Pre-coursework

1) Readings. Here are the reading assignments to be done by first day of M147 class, Thurs June 22. Since these are significant, please start early. Books are on Any's desk in the math office. You all need to read the following chapters:

You also choose one book to read in its entirety. Please as a group arrange things so that each book is read by at least two people. The books have different styles, but each will be essential background for the course, and, more importantly, your development as an educator.

As you read, you'll find it *essential* to take notes; this is is because you'll want to summarize chapters to others in class, maybe weeks later.

2) (Short) Essays.

You have two short bits of writing to do, one for the day before the first day of teaching seminar, and one for the first day after the (very long) fourth of July break. The point of this is that analyzing and reflecting upon your goals and experiences is *key* to your progress as an a educator. You will upload these to Dropbox (expect email invitations to join from Alex shortly):

  1. Write a page or two about your goals for yourself as a teacher. What sort of teacher do you want to be? What do you need to learn, how do you need to grow, to be that teacher? This piece, unaltered (so as to capture your perspective at the beginning of the course), will be part of your course portfolio, so treat it as a final draft.

    This assignment is due on or before June 21, the day before the first class meeting.

  2. Choose a mathematics course you have recently taken (not a reading course). Consider how it was taught, how you learned the material, how you felt about it. Write an essay (3-5 pages) analyzing the course (or some feature or features of the course) and your personal experience in it from the perspective of one of the three books Duckworth, Skemp, or Zull. (This does not have to be the book you are officially responsible for reading --- assuming you have divided up the books so everyone is responsible for reading one book --- but make sure you have read the whole book you choose.) What does the author bring to the discussion? How would you analyze the course, from both teaching and learning standpoints, in terms of his or her ideas?

    A good paper will analyze a course in terms of from one to three of the most central ideas from the book, supported with specific details, both objective and subjective (your experience as a student is highly relevant). You do not have to agree with the book in order to write an analysis from its perspective, but you do have to engage seriously with it. For one possible example, one of the important ideas in Zull's book is the learning cycle. If you are analyzing a course from the perspective of this idea, you could start by identifying the ways in which the course did or did not lead you as a student to move through all parts of the learning cycle, go on to talk about how this should have (according to Zull's model) affected your learning, and conclude by talking about whether your experience agrees with this model, and why or why not.

    Keep in mind that you are being asked to analyze this course, not to rate it. Your analysis may well include your judgment, as a student, of the effectiveness of various course elements. However, Marcia doesn't ever want to read another sentence like "Duckworth would approve of this course."

    This assignment is due before class on July 6.

You can find web pages for some earlier versions of the teaching course on the department web site. The course is always a little bit different. Best wishes, Marcia Groszek Alex Barnett