I thought this was a well written article and enjoyed following the activity. The students did a nice job of using maniplulatives to prove or disprove ideas of congruence and similarity. However, he starts the article by saying "The development of intuitive understandings of geometry is highly important at the middle school level" and then moves on with the article. As I am reading, I try to picture this taking place in a middle school classroom that I have taught in. I am amazed by the conjectures that his students are making and can't believe how they are exploring the ideas presented. Then at the end the of the article he says "even though these activities were used in a college classroom, they are immediately adaptable for use in a middle school classroom with little or not change." Hmmm...... Really. You think so, have you taught middle school before....Ok enough with that.
As I said earlier, I think the activity is a great idea and if I ever get the chance to teach geometry again I will try to use parts of this activity to discover the ideas behind triangle congruence. I also agree with Slavit's approach to teaching. He believes that our students should be "doing math" not just "hearing or seeing mathematics." This a difficult law to live by though. It takes a lot of preparation and you have to be willing to face defeat. Not all activities work as well as this one. Despite the difficulty of this type of teaching, if we believe it is best for students, we must persevere.
SPRING BREAK
March 23-27.
I am pretty sure that we are planning on going.....that's right no where. Unless I get a big fat stimulus check in the mail......lots of sarcasm.
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I agree with your thoughts about the transfer of this lesson from the college setting to the MS setting. There is a much different motivation level with preservice teachers. You do wonder what his background is. The article itself is a little tough for the novice to follow but that is true about one of mine as well, so we won't go there.
ReplyDeleteSo we get to look at pictures of the beach for our break, lol.