Mathematics Forum for Elementary Education Project Overview

Elem_Math_Forum is a telecollaborative forum for mathematics and elementary education. It allows future elementary education students to interact with real elementary education classrooms as part of their mathematics requirement. This RWLO gives students the opportunity to publish lesson plans relating to mathematics and essays about mathematics education as well as receive feedback for their work from other students, instructors of mathematics, and elementary educators in the field.

1 Student Learning Objectives

For this RWLO, the student will: 1. Create mathematical lesson plans for future use in elementary classrooms and find articles dealing with mathematics education 2. Create an account at http://www.livejournal.com and join the elementary education math forum http://community.livejournal.com/elem_math_forum/ 3. Post drafts of lesson plans or will post links to articles dealing with math education and post an essay about the article 4. Critique the work of other students and have their work critiqued by elementary teachers, instructors of mathematics, and other elementary education students

2 Procedure

Time: This is an out of class project requiring between two days and a week to complete (due to delay between posting to the internet and then waiting for a response). Creating an account and joining the community should take between 15 or 20 minutes. Writing and posting an entry should take a half hour. Posting a comment should take between 10 to 15 minutes.

Materials: Internet and time.

Prerequisites: Working computer knowledge.

Implementation:  Creating an account. 1. Go to http://www.livejournal.com. You will see a screen that looks like the following. Click the yellow “Create an Account” button.

3 2. Fill out the necessary information.

4 3. Set up your account. The Plus account is free, but there will be advertisements in your journal. The basic account is also free and is free of advertisements.

5 4. Edit Profile. If you wish to personalize your account, this is where it will be done. If you are content with what you have, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click “save changes.”

6 5. You will now need to check your email and confirm your email.

6. You have now created your account.

7  Joining Elem_Math_Forum. 1. Go to http://community.livejournal.com/elem_math_forum/profile Click on “click here” in the first paragraph.

2. Join the Community. An email will be sent to the moderator of the community requesting approval for membership (this is to limit membership in the community to only elementary ed students, math instructors, and elementary teachers.)

 Posting to the forum. 1. To post an entry, click on “Journal” at the top of the screen. Then click on “Post an Entry.”

8 2. Make sure that the “Post to” field says “elem_math_forum.” Type your entry and click the “post to elem_math_forum” at the bottom of the screen.

9  Posting a comment. 1. When looking at a post, click on “Post a comment” located below the entry.

10 2. If a comment has already been posted, click on the “# comments” link.

11 3. To reply to the comment, click “reply.” To post a comment to the entry, click “post a comment.”

4. The email you provided to livejournal will keep you informed of when people reply to your comments or post comments to your entries.

12  Optional: To have comments posted to elem_math_forum, show up on your friends page (when you log into your account, click on “friends” and then “view friends page”) go to http://community.livejournal.com/elem_math_forum/profile and click on the person with the + in the light blue bar (the first icon in the light blue bar) and then click “add.” This will allow you to view things posted to the elem_math_forum without having to go to the elem_math_forum every time.

 Have the students post either an essay about an article dealing with math or math education or post a mathematical lesson plan. Then have students comment on each other’s work and on the comments provided by others in the community. After they have posted, they can then “tag” the posting as either an “article” or a “lesson plan.” After an entry has been posted, beneath the entry is a list of links “# comment,” “Post a comment,” “edit,” “tag,” etc. Click on “tag” and scroll to the bottom of the entry. There will be a place to type in what the name of the tag will be.

13 Content Material

Student Directions:  Creating an account. 1. Go to http://www.livejournal.com . Click the yellow “Create an Account” button. 2. Fill out the necessary information. 3. Set up your account. The Plus account is free, but there will be advertisements in your journal. The basic account is also free and is free of advertisements. 4. Edit Profile. If you wish to personalize your account, this is where it will be done. If you are content with what you have, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click “save changes.” 5. You will now need to check your email and confirm your email. 6. You have now created your account.

 Joining Elem_Math_Forum. 1. Go to http://community.livejournal.com/elem_math_forum/profile. Click on “click here” in the first paragraph. 2. Join the Community. An email will be sent to the moderator of the community requesting approval for membership (this is the limit membership in the community to only elementary ed students, math instructors, and elementary teachers.)

 Posting to the forum. 1. To post an entry, click on “Journal” at the top of the screen. Then click on “Post an Entry.” 2. Make sure that the “Post to” field says “elem_math_forum.” Type your entry and click the “post to elem_math_forum” at the bottom of the screen.

 Posting a comment. 1. When looking at a post, click on “Post a comment” located below the entry. 2. If a comment has already been posted, click on the “# comments” link. 3. To reply to the comment, click “reply.” To post a comment to the entry, click “post a comment” 4. The email you provided to livejournal will keep you informed of when people reply to your comments or post comments to your entries.

 Optional: To have comments posted to elem_math_forum, show up on your friends page (when you log into your account, click on “friends” and then “view friends page”) go to http://community.livejournal.com/elem_math_forum/profile and click on

14 the person with the + in the light blue bar (the first icon in the light blue bar) and then click “add.” This will allow you to view things posted to the elem_math_forum without having to go to the elem_math_forum every time.

 You will be posting an essay or a lesson plan, depending on what your specific instructor tells you to do, and commenting on each other’s work as well as the comments provided by others in the community.

Referenced URLs:  http://www.livejournal.com

15 Assessment This project is graded on the following scale: Posting: Article Lesson Plan ---Article or link to article provided 10% ---Objective 20% ---Relevance and completeness of essay 40% ---Procedure 20% ---Relevance of question 20% ---Grade level 20% ---Tagged 5% ---Relevance of questions 10% ---Tagged 5% Comment: Comment to a Posting Relevance...... 10% Completeness...... 2.5% Reply to a Comment Relevance...... 10% Completeness...... 2.5%

16 Links to Course Competencies

This RWLO could be applied in the following courses: Elements of Math I, Elements of Math II, Math for Educators, and others. Specifically, this RWLO meets the following course competencies:

 Students will be able to articulate through writing in effective, organized, clear, and grammatically correct English appropriate for mathematics.

 Students will recognize and understand the role played by each part of mathematics in the development of mathematics.

 Students will be able to use representations and the language of mathematics to express mathematical functions.

 Students will be able to use representations and the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas.

 Students will be able to recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.

 Students will be able to recognize and use connections among different mathematical ideas.

 Students will demonstrate an understanding of computer literacy.

17 Supplementary Resources

 Lesson Plan Resource

 Mathematics Education

 Mathematics Education Resources

 American Mathematical Society

 Mathematical Association of America

 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

18 Recommendations

Recommendations for Integration:  This RWLO can be used as a one-time assignment or for a semester long project.

 This RWLO can be used as a research opportunity for mathematics education.

 It can be used as a resource to supplement mathematics education courses.

 It can be used as a resource for students to get feedback about topics in mathematics and math education.

Back-up:  If the internet isn’t working, the assignment can be given entirely as an out of class project.

 Math articles can be printed out prior to class and students can be given the opportunity in class to create rough drafts of essays about articles and lesson plans.

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