Math Content standard domains: Number, Algebra, Geometry, Data and Measurement
Math is important for young children to experience in the very early stages of their lives. We know through much research that exposure to the big ideas of Math within the boundaries of a well- constructed classroom and attuned to the developmental stages of the young child, good math curriculum and experiences will affect the positive outcomes we seek in an early childhood setting.
Such big ideas include, number and operations, (number sense, counting, sets, etc.), algebra (patterns), geometry (shapes, spatial relationships), measurement (standard and non standard), and data collections (graphing).
We also need to be aware of how we plan activities that are thoughtful, intentional, imaginative and flexible so that we can build a positive disposition towards math concepts and practices. Children develop an informal knowledge of mathematical concepts and ideas through interactions with people and things.
They need multiple practices of these ideas in both the child's own actions that are self guided in the environment as well as provided by adults as they scaffold the child through the environment. You learned in unit 1 about Piaget and Vygotsky principles and the three ways children can learn by naturalistic, informal and structured lessons. These principles will help you complete this assignment.
This assignment is designed as a research exercise. It will allow our class to delve into some specific areas of math specifically and share that information with the entire class. In this assignment you will work specifically on one assigned big Math idea. These big ideas have three things in common:
• They are mathematically central and coherent
• They are consistent with children's thinking
• They generate future learning
They are also comprehensive, thoughtful about the content, developmentally organized and flexible. The key is not to have the students memorize but explore and deepen their own mathematical understanding. You will need to be brought along as well in order to understand the big ideas of math and how math is all around us naturally.
We have learned that we need to have a set of standards that we are guided by when we plan our lessons and environments. Such entities such as Common Core, NCTM standards, and our State Standards help us validate what we do. For the purpose of this assignment we will look at these big Math ideas under the eyes of standard contents provided by CCSS and the State Early Learning Standards. These will be the five topics that will be assigned.
You will be assigned to one of the 5 major categories. You will be able to submit one final document for the entire class to view. You will create 5 strategic teaching practices and reflect upon them in a 3-page paper.
1. Mathematize the world around the children. We offer children the lens from which they can see the math living in their lives every day. You will comment on what meaningful situations would arise for your topic. Where would you see children experiencing this understanding of mathematical understanding?
2. Concrete learning experiences are paramount for young children to understand the connections to math concepts and their everyday materials and actions. Children need to be helped to use these materials for mathematical purposes. Strategize several materials found in early childhood classrooms that you could use in multiple ways to make these connections between concrete experiences, symbols, pictures and language.
3. Recognizing receptive understanding means we know that young children understand more concepts that she can speak. It requires us to figure out what the child actually understands and how we can help the child verbalize their understanding. Giving them more words to explain their mathematical understanding will be the next part of this assignment. What words can we communicate to scaffold their understanding of this topic?
4. Math needs to be multisensory. The more modes we deliver content within the deeper the knowledge expands. Explain the topic with experiences that involve all 5 senses.
5. We scaffold our young children to construct their own understanding of these mathematical concepts each and every day. Understanding can be captured by standardized measures such as checklists and written papers.
They can also be measured by discussion with our young students. Comment upon how you would learn about the children's understanding of the topic chosen. Knowing what stage the child is in needs to be known and addressed to be able to help them to the next step of understanding.