Overview & Rationale

Students’ bring valuable (mathematics) knowledge and resources from their out of school activities and practices that you can leverage in mathematics lessons. Further, knowledge and resources from other disciplines, such as STEM or literacy, can also help you to support children's mathematics learning. In this assignment, you’ll learn to recognize ways that students see and use mathematics in the home and outside of school and in other disciplines. You'll plan a mathematics activity that draws upon knowledge and understanding of the practices, activities and resources of students’ communities and/or STEM. Then you'll facilitate this activity at a family STEM night and reflect on what you learned across these activities. Finally, you'll refine your lesson based on the enactment and research in mathematics education, make revisions, and publish your final lesson plan.

Learning Objectives

Demonstrate knowledge of mathematics concepts, practices, and curriculum:

• You can select and use effectively tools, technology, or other resources to support mathematical reasoning and sense making.

Demonstrate pedagogical knowledge and practices for teaching mathematics:

• You can develop and facilitate mathematics activities that leverage other sources (e.g., family, community, cultural, STEAM, literacy) of knowledge, resources, or experiences to support students to explore and grapple with mathematical ideas and relationships.

Demonstrate knowledge of students as learners of mathematics:

• You can anticipate student approaches to rich mathematics problems, including both conventional and unconventional strategies, and you can relate those strategies to the mathematical concepts students are learning.

Demonstrate awareness of social contexts of mathematics teaching and learning:

• You demonstrate a belief that all people are capable of thinking mathematically and are capable of solving sophisticated mathematical problems with effort when those problems are crafted to be accessible.

Demonstrate a work ethic worthy of a noble profession:

• You can analyze and learn from teaching to improve your own teaching to more effectively support student learning.