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About Mission: Algebra

Design of Classroom Examples

This website includes a set of classroom examples that aim to capture exemplary practices in the use of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics. They were each constructed with careful consideration of two key standards documents:
• Getting Students Ready for Algebra I: What Middle Grades Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do by Gene Bottoms, published by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in December 2002. The report responds to a new federal priority that all students participate in challenging mathematical content in high school, for which the first algebra course stands as a critical gateway. The report provided the framework of 12 "content-specific readiness indicators" that we used as the organizing structure for this website. This website is designed to expand on the brief technology suggestions made in this SREB report (for more information on these technology suggestions, see Guidance from NCTM and SREB
• NCTM's Principles and Standards (NCTM, 2000), and especially the process standards for the middle grades.

In selecting the content for these classroom examples, we aimed to create examples that are likely to spark discussion between district curriculum people and district technology people. To do this, we shaped the mathematics content to be of interest to district leaders with curriculum expertise (especially expertise in mathematics); similarly, we shaped the technology content to be of interest to district directors of technology and technology coaches, since it illustrates a range of technologies that is accessible today in typical school settings. See Using this Site for Professional Development.

We also shaped these classroom examples by using a consistent model of learning: in each example, students explore, experiment, and investigate before moving to development of procedural knowledge, and the teachers' role is to help the class draw out the key concepts from their direct experiences. There are certainly many other models of learning that we could have chosen, for example, lessons where students focus on skill development through repetitive practice (these lessons would make use of "drill-n-kill" software rather than the tools used in these examples). The approach we selected is consistent with the NCTM's Principles and Standards as well as reflective of the experience of TERC (and many others) in developing mathematics curricula and supporting schools to implement them.

Finally, through these examples, we wanted to emphasize that, while technology may bring a new set of experiences to mathematics learning, it also has the potential to help students experience classical mathematical tasks and problems in new ways. Several of our examples represent classic mathematics tasks made richer by the availability of technology (e.g., Understanding Π (pi), Pythagorean Theorem, and The Broken Calculator).

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