Improving Secondary Mathematics Instruction to Reach All Students
3-credit Course with Professor Mahesh Sharma

6 Days in Fall 2012 at 8:00am-3:30pm in Townshend, Vermont

Mon & Tues, Aug. 27-28
Fri & Sat, Sept. 28-29
Mon & Tues, Nov. 19-20

A Course for Gr. 6-12 Teachers of Mathematics, Technology & Special Education

Download the Registration Form Here

Numeracy is the new literacy. In today’s global and technologically oriented world, our children have to be literate as well highly numerate. In this course, Professor Sharma will share information and strategies that help teachers provide access for more children to more mathematics in more meaningful ways.

Two professional national groups, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel and the Institute for Educational Sciences, have concluded that all students can learn mathematics and most can succeed through Algebra 2. However, the abstractness and complexity of algebraic concepts and missing precursors and skills and understandings—number conceptualization, arithmetic facts, place value, fractions, and integers may be overwhelming to many students and teachers. Clearly, there exists a need for instruction and interventions that go beyond “typical” instruction that has the potential of bridging the gap between arithmetic and algebra for all of our students.

In this course, Professor Sharma will cover content and strategies related to these topics to help you learn about instructional practices for teaching mathematics to all students, particularly who struggle with the critical concepts and skills necessary for success in algebra. These sessions will provide specific content, instructional, and intervention recommendations and draw upon currently available research-based evidence for teaching mathematics. In order to create effective results-oriented classroom instruction, where numeracy is inculcated and bridges can be built between arithmetic and algebra, teachers and administrators should know about:

COURSE OBJECTIVES

I. HOW CHILDREN LEARN MATHEMATICS?

Cognitive development and mathematics learning

Mathematics learning personality

Levels of knowing mathematics learning

Prerequisite skills and mathematics learning

Mathematics as a second language

Developmental Milestones in Mathematics Learning

II. WHY LEARNING PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICS?

Nature of learning problems in mathematics

Error patterns in students’ mathematics work/error analysis

Mathematics learning difficulties: dyslexia and dyscalculia

Developmental learning disabilities in mathematics

Carryover problems in mathematics

Dyscalculia/acalculia/anarithmetia/dysgraphia

Mathematics anxiety

Diagnosis and assessment of learning problems in math

III. KEY CONCEPTS, SKILLS AND PROCEDURES IN

MATHEMATICS

Number conceptualization, number relationships and procedures

Representing number: place Value and its forms

Fractions: representation, forms, operations and applications

Integers and operations on integers

Spatial sense and geometric thinking

Algebraic thinking and key algebraic concepts and procedures

IV. INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS

Remedial procedures in mathematics

Remedial strategies

Nature of mathematics learning

How to take a child from the concrete to the abstract

Characteristics of Models

Vertical Acceleration: A successful approach to bridging the gap between arithmetic and algebra.

 Professor Mahesh Sharma is the founder and President of the Center for Teaching/Learning of Mathematics, Inc., of Wellesley and Framingham, Massachusetts, and Berkshire Mathematics in England. Berkshire Mathematics facilitates his work in the UK and Europe. He is the former President and Professor of Mathematics Education at Cambridge College, where for more than thirty-five years, he taught mathematics and mathematics education to undergraduate and graduate students. He is internationally known for his groundbreaking work in mathematics learning problems and education, particularly dyscalculia and other specific learning disabilities in mathematics. He is an author, teacher and teacher-trainer, researcher, consultant to public and private schools, as well as a public lecturer.

 For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (802) 365-7355. To register, download the form.