
certain material at certain in order for teachers to be able to assess them, no matter if all or none
of the students have an understanding of the material. This rush of material benefits students who
learn at a high level, where they can be taught at a fast pace and receive the challenge that they
all need, while kids that learn at a lower level get left in the dust. This shows heavily based on
which students go on to college. As for liberation, it shows that with no academic barrier,
students are able to learn at their own pace, where students who need challenge get their
challenge and students who need assistance are getting their assistance. As far as what liberation
will look like in schools, I have no idea, differentiation in the classroom is what we have for now
so teachers need to be able to differentiate for all students.
I then seeked assessments and rubrics to help differentiate and track student learning. In
this article, it contains a 3x3 rubric that contains 3 columns. “Not Sure of This”, “Im Ready!”, “I
Already Know This”, and 3 rows: “I Like to Read and Look”, “I Like to Listen”, “I Like to
Move Things Around”. In the article, it contains an example using the food chain, but this would
work well when teaching about graphing lines, where students might struggle to graph a line
because of counting rise over run (slope), and some students will excel in graphing. You can do a
Move Around using tiles on the floor to graph a line for the students who do not get it, and you
can do Visual Learning with some computer software for students who excel, where they see
what happens when you adjust certain aspects of a linear function.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2018/06/response_ways_to_
use_tech_to_differentiate_instruction.html
Sticking with the idea of technology, one website that Professor Turner introduced us to
is Graspable, which is a software where it helps factor function, multiply function, expand
functions, graph functions, and evaluate functions. This software is really good for Algebra 1 &
2 because it helps students learn things such as long polynomial division, function
transformation, and finding roots. Since many schools are now leaning towards students having
their own laptops and tablets, this is becoming more accessible for teachers to use. This also
allows for students who need more visuals and hands one experience to learn.
https://graspablemath.com/canvas
In this class, I feel like we did not talk enough about alternative math classes and math
for special education students. Next semester for student teacher, my cooperating teacher and I
will be teaching two sections of applied math, where she tells me that this class is contained
mostly of students who are placed in lower level math, and this fulfils the 3 three years of math
that students need. Since in my experience here, I have had students who my cooperating teacher
states that need to be in a self contained classroom, which is why I went on Teachers Pay
Teachers and found a book of worksheets that contain assignments where it helps student learn
about budgeting. In Applied Math, I am going to be teaching about budgeting, credit, car/house
buying, renting, and wages in order for students to be prepared for life after high school.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Budgeting-Practice-Worksheets-for-High-School-
Special-Education-2613991
In the bibliography assignment description, I saw it mentioned the topic of mastery based
grading, so I decided to look it up. I found an article explaining how when grading students
based on if they have met, not met, or exceeded the standards, you have to not only provide a
letter grade for the student, but also explain to them why they have received this letter grade. By
grading students if they understand the material or not, this will help them learn from
mistakes/misconceptions, the student can talk to the teacher about what they need in order to
understand, and it helps motivate student learning. It includes this cute chart where it shows
graphics of someone learning to ride a bike, where in each block, it explains to students what
they need based on what they understand.
https://edulastic.com/blog/standards-based-grading/
Throughout my college experience, I have had to create portfolios for my math classes,
which consist of the work that I did that semester, revised assignments/tests/quizzes, and
reflections. So I decided to look up portfolios that students could do in high school, where
students get to express how they feel about math, whether they like it, they hate it, they notice
improvement, and/or they experienced some bumps on the road. In this article I found on google,
a teacher uses these portfolio for her middle school math classes, and provides a variety of
questions that allows students to express themselves. She also provides a list of what she wants
students to present in their portfolio, which includes a exits slips, tests, journals, and other
assignments. So I think this portfolio can help motivate students to like math, because other than
simply doing math, they are expressing their feelings towards math.
https://corwin-connect.com/2016/09/getting-math-portfolios/
Since I brought up the idea of portfolios, one thing that I noticed each portfolio template
had was journals, so I decided to look up what journals templates and questions can I use for
students in high school math. I found a website called the cornerstone for teachers, and they
provided some prompts that I might be able to use when I am having students write these
journals. They provided prompts where students are required to think, “What different directions
did you take when solving this problem?”, “How do you know if your answer is right?”, “What
were your feelings before and after solving this problem?”. This continues the idea of assessing
student learning while also having knowledge of how your students feel about math.
https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/math-journals/
Earlier in this semester, I went to the ICTM conference in Peoria and attended this
seminar/lecture that talked about Number Talks. Number Talks are activities that should take
about 10-20 minutes, based on how long your class time is, and it involves asking students to
think of different ways to solve a problem. In the conference, the lecturer asked us to find a way
to multiply 12 X 14 without using a calculator, and this included people saying, “I did 12(10 +
4)” or “I did 12X12=144, 12X2= 24, so 144+24=168”. It is just to help show in the classroom
the different ways of thinking. In the PDF file that I found, it goes more in depth what number
talks are and also provides questions you can ask in Algebra 1 & 2 and Geometry. The main goal
for number talks is to have students understand instead of memorize.
PDF File: file:///C:/Users/fmira/Downloads/mt2018-09-048a.pdf or just google Number Talks
and it is the very first thing.
One thing I kind of always wanted to address is the down time that occurs at the end of
class, where students are all packed up and waiting for the bell with like 10 minutes left, but this
because we completed all the tasks and lessons we needed and students have received additional
practice during the class period. So I decided to look up brain games, where students get to do
fun math questions that are also application questions. In prodigy games, it lists games where
students can practice in small math concepts that they constantly struggle in, like operations that
involve negative numbers, so many kids struggle with this. They have a thing called KenKen,
where it is like a puzzle where they have to continually use the four operations, but only using
the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4; and is also like sudoku where numbers cannot be on the same row or
column. It also showed the mobile game 2048, which I use to play all the time on my phone in
high school. So I thought it would be cool to include math games for down time instead of
student chilling on their phones.
https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/math-puzzles/
For my last resource, I wanted to find strategies to use when communicating and
partnering with parents. So I found an article by the NCTM, where it provides ways to build
better connections with parents. The main idea that I took away from this article it to always let
parents know the material students are about to learn before the student learns it; this can help
prevent parents from feeling ambushed about why their child is struggling in class, where parents
do not have to feel obligated to reteach the material to their child and also to allow parents to
know that it is okay if their child makes mistakes on their homework. This can be done at open
house, where you present to parents a fun problem or puzzle for them to solve, it shows that you
are a teacher who cares if the students like math and lets the parents know that you, the teacher,
is someone who is approachable when they have any concerns or questions. I thought that this is
important because I want to present myself in a nice manner, I want the parents to think that I am
a “cool” guy who tries his best in teaching their students and communicating with them and their
caregivers.
https://www.nctm.org/News-and-Calendar/Messages-from-the-President/Archive/Linda-M_-Goj
ak/Partnering-with-Parents/