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The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils
 * 1. Teachers know the subjects they are teaching. **

Evidence1:

Rationale 1: This lesson is used with my 8th grade classes towards the end of the school year. As a way for students to gain useage and increase awareness of mathematical terms, student groups are responsible for creating a digital alphabet book. They create this by taking vocabulary that we have used in class throughout the year and defining the terms in non-textbook language. The completed projects are then presented to their classmates. This lesson forces students to articulate their own personal understanding and examples of terms that are important to their learning in all areas of mathematics.

It is easy for students to feel disconnected from their learning of mathematics because it is often taught in a clinical manner. I have shown with this lesson that I am able to infuse technology into an activity that allows students to see meaning and purpose to the math that they are learning. I have seen some of my students really get into this project and have heard them say that they “get it now” after creating their definitions.

KSD:

1.K.1.: The teacher understands the major concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of inquiry, and ways of knowing that are central to the discipline she teaches.

In order for students to get beyond basic fact memorization and be able to apply mathematical concepts to problem-solving situations, they need to have a strong understanding of the vocabulary of math. The more that the students are able to use the vocabulary in a way that is meaningful to them the stonger their application skills become.

1.S.5.: The teacher develops and uses curricula that encourage students to see, question, and interpret ideas from diverse perspectives.

By using this lesson, I am encouraging students to make a personal connection to the vocabulary terms that we use. They do this by creating their own examples that connect to the terms as well as creating definitions that are student-friendly. When they share these projects, they are not only sharing their own personal interpretation but also getting to hear the perspective of their classmates.

1.D.2.: The teacher appreciates multiple perspectives and conveys to learners how knowledge is developed from the vantage point of the learner.

For many students just seeing, hearing or writing a textbook defintion of a math term is fairly meaningless. I want my students to really know what they are talking about in context of a problem, not just what a word means to a publisher. I often solicit from my students what their understanding of a term is and encourage them to share their ideas. Often times I find that a student’s rewording of a problem or explaination is more easily understood by their peers than something I have said. In this project, I force the students to make a personal connection to the learning and explain to them that they will retain that information better if they come up with their own definition.