In this article, the author uses qualitative methodology to investigate how African American elementary students in an urban school engaged with a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards-oriented mathematics curriculum and how their engagement converged with or diverged from the offered patterns of teaching practices in classrooms. The findings suggest that student practices converged with teaching practices that reflected the African American cultural dimension of social/affective interactions such as focused collaboration and active participation and diverged when students enacted practices that reflected expressive creativity and nonverbal interactions as with dramatic expression and improvisation. Rather than looking at the divergent behaviors as social problems or behaviors needing remediation or punishment, considering what can be learned from these behaviors could enhance the mathematical identity and academic achievement of African American students.
Children and adults alike enjoy the classic How many triangles? puzzle shown at the left. This month, the “math by the month” problems explore much more than counting the number of triangles in a figure. Join the fun as we discover a wealth of knowledge and connections with these fascinating three-sided polygons.
These activities develop pattern-seeking, prediction, and explanation. All the problems use Google™ maps (http://maps.google.com/) and some use little-known features of the tool. Before sharing these problems with your students, explore the site to become familiar with what the tool can do. Be careful, though–you may find yourself spending more time playing with its features than you had planned!
Traveling presents exciting learning opportunities. October's “math by the month” takes students on imaginary trips to popular destinations. Along the way, students use algebraic thinking, data analysis, reasoning, and number sense to solve math problems.
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