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Discovery & Reflection in Developmental Math

Discovery & Reflection in Developmental Math

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I’m in the middle of a one-semester leave, and in addition to working my way through Euclid’s Elements I have really cranked up my reading in anticipation of my return in Fall. I am currently reading Jo Boaler’s Mathematical Mindsets. I was happy to see that she supports my beliefs that student learning increases when students participate in the discovery of concepts as well as when students reflect on their learning. These have been two areas of emphasis for me…

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Problems To Use In Class

Problems To Use In Class

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One thing I like to do in class is end with a short assignment to see how well students understand the material from that section. There are a couple of short quizzes that are available in the 4th edition of my combined elementary & intermediate algebra textbook. First, in the Video Notebook (located for students inside MyMathLab) each section of the notebook ends with a 5-question self-assessment quiz that works really well for this purpose. I selected 5 problems that…

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Using My Videos In Class

Using My Videos In Class

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I wanted to share one of my in-class strategies for using the videos in my 4th edition combined algebra text. For the latest edition I created over 3000 short videos – conceptual, technology (TI-84), study skills, … In this article I am focusing on the videos I made that correspond to the examples in the textbook as well as the two associated Quick Check exercises. (Each example in the textbook has two corresponding Quick Check exercises.) Round One – Example…

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uCLID – New Blog Project

uCLID – New Blog Project

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At the beginning of the new year I started a blog project called uCLID. Each weekday, and most weekends as well, I intend to work my way through one of the propositions is Euclid’s Elements. It’s been a lot of fun. You can keep up on my progress through the “Blog” tab on my website, or by going directly to this address: http://www.georgewoodbury.com/euclid/ I just posted Proposition 24 in Book 1 today, so that puts me halfway through Book 1….

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Factoring – A New Approach

Factoring – A New Approach

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This semester I have been trying to help my students discover mathematics, rather than having everything coming straight from me. My goal is to get them to think more while also gaining confidence in their own abilities. One topic that has always given my students trouble is factoring trinomials that have a leading coefficient other than 1. Here’s what I tried. We had spent the day before factoring trinomials that did have a leading coefficient of 1, and my students…

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Quiz Inspections

Quiz Inspections

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As my students are getting ready for their final exam, I assign a MyMathLab quiz that is connected to a personalized homework assignment. There are 36 questions on the quiz, with 136 related questions on the homework assignment. For each question a student gets right on the quiz, all related problems (typically 4) are removed from the homework assignment. This allows students to focus on the problems they struggled with, which is one of the most important factors in preparing…

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Algebra Final Review Videos

Algebra Final Review Videos

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I have two sets of final exam review videos on YouTube. The first playlist, for Elementary Algebra, can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCE703DB5743508D7 The second playlist, for Intermediate Algebra, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL15AA6E8E21593D3D Please feel free to share with students and instructors who can use these. George

Reviewing for a Final Exam – How Long?

Reviewing for a Final Exam – How Long?

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I think it is important to review with developmental math students in preparation for the final exam. I try to shoot for one week to devote for this review, and this semester I managed to get one week plus a day. I find that if I only have a day or two I just work problems at the board in rapid fire fashion while students watch. This week I am bringing in a batch of 10 problems each day, asking…

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MyMathLab Corner – Instructor Exchange

MyMathLab Corner – Instructor Exchange

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This week I am starting a new feature on the Instructor Exchange, tentatively titled George Woodbury’s MyMathLab Corner. The plan is to post an article on the effective use of MyMathLab each month. In the first article I will outline what I view as the key benefits of using online homework, as well as potential pitfalls. In upcoming articles I will discuss how I handle these problems. I will post here once the article goes live. – George