I
thought the website mentioned in this article might be helpful to those who
want to get a “jump start” with implementing the eight Standards for
Mathematical Practice in their math lessons.
Marilyn Burns’s
Online Math Assessment Tool
(Originally
titled “Go Figure: Math and the Common Core”)
In this Educational Leadership article, math guru Marilyn Burns says she is
passionate about the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Why? She
likes the way the standards separate eight standards for mathematical practice…
-
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving
them.
-
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
-
Construct viable arguments and critique the
reasoning of others.
-
Model with mathematics.
-
Use appropriate tools strategically.
-
Attend to precision.
-
Look for and make use of structure.
-
Look for and express regularity in repeated
reasoning.
from
specific, grade-by-grade content
expectations. These strands should be constantly interacting in classrooms
K-12.
Burns says doing mental math
(for example, solving 15 x 12 without pencil and paper) is especially helpful
in revealing students’ mathematical thinking. “We all know students who can
borrow, carry, and invert and multiply yet are unaware when their answers are
unreasonable,” she says. Mental math is an important skill for everyday
applications – dividing up checks in a restaurant, deciding when to leave for
an appointment, adjusting recipes, and estimating savings from buying something
that’s on sale. But Burns believes asking students to think through problems
out loud can also provide invaluable formative insights to teachers and help
improve math teaching.
To this end, Burns and her colleagues created a free online formative
assessment tool – the Math Reasoning Inventory – http://mathreasoninginventory.com/Home/VideoLibrary
– with video clips showing students’ math reasoning as they wrestle with 6th-grade
problems in whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. She suggests searching for
Monica, Alberto, Malcolm, and Cecelia and then for the specific whole-number
math problem they were asked to solve. “Watching these videos is helpful
because observing students mentally solve math problems and explain their
reasoning helps bring meaning to the practice standards,” says Burns. “It’s
important not to think about ‘fixing’ students who don’t demonstrate particular
skills or understanding, because partial understanding and confusion are part
of the learning process – students learn in their own ways, at their own
paces.”
/0088.gif)
