Running Head: STANDARDS 3 AND 4 RATIONALE

NCTM CAEP Standard 3 and Standard 4 Rationale and Reflection

John Moyer

Regent University
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Rationale

For my UED 489 Teaching Mathematics course, I had to create an online quiz. Geometry

has been a passion of mine for a long time, so I made an introductory quiz about triangles. My

thoughts were that this quiz could be used shortly after teaching the students about the basic rules

of triangles. There is very little computationally complex about the quiz; however, it does

thoroughly test the students’ logical skills in being able to understand how the rules they learned

about triangles apply to simple questions, such as how big an angle is, or how large a size can be

and the triangle still be able to work. This quiz also tests the students’ mathematical vocabulary

using words such as “ascending” and “descending.” The reason I have chosen this for my content

pedagogy standard is because it not only uses technology to formatively assess the students, it

also gives the students an assessment on their theoretical understanding of triangles. After this

quiz, I would be able to tell what rules the students understand more than the others, allowing me

to move the students into practical problems that challenge the areas where the students are

weakest.

Late March, 2020, in my pre-algebra student teaching placement, the students were

learning about mean as a balance point. I used a youtube video as a digital resource to help aid

the students in visualizing how to find the mean as a balance point. The reason I am using this as

my mathematical learning environment artifact is because it is a virtual resource which aided the

students in being able to learn how to find the mean as a balance point. The video, whilst

simplistic, was able to capture the kids’ attention, because the man in the video made funny

“boop” noises as he moved the dots closer towards in the center to find the balance point. Simply

put, the unique format in which the students were able to see this helped the students to have a

point on which they could remember how to do the concept. All I had to do from that point if the
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students were stuck on trying to find the mean as a balance point was to say “boop” in a similar

way to the video, and the students were able to recall the information. This fell in line with what

Adams (2016) had to say: “Sensory integration has the potential to provide benefits for virtually

all of our everyday activities.”

Reflection

For the longest time, I was only interested in pre- and post-assessments. However, the

creation of the triangles quiz helped me realize the importance of formative assessments. They

allow the teacher to mold the future lessons in an attempt to not only bolster weak areas but

provide enrichment in areas that the students have already mastered. In addition, “formative

assessments motivate students to study,” according to Weurlander et al (2012). In the future, I

believe I can further apply content pedagogy, incorporating students into the mix. The students

could participate in finding their own resources, or, better yet, create their own mathematical

resources that can help teach themselves the mathematical concepts.

Upon reflection, using this Youtube video helped immensely in teaching mean as a

balance point, as it hit a hard area to hit for mathematics, that of the audio-visual. Whilst some

geometric concepts can scratch the visual itch, there is hardly ever any audio-related math in the

K-12 track. After using this resource, I hope to implement more sound-based resources into the

mix, including math-related songs and rhymes. This could not only increase the engagement and

memorization of content, but could allow me to hit the rest of the standard by providing

resources that may mean something to a student of a certain culture, or to some students’

interests.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9of5gI9Yg00
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References

Adams, W. J. (2016). The development of audio-visual integration for temporal

judgements. PLoS Computational Biology,  12(4)

doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.regent.edu:2048/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004865

Weurlander, M., Söderberg, M., Scheja, M., Hult, H., & Wernerson, A. (2012). Exploring

formative assessment as a tool for learning: students’ experiences of different methods of

formative assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 37(6), 747–760.

doi: 10.1080/02602938.2011.572153