Objective

To help you become more familiar with the professional publications available for teachers of mathematics, you are asked to review a recently (within five years) published article. The review should specifically address how the article affected you and how you will use the information provided in your teaching.

The aim of this assignment is for you to make instructional decisions about the use of curricular resources in the teaching of middle school mathematics. Essentially, you will review an article from a journal published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) that focuses on teaching and learning mathematics in middle school and discuss ways in which the information in the article will influence your own teaching of mathematics.

Your Role

You are a teacher in a classroom (from kindergarten through sixth grade) and teaching mathematics is one of your responsibilities. All teachers of mathematics at your school decide to focus on improving the teaching of one particular area, geometry or data analysis and probability. Each teacher is to select an article regarding one of the topics from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School and prepare a review of the article.

The Research

Decide on the particular content area or instructional topic that the teachers of mathematics at your school will investigate. Select and read an article about that topic from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. Think about how the information in the article you have read will be useful in improving mathematics instruction at your grade level. Write a review using specific examples from the article to support your views.

Format for the Report

Your report should contain the following elements:

A. Give a summary (one paragraph) of the main ideas of the article. The summary should include the title, the author(s), the topic of your investigation, general comments, and the strengths and weaknesses of the ideas in the article. (1 point)

B. Provide an analysis that includes essential ideas from the article that you feel are

useful in improving mathematics instruction for the grade level you are considering. Give specific examples of the ways you intend to use the information from the article in your teaching in order to improve mathematics instruction in your classroom. Select two or three main points from the article as the focus of your comments. (4 points)

(Note: This is the critical portion of the review, as indicated by the point value.)

C. The review should be two pages in length. The review should be typed. A copy of the article should be attached to the review. (1 point)