Education 306A/292A and 306B/292B
Math Credential Program

Instructor: Allan Bellman
Office Academic Surge 2389                       Phone (530) 752-6083                          email: aebellman@ucdavis.edu

EDU 306A Fall                                                Tuesdays 3:10 - 5 pm                            2375 Academic Surge

Assignment Page

Student Texts

• Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools (2005 edition)
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.
• Mathematics Assessment: A Practical Handbook for Grades 9 – 12
• Empowering the Beginning Teacher of Mathematics: High School (or middle school if appropriate)
• Changing The Faces of Mathematics: Perspectives on Multiculturalism and Gender Equity
• Fulfilling the promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Responsive Teaching.
• Styles and Strategies for Teaching High School Mathematics by Ed Thomas
• How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School

Other Texts

• Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics
• Assessment Standards for School Mathematics
• Mathematics Assessment: Cases and Discussion Questions for Grades 6-12
• Teaching Mathematics for the 21st Century
• Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics
• Mathematics Assessment: Myths, Models, Good Questions, and Practical Suggestions
• Assessment Standards for School Mathematics
• Various issues of The Mathematics Teacher and Teaching In The Middle Grades.

 Other documents

• PACT Handbook

Overview

Education 306/292 A are the first courses of a three quarter sequence of classes and student teaching designed to provide the core methods instruction and on-going support for secondary student teachers. The course consists of three components, student teaching, the subject area seminars, and a support course for the development of the teaching activity. The content of the subject area seminars is designed in conjunction with the student teacher's work in their student teaching placements. Each week a discussion of student teacher's issues from the previous week will take place and these issues will be "worked through". Much of the general classroom management issues will have been front loaded in EDU 275, but some of these topics will return for discussion in 306/292.

Teacher's Roles

The UC Davis, mathematics teacher education program strives to prepare teachers who are advocates for educational equity and who strive to promote student learning at the highest levels. In addition, we strive to prepare teachers who are equipped to utilize computer based technology to meet these goals. Participation in electronic forums, creation of web based resources, and use of technology in class assignments will be vehicles to meet this goal.

Video Portfolio

Throughout the year, you will be asked to create a video portfolio demonstrating your growth as a teacher. You should plan to video tape short segments of your teaching at weekly intervals during the year, although the minimum requirement will be twice a month. Video segments will be digitized and used for reflection and evidence of growth. Short sequences of your video will be included in your electronic portfolio to be submitted at the end of the Spring quarter. You will be expected to video your 5th full day of teaching. We will use this video as your baseline, who you were when you started. It is the student teacher's responsibility to arrange for the video equipment and a videographer for each taping. Whenever possible, try to have one of the other UCD student teachers at your school assist you with the videotaping. Video equipment is available for check-out through the School of Education Computer lab. You might want to look at the PACT video procedure and video policy for ideas and forms.

eAssignments

Assignments for this class will be submitted in electronic format. Many assignments will be sent via email. Some of these assignments will be posted to your instructional web page while others will remain only in your teaching ePortfolio.

Community Study/Long Term Project

Throughout the course of the year, you will develop an in-depth study of your school, the community surrounding the school, and two students in your classes. This project will be started in EDU 153 and will serve as one of the unifying themes of the single subject credential program in the School of Education. In the Spring Quarter, you will use this information as background or context for an instructional intervention or teaching episode as part of EDU 206B. As you begin to think about this project, consider what features make your school unique, what community factors influence the curriculum and instruction at your school and how those factors impact student learning. Each class will draw on the information from previous community study assignments and add to the body of information that you are assimilating. You should plan to include the entire community study as one component of your ePortfolio demonstrating your knowledge of students and your ability design instruction to meet their needs. The community study website (for EDU 153) will be due your first meeting in December.

Tentative Discussion Topic Outline

The classroom approach for this set of courses will to be visit each topic three times during the student teaching year. The first time we discuss a topic you will discuss what you remember from your own schooling and what you have seen during the observational phase of the program. The second visit will be a look at the literature and research, a “what they say” view of the issue. The third visit will be an on going discussion of what you are doing, how it works and a refinement of your work. Many topics will also be the focus of other courses taken during the student teaching year, the material in these courses will be expected to be incorporated into your student teaching.

Ordered Topic List for EDU 306A including August and September meetings. We will run out of days before we run out of topics.

• The program – what to expect, what you'll do.
• First days - what happens?
• Getting ready for the students - what a teacher has to do?
• First days with students - what's it all about? How were administrative tasks handled? When did math start to occur? What messages were sent? What rules and routines were put in place?
• Teacher presence, the physical room, parent contact
• Classroom routines and use of instructional time. Start looking at total student time on task.
• Daily routines – what has been put in place? What do we do to maximize our use of time? How do we set the stage at the beginning and ending of class? What issues are being created now that will help or hurt your class after the take over?
• Getting the class started. The opener (where used), it’s purpose and what we can get from it.
• Instructional methods – a quick primer.
• Creating a safe environment.
• Objectives. Your main focus. Assessing success of the lesson. A first look.
• Homework - why, when, and how?
• Homework and general feedback to students. The hidden messages teachers, administrators and school systems give. Combating not what you say but what you do.
• Points, checks, stamps, and grades – what they all mean to you, the students, the parents.
• Standards, performance objectives, and lesson planning. Including Bloom and understanding levels of questioning and activities. This topic is a return and will also return second quarter.
• PACT and the TPEs
• Lesson planning part 2. Instructional decisions as you teach - an introduction, including instruction driven by assessment, on-the-fly assessment and individualization during full class instruction. Assessment 1 Formative assessment.
• Textbooks, supplemental, and other instructional resources.
• Individualization will return second quarter.
• Instructional flow and time management. What routine do you have in place and how does it maximize instructional time. A second visit. What are you doing and doing well?
• Motivation part 1- what some of the research tells us.
• Motivation part 2 how do you create a safe learning environment? Involving students in the lesson/understanding the instructional format intended by your textbook.
•  Assessment 2 - Summative assessment. The midterm, getting ready; preparing the test; prepping the students; grading the test; instructional decisions and preparing for the next semester. Grades and grading policies and procedures.
• Teacher’s expectations, rules, and environment revisited– how they effected student behavior and misbehavior? What was created during the important first two weeks and what do you see now because of it

