Talk:Making Connections in the Geometry Classroom

Instructor comments on your needs assessment and objectives -- Jianwei Zhang (talk) 13:46, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

I'm pleased to see the instructional analysis you've carried out that will informed the design of a very interesting and helpful mini-course. A few suggestions/comments:

Your course-level performance-based learning objectives need to refined, with each objective statement integrating the different components (see Gagne) to specify a specific learning result.

Say something like:

By the end of this course, :

- participants will be able to...

- participants will be able to...

Among the objectives, I guess you will include understanding the importance of knowledge connection for deep understanding, strategies to identify and foster such connections, and create and implement lessons accordingly.

You may find Perkins' paper on Putting Understanding Upfront helpful for this project, especially the focus on generative topics.

Instructor comments on your objectives and task analysis -- Jianwei Zhang (talk) 14:23, 16 April 2013 (EDT)

I reviewed your task analysis. The sequence of activities is clear, but what the participants will learn from these design activities. Your initial purpose is to help educators learn the purpose and process of teaching geometry in an integrated, holistic way, for deep understanding. Shouldn't your lesson 1 include understanding this principle of teaching, which will elaborated and applied in the lesson design?

Also, replace "students' with "participants" when you are referring to teachers taking this mini-course.

Developmental Tryout -- Katie Matthews (talk) 21:45, 24 April 2013 (EDT)

Hi Kristen,

It seems like your portfolio page has merged with your project. You need to separate these into two different pages. This will substantially affect how you organize your course. You should definitely have an introduction page which summarizes the components and objectives of the course, and then individual pages for the unit. You also want to try to fix the formatting on the headings.

My understanding from the textbook is the five components of the learning objectives should be contained in the same objective, not separated out into sections (p. 134). You may want to revise the performance objectives section of your portfolio, but also your unit level objectives so they include all five components. Definitely include the assessment tool in the objective.

You should provide some context to your first unit-- a motivation for the unit, perhaps-- before providing the sources. Even a little content to provide context goes a long way.

I could not access the article without logging in to UAlbany first; if you access the article, save it as a pdf, and then upload it to the Wiki, then logging in will no longer be necessary.

The application and reflection questions provide a context for understanding the article, video, and standards. Consider integrating them with the resources so people read the questions before viewing the resources. That way, students know what they are looking to gain from the resources before they access them, not after.

I do like how you tie in the lesson planning project from the very beginning; it allows students to access resources with the larger lesson design goal in mind.

You have some great ideas. I think it will be easier to follow along once you make the organizational changes. Good start!

Katie

Thanks for the feedback Katie. I am still slowly learning how to use the wiki and need time to figure out how to link it to another page.

I like your idea of tying the questions to the resources. This way students are focused when viewing/reading the resources.

Thanks!

Re: Developmental Tryout -- Kristen Savastano (talk) 21:16, 25 April 2013 (EDT)

Replace this text with your reply

Developmental Tryout -- Ryan Alescio (talk) 09:46, 26 April 2013 (EDT)

Hi Kristen

Your topic is an important one because there are so many way to connect geometry. Therefore, I think any math teacher would be interested in going through your course and learning about those different way.

I think your reflection questions are very good as they allow the learners think about the issues and connect the information into the final unit in which they create their own lesson.

I noticed that you had mentioned that you are starting to figure out how wiki works. Once that happens you should look into creating an introduction page to help organize your course and make it easier for the students to navigate through the course. Also, your article will not be accessible if the learner does not attend UAlbany. Upload it as a pdf and then anyone going through your course will be able to view it.

Overall, I think once the organizational piece comes together your course will flow smoothly and the information will be presented cleaner.

Developmental Tryout -- Celeste (talk) 21:06, 26 April 2013 (EDT)

Hi Kristen,

Overall you have a good start to your project and I feel you are aware of features you need to fix from the previous tryouts such as the access of the article and the overall display of the project. Once you separate the planning section from the project it will be easier for the learner to get the actual project portion. You have a great topic. Especially since it would integrate with the use of mine very well. I would add some pictures into the units for appearance appeal. Good luck with creating the rest of your project and coding of the webpage. I took me a little while to figure some aspects out.

Try Out -- Keriann Earl (talk) 14:22, 27 April 2013 (EDT)

I know that the previous comments already mentioned that the navigation of the page could be organized further. I like how you have an application section for students to apply their knowledge followed by reflection for them to think about what they've learned. The reflection part for me was a little confusing because of the other stuff underneath it. It said lesson 2 and lesson 3, but I’m assuming that probably was other stuff you were working on that was unrelated to the reflection activity. But overall you are off to a great start!

Instructor feedback on your draft unit -- Jianwei Zhang (talk) 14:43, 1 May 2013 (EDT)

Don't worry about wiki editing. You can concentrate on the design and writing of your unit and write up the units in Word. I will be happy to transfer the units to the wiki space.

• Your project needs to have:

- a portfolio page, showing your work in the back stage (instructional analysis, sequencing...)

- a course front page: Making Connections in the Geometry Classroom, including overview (what's it about, for whom...), course-level objectives, with links to each unit

- Unit 1:xxx

- Unit 2: xxx - Unit 3:xxx

If you like, you can create these pages in Word and send them over to me.

• Course performance objectives: the five components approach should be integral to each objective. You are not expected to write an objective for each component.

• When you ask the learner to read long document, such as the common core standard, provide a brief overview/highlight to guide engagement and focus. See the following example about how to embed reading of in a flow of learning activities:

Unit_1:_What_is_problem-based_learning_&_why_is_it_beneficial?