Building Academic Skills in Context: Enhancing Mathematics Achievement through CTE Instruction

1. Building Academic Skills in Context: Enhancing Mathematics Achievement through CTE Instruction Leslie Carson leslie.carson@sreb.org

2. Welcome

3. Group Norms: Participate Ask questions of each other Work toward solutions Housekeeping: Restrooms Breaks Lunch Punctuality Group Norms and Housekeeping

4. Communities of Practice • Offers the more powerful conceptual model for transforming schools (R. DuFour) • Collaborative Teams • Collective Inquiry • Action, Orientation and Experimentation • Continuous Improvement • Results Orientation Let’s form communities.

5. Textbook p. 4 The Power of Team Dynamics • Instructions in planner • 20 minutes to plan, practice • I will act as timekeeper and give the start signal • After the challenge, there are reflection questions to ponder • GOAL: Build the tallest free-standing structure

6. Essential Questions: • Why is helping students understand math everyone’s job? • What does math look like in the non-math classroom? • How do math and CTE teachers support student understanding of math?

7. At the turn of the 20thcentury, we were an experience rich, information poor society. Today we are an information rich experience poor society. Dale Parnell

8. Textbook p. 6 Preparing our Students to be Successful Mathematically Previously it was enough for our students to just be able to solve a given math problem such as: • What is 45 divided by 7? • Reading off of a calculator, the answer is 6.428571429…

9. The Good News Is……..

10. Did you know?2005 Skills Gap Report-National Association of Manufacturers 84% of employers surveyed believe public schools are failing to prepare students for the workplace. • The biggest deficiency is in areas of science and mathematics, noting that: • word problems seldom resemble real-world experiences • mathematics teachers teach standard approaches(e.g.algebraic symbol manipulation) to the detriment of mathematical reasoning. • too often students' mathematics experiences are characterized by repetition learning rather than problem solving

11. Did you know? 1/3 of NASA employees were born on the Indian subcontinent “The Visionary’s Handbook” 2000: Watts Wacker & Jim Taylor w/Howard Means

12. Did You Know? American Industry is spending nearly as much each year to educate their employees mathematically as is spent on mathematics education in public schools A selection fromNumeracyby Lynn Arthur Steen

13. Lynn Authur Steen, St. Olaf College Children learn to read and write not solely because of their language arts instruction in school, but equally because of the reinforcement provided by other school subjects, and by their environment at home. Where reading and writing are not reinforced at home, the progress of learning is much slower.

14. Lynn Authur Steen, St. Olaf College (Mathematics) is rarely reinforced, neither in school nor at home. Parents, coaches, and teachers of other subjects seldom make the effort to engage children in activities that would use mathematical or statistical methods--perhaps because the adults themselves tend to avoid such methods.

15. U.S. Ranked 24th out of 29 OECD Countries in Mathematics Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003

16. How can we fix it? "Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us." Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead

17. “As any wise old farmer can tell you, you don’t fatten your lambs simply by weighing them”

18. Common Misconceptions about Learners Sue E. Berryman and Thomas Bailey, The Double Helix of Education and the Economy (New York: Institute on Education and The Economy, Columbia University, 1992), 45-68 • People predictably transfer learning from one situation to another. • Learners are passive receivers of wisdom-empty vessels into which knowledge is poured. • Learning is the strengthening of bonds between stimuli and correct responses. • What matters is getting the right answer. • Skills and knowledge, to be transferable to new situations, should be acquired independent of the contexts of uses.

19. Cognitive Science Questions about the Teaching and Learning Process • How do the human mind and body work in their learning capacity? • How can an understanding of the mind/body’s way of learning be used in educational settings?

20. A

21. How Do New Pieces of Information Fit? Learning often occurs only when students process new information or knowledge in such a way that it makes sense in their frame of reference

22. Students can increase high level mathematics understanding through experiences.

23. And by Collaborating with Their Peers.

24. Learning in Context Involves: • Linking new information to students’ familiar frame of reference • Hands on activities combined with teacher support to allow students to discover new understandings • Application of new knowledge to real world situations • Working in collaborative groups to solve problems • Transfer understanding to new situations and problems

25. Why is relevancy important? Example: Learning a Code………

26. A

27. Now …… Spell the word FACE in Code. Let’s see how you did!

28. a

29. Algebra students feel the same way about what they learn in algebra. The out of context codes for letters make just as much sense to them as using xand y as variables.