Preparation for the discussions

Selected readings from articles and journals will be associated with some sessions. It is the student's responsibility to have completed the readings prior to the date they will be discussed. It is also the student's responsibility to email comments/thoughts on the readings and the topic for discussion by the Monday night preceding the discussion. Failure to do so will be reflected in a decrease in the participation grade. Up-to-date information about due dates can be found on the assignment log page.

Grading
EDU 306A

60% Student Teaching. The student teaching grade will be based on a combination of master teacher evaluations, supervisor evaluations, and a self evaluation. Final self evaluation and other evaluation forms can be downloaded from this web site. These are to be returned to the supervisor no later than the last instructional day of each quarter. An average grade for all evaluations submitted will be calculated. The grade for student teaching will be based on this average.

15% Maintaining an updated classroom binder and sending lesson plans by 9:00 PM the night before any visit.. This binder must contain all lesson plans, present seating chart (including an extra copy to put in my notes), a copy (with answers and grading methods) of all tests and quizzes, an updated copy for my notes of the class grades. The binder will first be due with your first October visit.

10% Weekly journal entries (Due by 7:00 on Fridays)

10% Participation in Tuesday discussions

5% Maintaining an instructional web site

EDU 292A

While the grade for EDU 306 will come from the student teaching experience, the grade for EDU 292 will be based on a unit teaching event each quarter and your work on the ePortfolio. These two courses, EDU 306 and EDU 292, work in tandem, one the act of teaching and the other the paperwork and assignments associated with documenting who you are as a teacher. Many of the assignments that will be used for the ePortfolio will be assigned in EDU 153, EDU 275, EDU 301 and EDU 326. The ePortfolio and instructional web site will also be assigned and maintained in EDU 180/324. The work for each quarter in EDU 292 will be due the last class day of each quarter.

50 % Writing up an instructional unit in the format of the PACT teaching event as given for the first quarter. Since you will have just taken over you placement in the middle of the quarter, the degree of sophistication and completeness of the unit would reflect you time in front of your individual class.

15% Video reflections and analysis.

15% Maintaining a notebook with "neat" activities, team building activities, words with multiply meanings and words with different means, visualization techniques, and motivational techniques.

20% ePortfolio documents/Observation Notebook documents/Other assignments assigned this quarter (see assignment log page).

Additions to general EDU 306/292 Syllabus for Winter 2007.

Allan Bellman
Office: 2389                                                                             Meets: Tuesdays 2:10 to 4
Office Phone: 530-752-6083                                                    Room: 2375
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1 to 2; Thursdays 1 to 2

Main Focus:
This quarter the two courses EDU 306B and 292B will have 3 main foci:

• Completion of a complete and “acceptable” PACT document (292).
• Development of an assessment plan including formative and summative assessment and remediation tied to California Standards, your personal performance objectives with a view toward individualization (292). A complete test analysis will be expected for all tests (306).
• A paper explaining how students learn mathematics and video showing how you implement instruction that matches your view (292).

** See Weekly calendar for assignments and discussion topics.

Grading:
EDU 306B
50% Student Teaching. The student teaching grade will be based on a combination of master teacher evaluations and supervisor evaluations. Evaluation forms will be distributed March 4 and due March 11. An average grade for all evaluations submitted will be calculated. The grade for student teaching will be based on this average.

15% Performing complete test analysis on all tests given after Jan. 15. This includes the implementation of a remediation plan.

10% Maintaining an updated classroom binder and sending lesson plans, in our format, by 8:00 PM the night before any visit.. This binder must contain all lesson plans, present seating chart (including an extra copy to put in my notes), a copy (with answers and grading methods) of all tests and quizzes, an updated copy for my notes of the class grades. The binder was first due during the first quarter.

10% Weekly journal entries (Due by 5:00 on Fridays)

15% Participation in Tuesday discussions. This includes 8% for an individual presentation from Styles and Strategies. As part of this category you must send review of any reading assignments at least one day before class.     

EDU 292B
70 % Completion of an acceptable PACT document. The final PACT document will be turned in no later then  March 6 in electronic format with all links working. Of the 70%, 5% will be assigned on Jan. 29 and 5% on Feb 5 for early versions of your lesson plan.

10% Video reflections and analysis (due as assigned).

10% Paper on “How Students Learn Mathematics” that is grade and course appropriate for your placement (due March 11).

10% Development and implementation of a complete assessment plan (due Feb. 19 with update March 11).