Establish Mathematical Goals to Focus Learning
"Effective teaching of mathematics establishes clear goals for the mathematics that students are learning, situates goals within learning progressions, and uses the goals to guide instructional decisions." -PTA
Experience and Growth
In our methods course, we wrote out a unit plan with a group as one of our assignments. To the right I have a link to our unit plan that we created. Within this unit plan we were able to piece apart all of the sections of the curriculum and tie each piece to the mathematical goals of our students. Within the assignment we wrote out mathematical goals, describe how the lesson impacted the unit as a whole and detailed descriptions of how we would assess the students.
In my student teaching I have had wonderful opportunities in this area to see and learn the workings of a good, reflective system for both myself and my students. At the beginning of the unit my students are presented with a goal/objective chart. We review the goals for the chapter and as we move through the chapter the students are able to reflect on where they are at with each mathematical goal. They reflect after the material is presented and practiced. Next, they reflect after taking a short assessment over a few of the objectives chunked together. This allows me as a teacher to see where my students are with the mathematical goals and be able to readjust to get my students where they need to be. Lastly they get to reflect on the mathematical goals after the unit test and later on after a cumulative assessment. The students then get to describe what may have gone wrong, what they need to work on and what went well. |
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