30. Traditional mathematics education presents the concepts first and applicationssecond This logical approach is successful for a limited segment of “abstract thinkers” in our student population. Many students have difficulty assimilating abstract theories. These students learn from educationalprograms that emphasize “hands on learning.” They need to experience it.

31. Learning Mathematics should be based on understanding concepts and on doing mathematics, not on memorizing rote procedures

32. Why Should CTE Teachers Care About Mathematics? • NCLB / AYP • Students indicate they do not like mathematics because they do not see the use for it. CTE courses fill that need. • CTE Teachers can provide the relevance for motivation and the frame of reference so that CTE students value mathematics. • The CTE classroom also provides the environment where students can develop high level math skills • Mathematics is one of the “new basic skills” for industry. • Mathematical literacy is required of anyone entering a workplace or seeking advancement in a career.

33. CTE Classrooms Provide the Perfect Learning Environment The purpose of Perkins IV- The purpose of this Act is to develop more fully the academic and career and technical skills of secondary education students and postsecondary education students who elect to enroll in career and technical education programs, By: 1st of 7 building on the efforts of States and localities todevelop challenging academic and technical standardsand toassist students in meeting such standards,including preparation for high skill, high wage, or high demand occupationsin current or emerging professions; 2nd of 7 promoting the development of services andactivities that integrate rigorous and challenging academic and career and technical instruction,and that link secondary education and postsecondary education for participating career and technical education students;

34. Did You Know? Daggett, 2005 • Studies have shown that students understand and retain knowledge best when they have applied it in a practical, relevant setting. • According to Daggett, at the high school level, CTE programs provide the most effective learning opportunities. • “Not only are students applying skills and knowledge to real-world situations in their CTE programs, but also they are drawing on knowledge learned in their core subjects.”

35. Often, mathematical and CTE skills are “chunked”, making transfer to the mathematics classroom and standardized tests difficult Pythagorean Theorem? 3-4-5 Angle?

36. D R T Often the mathematics in CTE is bypassed or minimized by teaching students shortcuts. CTE students often learn shortcuts to bypass or memorize mathematical processes. CTE courses can be used to create teachable moments for understanding mathematics.

37. Reading, Mathematics, and Science HSTW Scores for Students

38. CTE Programs Provide FocusFoundation Context

39. Why Is It Important That CTE And Academics Work Together? • Example: Picture Recall

41. We bring different pieces of information to the team!

42. Team Member Roles Math Teachers • Collaborate to find and emphasize embedded math in CTE. CTE Teachers • Collaborate to provide relevancy in Academics. CTE and Math Teachers • Consult with each other to implement successful instructional strategies.

43. Important to remember…… • CTE teachers should introduce the CTE concepts first and then emphasize the math concepts • Mathematics teachers should introduce the math concepts first and then emphasize the CTE connections to provide relevancy

44. The teaming of math teachers and CTE teachers merges context and content. Historically, this has not happened naturally. There must be a concentrated effort.

45. What Can Mathematics and CTE teachers do? • Implement authentic anchor projects that become places where students use mathematics • Require students to solve authentic adult-like problems • Have students use tools of the trade to complete tasks

46. Good reasons for integration… • Integration is how people work in the real world. • Academic and CTE teachers expand their repertoire of teaching strategies. • Enhances student motivation. • Enhances student career planning. • Promotes professionalism among teachers. • Improves academic achievement.

47. What is integrated embedded CTE learning? • NOTinserting mathematics in the CTE curriculum • Is unwrapping embedded mathematics in the CTE Authentic Anchor Projects students complete • NOTturning CTE teachers into mathematics teachers • Is looking at how the mathematics can be emphasized, made more rigorous, and academic language included in the projects and problems CTE teachers teach.

48. What is Authentic Academic Learning? • Not setting aside the math curriculum • Is providing real life scenarios and projects for math concepts • Not turning math teachers into CTE teachers • Is bridging the language of math to the language of CTE and providing opportunities to practice authentic problem solving and application

49. Important to remember…… • CTE teachers should introduce the CTE concepts first and then emphasize the math concepts and necessary components • Mathematics teachers should introduce the math concepts first and then emphasize the CTE connections to provide relevancy

50. Textbook p. 7 SREB’s Criteria for Authentic Anchor Project Units