- Summative tests or tasks, whichexemplify the performance targets that the standards imply. The tasks, with the associated guidance, equip teachers to effectively monitor overall progress and the mathematical understanding of their students.
- Classroom Challenges are complete lessons that support teachers in formative assessment. They both reveal and develop students’ understanding of key mathematical ideas and applications. These lessons enable teachers and students to monitor in more detail their progress towards the targets of the standards.
- Foundational Unit 1 Focusing on the Major Work of the Levels addresses the most critical concepts and skills that students must master to be prepared for college and careers.
- Foundational Unit 2, Thinking Across Levels to Connect Learning, concentrates on the concept of coherence and its central role in the CCR standards.
- Foundational Unit 3 Engaging the Three Components of Rigor investigates what it means to create a rigorous mathematics curriculum.
- Foundational Unit 4, Connecting Standards for Mathematical Practice to Content, provides techniques to enrich instruction by integrating the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice with content-specific standards.
- to tested Public Lessons presented to children and groups of observing teachers;
- to guided tours of reflective mathematics practice, identifying what makes teaching, learning, and improving instruction in mathematics a difficult enterprise;
- resources for teachers to improve their practice;
- to mathematics teaching and learning tools and resources to support the daily practices of classroom teachers, math coaches, and administrators; and
- to a professional learning community in which you are invited to open your own classroom and engage in conversation about teaching and learning.
- Tools for educators;
- Classroom videos;
- Common core resources;
- Problems of the month; and
- Performance assessment tasks.
- Develop a growth mindset
- Feel mathematical freedom
- Share a sense of discover with their students. It’s ok if you don’t know all the answers.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
The Mathematics Assessment Project (MAP) provides tools for formative and summative assessment to assess students’ mathematical knowledge and reasoning, helping teachers guide them towards improvement and monitor student progress.
Resource URL
Publication Year
2015
The Mathematics Assessment Project (MAP) set out to design and develop well-engineered tools for formative and summative assessment that shine a light on students’ mathematical knowledge and reasoning, helping teachers guide them towards improvement and monitor student progress. It aims to bring the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics to life in a way that will help teachers and their students turn their aspirations for achieving them into classroom realities. They exemplify CCSS in explicit down-to-earth performance terms. The project materials were produced as part of a collaborative effort between the University of California, Berkeley and the Shell Center team at the University of Nottingham, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The MAP materials are of two complementary kinds:
Benefits and Uses
MAP provides instructors and administrators with excellent resources in implementing and evaluating the College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards in mathematics. The resource is valuable and well organized and provides very good examples of real-life applications of mathematics.
MAP provides teachers and professional developers with honest examples of how mathematics is used in real life. Built around rich problems or tasks, the Classroom Challenges aim to provide a critical supplement to any curriculum. The lessons are structured as formative assessments and are ideally delivered in small classes or group work classroom settings. Opportunities for interaction with and feedback from the instructor are recommended. The lessons are extensive tasks that provide opportunity for students to demonstrate their thinking, to be involved in some degree of productive struggle, and to be able to show modifications in their solutions based on teacher feedback.
The support materials provided to instructors are critical in using the task appropriately with students and in providing feedback and evaluation of students’ work. Student work samples are provided to assist instructors in formulating language or instructional strategies that might assist struggling students. It is possible for instructors to either modify the task or select a subset of questions within a task. With some careful preplanning, the lessons could be condensed and used in a class that has less time for working with larger problems of this type. The Professional Development Modules, which help teachers with the pedagogical and mathematical challenges of the lessons, are particularly helpful.
The whole site is recommended; the Classroom Challenges are particularly helpful. The lessons have a strong alignment to CCSS and individual lessons are linked to specific content standards and the Standards for Mathematical Practice. The lessons incorporate well-designed formative assessments and provide a wealth of material for instructors. This includes the lesson plan with detailed teacher guidance and a presentation PowerPoint, which includes the task information for students. Though designed for specific grade levels, for the most part, the lessons can be presented to students of all ages. As the lessons are aligned to the CCSS, users can search for lessons aligned to CCR mathematical content standards and specific Standards for Mathematical Practice from the “Common Core State Standards” page http://map.mathshell.org/stds.php
Optimizing Security Cameras http://map.mathshell.org/materials/lessons.php?taskid=482&subpage=problemis an example of an exemplary lesson suitable for an adult education classroom. The lesson involves the placement of security cameras to provide maximum security for a given floor plan of a store. This real-life application problem integrates several content domains and requires strategic thinking and an ability to explain and interpret explanations. The lesson plan includes several student work samples that help teachers understand the goals of the lesson and how it develops the targeted standards. The extensive package of resources connected to this lesson is extremely helpful to teachers.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
These video segments from a KET professional development session are focused on broad math teaching practices that are appropriate for math teachers at all levels.
