Unit Plan for Math 10 Systems of Linear Equations

Unit Plan

Response - John Mason: Questioning in Mathematics Education

1) Do Mason's ideas connect with inquiry-based learning in secondary school mathematics? (And why or why not?)
2) How might Mason's ideas about questions in math class be incorporated into your unit planning for your long practicum?

After reading John Mason's article, I think his ideas connect with inquiry-based learning in the secondary math classroom. The majority of the questions that I had often heard from my high school teachers and ask students myself are in the category of "asking as telling" which directs student attention to easier and easier answers. This type of questioning is not very helpful for student to genuinely learn to think mathematically. I was impressed by how Mason articulates the form of "teaching by listening" in that the teacher is not listening for an expected answer but listening to student's thought process and how they might justify their answers. Eventually, students internalize the metacognitive-type of questions about their own solutions so that they are capable of thinking mathematically without the teacher's verbal prompts.

In my planning for long practicum, I will try to incorporate time to interacting with students during lessons. I will write in questions such as, "How do you know...?" and "Will that always be the case?" I want to encourage students to articulate what they understand rather than being fearful of responding incorrectly to my questions. For a formative or summative assessment task, I will have students construct and solve their own problems, even ones that will challenge their peers. As a teacher, I will model the mathematical thinking myself by not immediately asking funnel-oriented questions or supplying answers but asking, "What did you do yesterday when you were stuck?"

Reflection on group micro-teaching

We did well in terms of time management and organization of the lesson parts. I think this group micro-teaching lesson shows much room for improvement. The beginning of the lesson and the hook were not demonstrated clearly. I would bring in some visuals such as ads from magazines that show percentages to relate the lesson to everyday life. The lesson development or examples of problems were good but I feel they could be more student-centered. Perhaps, the calculations can be some certain characteristics taken from the group of students so they will feel more involved. I think the activity went pretty well as students were interested to find out predictions of their lifespan. Also, we were able to generate further follow-up questions for discussion to make up the remaining time. See pictures of peer- and self-evaluation forms here.