2013 Conference Proceedings - University of Nevada, Las Vegas

are expected to pursue. Teacher notes are intended to help with lesson planning by providing asummary of the content and objectives for the investigation, highlighting opportunities to modelwith mathematics, and anticipating student thinking and possible responses—including commonmisunderstandings. The notes list materials needed and describe ways that technology canenhance student learning as well as provide an alternative approach to understanding therelationships within the lesson.The annotated student pages expand the material from the student book with notes formanaging the investigation and suggest questions to prompt discussion. Questions are intendedto indicate topics and ideas important to the investigation. As students become familiar with theinstructional approach, they are expected to raise these issues themselves or pose the questionsspontaneously to extend a problem or probe its mathematical content.The investigative, problem-based approach changes the roles of teachers and students. Thesuggested pedagogy is student-centered, with students and teacher sharing ideas in the classroommathematical community. Students should be explaining their thinking, questioning their ownand others’ ideas, and analyzing suggested strategies. The teacher should orchestrate thediscussion with thought-provoking questions, select examples of student work to be shared whendoing so furthers the learning opportunity, and provide suggestions for techniques ofmathematical inquiry and discussion when students need guidance.Implementation of materialsFeedback on teacher implementation of the initial set of materials is used to inform thedevelopment work and to determine if what is taking place in the classroom matches the intent ofthe course. In response to an announcement about the initiation of the MOW courseaccompanied by course materials and teacher training, 17 teachers from high schools throughoutthe state participated in professional development in Summer 2012. Seven of those teachers andfour additional teachers not trained during the summer are implementing AMAA in MOWcourses. Support for these teachers also includes four follow-up sessions during 2012–2013 tolearn more about AMAA curriculum materials and approaches for teaching lessons, modelingand the CCSSM, student expectations, and technology integration. During follow-up sessions,teachers share with and learn from other teachers, ask questions and pose teaching problems, andprovide valuable feedback to CRDG researchers. Data is collected on such matters as theappropriateness of lessons by discussing lessons that worked well and lessons that wereProceedings of the 40 th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning 2013 54