Resource URL
Publication Year
2015
Steve Hinds led a professional development training for Kentucky Adult Education math teachers where he demonstrated and discussed a series of lessons on functions. These video segments taken from the training are focused on broad math teaching practices that are appropriate for math teachers at all levels.
To better understand the problems and issues discussed in the videos, it is strongly recommended that practitioners read the background essays that accompany the videos.
Steve lives in Chicago and directs the Active Learning in Adult Numeracy project, which is focused on curriculum development, teacher training, and other reforms that promote active, student-centered math teaching and learning for adults.
Benefits and Uses
Steve Hinds demonstrates various approaches:
Each short video also contains background essays and discussion questions.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
The study sought to determine the percentage of workforce students who may need to strengthen their understanding of the part-whole concept by using the same number line assessment.
Publication Year
2015
The new high school equivalency tests ask adults to perform at a level of critical thinking that they may not have been introduced to in their earlier education. This kind of thinking means that a person is able to look at the details and see the big picture or look at the big picture and pick out the relevant details for a given situation. This kind of thinking requires keeping track of the WHOLE (the main idea) and the PARTS (the details) at the same time, while considering the relationships between them. While part-whole critical thinking is important in all academic areas and in problem-solving on the job, it is especially central to math success.
Earlier institution-sponsored research revealed that about 20% of students in community college basic math and pre-algebra programs lacked a sense of part-whole relationships with whole numbers. Using the same tool with a group of 86 workforce students, about 75% placed five whole numbers on an empty number line in a way that indicated lack of part-whole thinking. This concept, needed to understand fraction and percent relationships, carries over as a grasp of the relationship between details and the main idea in factual prose, in critical thinking in job situations, and on the current high school equivalency tests.
Assessing learners for their understanding of the part-whole concept allows teachers to help students strengthen either their understanding of the part-whole concept or their applied skills.
What the experts say
Adult educators will find this article interesting and, perhaps, be surprised that so many adults are not already sensitive to the requirements of a simple number line (equal spaces between all consecutive numbers). This concept is particularly important in work settings that assume workers’ ability to use measuring devices accurately. The resource clearly describes a task that can be immediately used with learners for formative assessment and also provides samples of student work that can be studied and analyzed by teacher study groups and/or groups of learners in a classroom setting.
It will be useful to new and experienced adult educators both for its description of problems in adult students understanding of part/whole concepts as well as for giving instructors a very useful tool for quick, easy, and inexpensive assessment of those concepts. The author also suggests reasons for why students lack these concepts including brains that were not physically ready for processing this information due to young age, toxic stress in childhood (e.g., poverty, emotional and physical abuse) and developmental disabilities or traumatic brain injuries. While the information is nothing new to experienced adult education instructors, the author provides a way to see specific results of childhood stress in a way that will ring true to community college instructors in workplace development programs as well as adult basic education classes. The author asks the reader to check his or her assumptions about learning, to modify their teaching, and always to be aware of the building blocks leading to mathematical understanding.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
These foundational-level Standards-in-Action (SIA) resources and professional development provide educators with practical knowledge about the key shifts in instruction required to align with college and career readiness (CCR) standards in mathematics.
Publication Year
2016
Resource Type
Informational Material
Key Words
Product Type
Target Audience
Abstract
The College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards Math Foundational Units 1 – 4 were produced by StandardsWork Inc. as part of the Implementing CCR Standards in Adult Education project, under contract to the U.S. Department of Education (Contract # ED-VAE-13-C-0066). The activities that make up Units 1 – 4 will help participants explore what it means to implement CCR standards for mathematics in adult education. Participants will receive a practical and transferable understanding of the fundamental shifts in instruction embedded in CCR standards—including in your state standards—crucial to preparing adult students to meet the real-world demands of college and careers. At the heart of the instructional shifts is a careful examination of the critical content and processes that fuel mastery in mathematics, including the coherent progression from level to level and pursuing conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity.
Benefits and Uses
This resource supports state and program efforts to implement adult education content standards aligned with college and career readiness to support rigorous, high-quality instruction. Usage of the Math Foundational Units 1 – 4 will strengthen the capacity of adult educators to implement CCR standards to better prepare adult students for success in college and careers. These activities provide the field with opportunities to dig into the CCR standards and explore what it means to adopt CCR-aligned standards in classrooms and how to do so sustainably. Understanding how CCR standards differ from previous sets of standards—and the necessary shifts or advances they call for—is essential to implementing CCR standards well.
