MTED 417/517_Midterm_Fall 18-19

You will develop expertise on a topic and share it with the class through the creation of a multi-
media presentation. Your presentation must be uploaded to Blackboard by the end of week 6.
Your midterm grade will be based on the quality of your presentation. The goal of this project is
to allow you to build significant expertise in one important area of elementary mathematics or
one routine that is critical in elementary math classrooms. Think of it as an opportunity to
“teach” your classmates about your topic—frame your presentation in that way.

1. Define your topic. As you define your topic please be sure to describe and demonstrate it
in enough detail that you convince your instructor of the depth of your understanding but
also be sure that someone who is neither in this class not an early childhood educator can
understand the ideas.

2. Explain the significance of your topic and describe why your topic is important to the
teaching and learning of elementary mathematics. Be sure to:

a. Answer the following question, “When a student is able to understand ____, it

allows them to…”
b. Describe the concepts and understandings that are necessary and/or helpful for
students to understand your topic, (i.e. what should come before)
c. Describe the concepts and understandings that would come later developmentally
and that are built upon your topic

3. Identify classroom routine (e.g., math talk) or tool (e.g., ten frame) that can support
increased student understanding of your topic.
Provide a general description of the routing and give an example of how the
routine can be used to support your topic.

4. Include your personal reflections - How is what you have explained about teaching and
learning this topic similar and/or different from your childhood experiences with the
topic?
a. Can you see the benefits of what you discussed?
b. Are there aspects you are completely sold on or skeptical of?

5. USE AND CITE REFERENCES AND INCLUDE A BIBLIOGRAPHY

a. As a starting point, you should consider finding articles referenced in our course
texts. If you need assistance locating resources, please feel free to contact your
me. Also consider searching titles and abstracts for Teaching Children
Mathematics in the Journals and Books section of the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) website (www.nctm.org). Also a good Google
search will produce useful results.

6. You may pick your own topic (just send me an email to ensure you are on the right
track). Some possible topics include: problem structures (e.g., result unknown, start
unknown), partial sums, partial products, partial quotients, fractions as numbers on a
number line, etc.