EDUO 9543: Mathematical Practice #2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively

Course Overview

This course guides the teacher towards information that will help in the successful preparation,
implementation and evaluation of a classroom lesson that fulfills mathematical practice #2 (Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.)

Course Objectives:

Relating to the Common Core Mathematical Practice Standard #2, the teacher will be able to:

1. explain the standard to people of varying abilities, ages & education
2. use different materials to teach the standard
3. develop an effective time line within a teaching plan
4. create assessment processes that evaluates the ability of the students to grasp the standard
5. analyze this class experience as to how well it helped prepare to teach the mathematical standard

Course Relation to CCS or other Professional Standards

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize—to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents— and the ability to contextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved. Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.