Engagement in these four units of activities will enable adult educators to identify the most significant elements of CCR standards for mathematics and to determine how best to integrate them into instruction and curriculum. The goal of Units 1 - 4 is for participants to leave with specific ideas, resources, and actions they can implement immediately. Designed primarily for group use, these units also support independent study.
The four units should be worked through sequentially. The units can be facilitated during a single daylong training or multiple trainings over several weeks or months. Each ready-to-use unit contains all the materials required to facilitate these training activities, including a facilitator’s guide, an annotated PowerPoint Presentation, and a packet of participant materials.
The participant materials include directions, charts, worksheets, answer keys, and other resource materials that guide the use of each unit. The PowerPoint presentations are a digital aid for presenters/facilitators who lead the mathematics training activities. Notes are provided within the PowerPoint presentations to help you prepare for each session. This information accompanies the information offered in the facilitator guides—including the research base, rationale, advice, and other guidelines—to provide the support and guidance you may require.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators (teachers and administrators) who strive to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students.
Publication Year
2016
Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators (teachers and administrators) who strive to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students. According to their website, “Inside Mathematics opens doors:
Benefits and Uses
Although K-12 educators are the site’s targeted audience, Inside Mathematics provides resources that adult educators can use to support the implantation of CCR aligned instruction. To adapt these resources for adult learners, first read the “Permissions” section (under “About”), located at: http://www.insidemathematics.org/about/.
Use the variety of classroom-ready resources with ABE and ASE mathematics students. Search for relevant content by grade level as well as by mathematical strand. Also, watch videos of some of these classroom lessons. The performance assessment tasks include student work samples and a teacher discussion of these samples. These can provide valuable insights into student thinking in relation to the task.
Each “problem of the month” is divided into five levels giving access into different aspects of the problem and stretching students out into mathematical complexity. These different levels of complexity provide useful scaffolding and differentiation tools for teachers of multi-level classes. Note: When using this feature, attend to the grade level for the problems and determine its appropriateness for your students.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
This report explores the potential for technology to enhance the teaching and learning of advanced math skills to adults.
Publication Year
2017
Given the ongoing growth of technical careers and demand for high-skill labor, there is a particular need for more technology to increase and quicken access for adult learners studying advanced mathematics. The adult classroom presents numerous barriers for all stakeholders; market signals require meeting learners and educators where they are.
Technology offers a promising fix to many of the challenges within adult education, but is not a silver bullet. It is not a cure-all for complex issues around funding, degree pathways, and teacher preparation, but presents promising solutions to many systemic challenges around access, resourcing, and contextualization.
This report showcases the potential for technology to enhance the teaching and learning of advanced math skills to adults, providing nuanced guidance for funders and educational innovators. We will discuss key stakeholders, their needs, and opportunities for investment to capitalize on the potential of technology to better ready adult learners for the workforce. In particular, we will delve into areas of key need like contextualization of classroom resources and professional development for educators.
Following a review of needs for relevant stakeholders (employers, adult learners, and educators) and a discussion of technology’s promise, we will introduce “three A’s” of adult edtech: Accessibility, Adaptability, and Applicability. These encapsulate and represent many ongoing cross-disciplinary calls to tailor new tools and approaches to the needs of learners and the educators who serve them, ultimately laddering up to the requirements of industry job creators. Several such efforts and technologies are particularly relevant to advanced math, and we will hone in on open educational resources (OER), a parallel movement in education to leverage digital technology and open source licensing to expand access.
This document was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education under the project titled “Power in Numbers: Advancing Math for Adult Learners” (OER Math project), Contract Number: ED-VAE-14-D-0006/0004, and it includes input from adult education practitioners, researchers, and policy experts.
Benefits and Uses
This document is the first in a series of three reports on the state of the technology market for adult learners of advanced mathematics.
This initial report focuses on demand, including demand for advanced math skills, demand for new tools and approaches that meet learner and educator needs, and demand for teacher training to support deployment of new tools. Subsequent reports will focus on the landscape of existing tools for learning advanced mathematics, as well as opportunities to improve the creation and deployment of new tools for adult learners.
The purpose of these reports is to capitalize on the intersection of grassroots resource development, technology innovation, and labor market demand for skills to inform the future of adult advanced math education. In doing so we hope to illustrate the opportunity space for funders and technology developers to cater to this underserved market.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
This presentation describes how math anxiety affects learners and specific techniques to help ease and overcome these effects.
