Pre/co-requisites: Passage of CSET subject matter mathematics exams I and/or II.

Units: 3 (3 hours per week in class).

Catalog description: Planning, delivering, and assessing content-specific instruction; academic and common core standards; identifying specific standards that require literacy strategies.

Course description and goals: This course is a mathematics 'methods' course focused on how to teach and explain mathematics to secondary school students through cooperative problem solving with your peers.  The primary content focus of the course is on learning how Middle school and Secondary students learn mathematics, as well as methods to help them understand the mathematical concepts they are expected to master.  The primary approach to the course will be from the standpoint of having you, the prospective teacher, understand and communicate the mathematical concepts that you will be expected to teach through group problem solving and presentation of multiple solutions.

Expected learning outcomes:
Upon completion of CI 161, students should better be able to:

1.   See mathematics as a discipline involving exploring, verifying, conjecturing, describing, and so on.  Specifically, those who complete CI 161 should be able to better teach students to solve word problems, to apply mathematical thinking to non-routine mathematical questions, and to understand the computational techniques they are learning in ways consistent with the Common Core Standards of Mathematical Practice.

2. Understand the role, importance and ways of cultivation of the 8 Common Core Mathematical Practices in their future students.

3. Better understand how secondary school students learn mathematics.  It is only by understanding how students construct their own knowledge of mathematics that we can understand how best to teach them.

4.   Be aware of specific mathematical Common Core topics taught in each of the grades 7 and 8, and know where to gather resources to aid in the teaching of those topics; moreover, students should be able to learn to teach lower order mathematical sub-skills within a context of higher order problem solving and modelling.

5.   Engage students in the kinds of discourses and questioning that help them understand mathematical ideas. 

6.   Design classroom environments that foster the development of mathematical thinking.  One key to this environment is appropriate tools including manipulatives, calculators, the World Wide Web, and paper and pencil.

7.   Communicate verbally about teaching and learning mathematics with their peers and while working cooperatively on projects, problem solving and applications which teach them how to foster engagement, synthesis and knowledge retention in their future students.

8. Understand mathematics content consistent with material on CSET 1 consisting of mathematical depth for mathematics taught at the secondary level.

Grading policy: Your grade for the course will be based on your performance on a project, homework, midterm tests and a final.

Daily Quizzes:Every non-test day will have a daily quiz of a problem from topics of the previous lecture/homework. The problem is worth 5 points. 1 point for the correct answer and up to 4 points for showing your work. It is possible to get 4/5 if you get the wrong answer, and possible to get 1/5 if you get the right answer. Two low quiz scores will be dropped. To make up a quiz requires the same documentation of serious and compelling reasons as do exams (see below).

Tests: There will be two (2) 'collaborative' midterm exams and a MANDATORY 'solo performance' comprehensive 2-hour final exam. Students may use their lecture portfolios for reference on the midterms, but NOT on the solo Final Exam. Before the midterms, students will be randomly assigned a partner to collaborate with (whispering only!). One exam is to be turned in for both partners. Make-up exams will be given only in cases of a documented serious illness or family emergency. If a student makes up an exam, they will obviously be working non-collaboratively. Calculators are allowed on all exams, but no cell phones are permitted to be used as calculators. No exams are dropped.

Class attendance: It is important to attend every class because group/class discussions and content examples of teaching mathematics are vital for success in the course, and to also not miss the daily quizzes!

The Lecture Portfolio: The lecture portfolio is recommended to be compiled in a 3-ring binder and is composed of only your solutions to lecture problems done in class. You should make your portfolio easy to reference for your exams.

The Writing Project: A collaborative team writing project for this course consists of eacth team of up to three (3) students producing a section for an 'fictional book' entitled:

Teaching the Common Core Standards using Active Learning Pedagogies

• The project should be designed for implementation using Active Learning. You should discuss somewhere on your poster stating the key active learning strategies will be used in the teaching demonstration.

• The theme of the assignment is to develop one (1) engaging higher order context/mathematics rich problem Common Core Standard that involves the need for four (4) common core standards. The unifying theme of the writing is to introduce lower order required skills as they are necessary, making it a point to justify and explain why it is necessary to know a particular standard/skill for the solution to the larger problem that your team writes.

• The project must contain 'exactly' five (5) relevant excercises (with answers only). The first four should be small sub-standard related exercises and the last should be one high-order problem like the one that you wrote about, but only contains the statement of the problem and answer (no solution procedures).
• Posters are due electronically by midnight on (7/29). You are required to use poster template software (I will arrange to have the posters printed by the College). Example: http://www.posterpresentations.com/html/free_poster_templates.html. You must electronically send me the powerpoint posters by the required due date. Mathematical expressions must be typed up using the equation editor. (I will demonstrate).

• The project is composed of teams of 2 students (one team of 3 in case of an odd number of students in class).

The grading for the project (worth 100 pts for each student) will be based on meeting the above criteria.

Computers: In this class, students will be required to use the program Geogebra, which can be used in a 'webstart' mode. At California State University, Fresno, computers and communications links to remote resources are recognized as being integral to the education and research experience. Every student is required to have his/her own computer or have other personal access to a workstation (including a modem and a printer) with all the recommended software. The minimum and recommended standards for the workstations and software, which may vary by academic major, are updated periodically and are available from Information Technology Services or the Universit Bookstore. In the curriculum and class assignments, students are presumed to have 24-hour access to a computer workstation and the necessary communication links to the University's information resources.

Students with disabilities: upon identifying themselves to the University, students with disabilities will receive necessary accommodation for learning and evaluation. For more information, see http://studentaffairs.csufresno.edu/ssd .

Academic honesty: cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class. For information on the University's policy, see the University Catalog (section Policies and Regulations).

Honor Code: Members of the CSU Fresno academic community adhere to principles of academic integrity and mutual respect while engaged in university work and related activities. You should:

• understand or seek clarification about expectations for academic integrity in this course (including no cheating, plagiarism and inappropriate collaboration)
• neither give nor receive unauthorized aid on examinations or other course work that is used by the instructor as the basis of grading.
• take responsibility to monitor academic dishonesty in any form and to report it to the instructor or other appropriate official for action.

Disruptive Classroom Behavior: student conduct which disrupts the learning process will not be tolerated and may lead to disciplinary action and/or removal from class.

Copyright policy: Copyright laws and fair use policies protect the rights of those who have produced the material. The copy in this course has been provided for private study, scholarship, or research. Other uses may require permission from the copyright holder. The user of this work is responsible for adhering to copyright law of the U.S. (Title 17, U.S. Code). Digital Campus course web sites contains material protected by copyrights held by the instructor, other individuals or institutions. Such material is used for educational purposes in accord with copyright law and/or with permission given by the owners of the original material. You may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for non-commercial, personal, or educational purposes only, provided that you (1) do not modify it, (2) use it only for the duration of this course, and (3) include both this notice and any copyright notice originally included with the material. Beyond this use, no material from the course web site may be copied, reproduced, re-published, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way without the permission of the original copyright holder. The instructor assumes no responsibility for individuals who improperly use copyrighted material placed on the web site.

Subject to Change: This syllabus and schedule are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check on announcements made while you were absent.

This page was last revised on 13 July 2014.