The Assessment Trap, Part 3: The Meaning of Grades (This is a slightly edited version of a post from 2011)Previous posts [Part 1, Part 2] have focused on the uses of assessment. For many students, parents, teachers, and administrators the key purpose of assessment is to assign grades. Before going any further, we need to think… Continue reading The Meaning of Grades
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Problematic Uses of Assessment
The Assessment Trap, Part 2: Problematic Uses of AssessmentIn my previous post, I listed four legitimate uses of assessment, which make it a key part of instruction. But there are other uses of assessment which I find problematic. Here they are.1. Assigning grades.We need to give grades to "let students know where they stand", to… Continue reading Problematic Uses of Assessment
Legitimate Uses Of Assessment
This is the first of eight posts on assessment. I have combined and edited them into a single article on my Web site. Read it there!Much of the series will focus on some of the traps that are so easy to fall into, and are so damaging to student learning. My experience is primarily in… Continue reading Legitimate Uses Of Assessment
In Defense of Algebra 2
Novelist Nicholson Baker wrote a cover story on "The Case Against Algebra II" for Harper's in 2013. More recently, political science professor Andrew Hacker wrote a book (The Math Myth) challenging Algebra 2 and its sequels. Some day, I may respond to their arguments, but I am addressing this post to the math teachers who… Continue reading In Defense of Algebra 2
Fractions
I have a new Fractions home page, with links to three pages on my site. In this post, I'll use it as an excuse to discuss some general ideas about teaching. Visual Representations In my Fraction Arithmetic page, I present a visual strategy for figuring out how to add, subtract, and multiply fractions. (There is… Continue reading Fractions
Making a Vector in Desmos
A couple of years ago, during a workshop on transformational geometry, a participant objected when I used and recommended GeoGebra and not Desmos. Her main argument was that students love Desmos. Fair enough, but that does not make up for the fact that Desmos is mostly about graphing, while GeoGebra includes the many basic and not-so-basic… Continue reading Making a Vector in Desmos
Hoping to see you soon!
Here is a list of my upcoming appearances, ranging from 20 minutes to a full week. Perhaps you can attend one of them!NCTM National Meeting in San FranciscoA Hands-on Approach to Operations and Equivalent Expressions Thursday 14 April, 8:00-9:15am. 3022 Moscone WestThis is a hands-on Lab Gear workshop aimed at grades 6 to 8. The… Continue reading Hoping to see you soon!
Factoring a Sum of Cubes
A correspondent who teaches math to 9th graders writes:I was looking at factoring the sum and difference of two cubes and was wondering if you have any input as to how to teach it for true understanding.I have not taught this topic much, if at all, in Algebra 1, as it strikes me as rather… Continue reading Factoring a Sum of Cubes
More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Sooner is not necessarily better! If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember my posts about hyper-acceleration. (I have combined those into one article on my Web site.)Today, a guest post on acceleration by Robin Pemantle, a mathematician at Penn, who addresses this topic from his point of view as a university… Continue reading More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Visual Algebra
I will be teaching two instances of my Visual Algebra workshop this summer: grades 7-11, June 27-30, in Oakland; and grades 6-9, July 25-27, in Saint Louis. (More info). This is probably the topic I have presented the most often in the last 25 years.To many students, not to mention teachers, parents, and administrators, algebra… Continue reading Visual Algebra
Henri's Math Education Blog 