The objective of this assignment is to help to give you practice selecting an interesting problem, presenting it to your peers, analyzing the learning of your "students," and assessing your teaching ability. In pairs, you will be asked to come up with a math problem to present to your classmates. Your job in this presentation will be to engage your peers in some type of mathematical learning. As a member of the audience, you will need to write up the answers to the problem and reflect on your learning in that situation.

What to do for Presenters:

1. Select a non-routine problem to use with your peers.Your problem should be appropriate for students in grades 4 - 12. Please use one of the resources below or another approved resource for your problem. Do NOT make up a problem.

2. Solve it yourselves first (ON YOUR OWN - NO HELP FROM FRIENDS OR ANSWER KEYS!!). This will allow you to judge if the problem is reasonable. Then get the problem approved by me.

3. Develop a BRIEF, informal lesson plan for presenting this problem to your classmates. The lesson plan should include: 1) How you will introduce the problem to your classmates; 2) How your classmates will be expected to engage in the problem (individually, in pairs, in small groups, with manipulatives, using calculators, etc.); 3) How you will have students share answers to the problem and discuss their strategies; 4) Which content and process Math standards your problem addresses.

4. Present your problem to the class following your plan. Collect the work of your "students." Your presentation should be no longer than 20 minutes.

5. Following the presentation of your problem, you will write a reflection on your experience. The reflection should include the following sections:

• Section 1: How did your activity go? What happened during the activity?
• Section 2: What did your peers learn from your activity? How did you know they learned this?
• Section 3: What did you learn from this activity about teaching and yourself as a teacher?

6. A week after your presentation, you should hand in your plan, your handouts, the work of your "students," and your reflections.

7. Grading on this presentation and its related products will follow the rubric below.

What to do for Audience Members:

1. As a member of the audience during these presentations, you are expected to engage in the solving of the problems and act in a professional and respectful manner.

2. You will be expected to write down your answers and strategies to the problem in a legible and clear fashion so that the presenters can analyze your learning.

3. At the end of the session, you will be asked to reflect on your problem solving efforts and your learning, along with your feedback to the presenters on the presentation.

4. Your participation in this presentation will be factored into your participation grade for the course.

Grading Rubric:

An "A" Presentation will:

• Demonstrate superior and noteworthy thought and preparation of your presentation.
• Demonstrate superior and noteworthy thought in analysis of your observations of your peers' learning.
• Demonstrate superior and noteworthy thought in reflection on your teaching efforts.
• Have all required elements, which are of high quality.
• Be well-written with few grammatical and mechanical errors.

A "B" Presentation will:

• Demonstrate substantional thought and preparation of your presentation.
• Demonstrate substantional thought in analysis of your observations of your peers' learning.
• Demonstrate substantional thought in reflection on your teaching efforts.
• Have most of the required elements, which are of high quality OR have all required elements which are of adequate quality.
• Be well-written with only minor errors in spelling or grammar.

A "C" lesson plan will:

• Demonstrate adequate thought and preparation of your presentation.
• Demonstrate adequate thought in analysis of your observations of your peers' learning.
• Demonstrate adequate thought in reflection on your teaching efforts.
• Have some of the required elements, which are of high quality. OR have most or all of the required elements of mediocre quality.
• Be written satisfactorily with some problems in style, grammar and/or spelling.

A "D" paper will have significant problems and will require a meeting with the instructor.

Some resources for problems:

Math Forum Problem of the Week Library: This is a website that has over 800 problems to choose from. To access this library, do the following:

Go to this website: http://mathforum.org/library/problems/.

Click on "Trial Account" which is on the left side of the page.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and read about trial accounts. These are free and let you choose five problems for free.


Math Forum Puzzles Site: This website offers a variety of math puzzles that may be appropriate to focus a lesson on. The web address is: http://mathforum.org/k12/k12puzzles/

Aunty Math's Challenge Site: This site provides challenges for kids in grades K-5. The web address is: http://www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org/aunty/ Go to the link marked "Past Challenges" for a list of all the problems. If given a choice, choose the HARDEST version of the problem.

University of Mississippi Math Contest Site: A site supported by University of Mississippi which provides a variety of problems for a variety of grade levels and topics. The web address is: http://mathcontest.olemiss.edu/ You may find the most appropriate problems in the "Elementary Brain Teaser" section or the "Middle School Madness" section.

AIMS Education Foundation Puzzle Corner: This site provides a variety of puzzles which can be related to geometry, logic, patterns, etc. Most puzzles are connected to some area of mathematics. The web address is: http://www.aimsedu.org/puzzle/index.html

Math Mountain: This site is sponsored McREL, a non-profit educational resource firm. The problems involve a variety of math strands. The web address is: http://www.mcrel.org/mathmtn/index.asp

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