Publication Year
2018
Mathematics anxiety affects almost half of the learners in adult education classrooms. Fear interferes with the part of the brain needed for reasoning and problem-solving. Math anxiety can also affect teachers in ways that negatively affect students. In this presentation, participants learn how math anxiety affects learners and specific stratgegies to help ease and overcome these effects.
Strategy 1: Make students aware of the physiological effects of math anxiety. Research shows that when someone is experiencing math anxiety there is a physiological effect similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Strategy 2: Change the learner’s mindset about their potential and teach math in a way that is open and free enough for them to learn and grow. Studies show that learners learn best when they are active learners, which can be encouraged with a growth mindset.
Strategy 3: Promote ideas of mathematical freedom because students' feelings of loss of control can shut brain function. Refrain from tying self-esteem to success in math.
Strategy 4: Encourage student authorship of processes and ideas. Give students multiple solution tasks, which opens up authorship and promotes ideas. That shifts the focus from a correct answer to what I think.
Strategy 5: Create a positive learning environment by establishing positive norms in the classroom through things like validating mistakes.
Stragtegy 6: Develop a memory bank of positive math experiences. Students may use pictures or write down experiences from class and deposit them into their bank. Students can look back at their positive experience to combat negative self-talk.
Strategies that can help teachers overcome their math anxiety include:
What the experts say
This webinar introduces ideas for addressing math anxiety and the importance of developing a growth mindset for learning. Math anxiety is a topic that must be addressed and understood by practitioners and learners alike in order to promote a growth mindset and deeper learning. The resources identified in the webinar will help practitioners become more informed on the topic.
Understanding math anxiety can also address a practitioner's need to change their teaching practice to allow for a safe learning environment, and explore and discuss mathematics. This in turn supports some of the Mathematical Practices especially Math Practice 1: perseverance in problem solving.
Acknowledging that many adult educators are, themselves, anxious about doing and teaching mathematics is important for the field. However, the speaker’s example of trying to quickly remember a fact such as 5 times 7 during a presentation and an accompanying moment of panic is different in kind from the debilitating power that math anxiety can wield.
The most useful feature of the resource is the suggested strategies to use with learners, but actual examples of the strategies would have been helpful. The speaker mentions that a presentation of this material would have benefitted from interactive mathematical activities, which is true.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Download Resource
You must be logged in to download this resource. Register now if you don't have an account.
Abstract:
This mathematics content framework provides comprehensive, assessment-aligned support to adult educators and identifies instructional materials that have been aligned with the Data Recognition Corporation TABE 11/12 Blueprints and the GED Testing Service GED High Impact Indicators.
The Kentucky Skills U Instructional Framework Series was designed to provide a common instructional foundation for all of Kentucky’s adult education providers. This resource was developed by a state-level team and was informed by local providers and is intended to align with the LINCS Professional Development Center State Leadership Self-Assessment Tool, the LINCS Adult Education Teacher Competencies, the Data Recognition Corporation TABE 11/12 Blueprints, the GED® Testing Service High Impact Indicators (HIIs), and the College and Career Readiness Standards. The framework has four components: The Student Framework; The Mathematics Instructional Framework; The Reasoning Through Language Arts Instructional Framework; The Instructional Technology Framework.
This resource focuses on The Mathematics Instructional Framework and provides instructional resources that are accompanied by links, descriptions, screenshots and video tutorials. The resources are aligned with the Data Recognition Corporation TABE 11/12 Blueprints, the GED® Testing Service High Impact Indicators (HIIs), and the College and Career Readiness Standards domains. While the resources are designed for the K-12 setting, they can be used as is or revised to meet the needs of adult learners.
What the experts say
This resource contains an enormous amount of material in the lesson plans and the links for instructional video clips. To Kentucky’s credit, the Kentucky Skills U Instructional Framework series is relevant for all adult educators. They have designed a useful tool that provides a common instructional foundation. In developing this resource, they aligned instruction with college and career readiness standards, student assessment criteria, and program performance metrics. It also utilized the LINCS Professional Development Center State Leadership Self-Assessment Tool, the LINCS Adult Education Teacher Competencies, the Data Recognition Corporation TABE 11/12 Blueprints, and the GED® Testing Service High Impact Indicators (HIIs). That makes it significant and pertinent to teachers in other states.
One concern is the overemphasis on procedural mathematics in both the lesson plans and the video resources. Many lessons have an "I do--you do--we do" structure, representing a transmission model of instruction. The resource is limited in its usefulness for developing conceptual understanding, problem solving skills and real-world applications, which are also promoted by the CCRS. These important goals are less amenable to short, single day, self-contained, teacher-focused lessons.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
Publication Year
2018