Algebra and Functions Progressions

[mfast]

I was very excited to see the Algebra and Functions Progressions! I was wondering when they will be posted on the University of Arizona website with the other progressions?

Thanks for all your hard work in providing such valuable resources to the educational community!

 

[Bill McCallum]

I just added the link to the IM&E website.

[mfast]

Are you referring to the following site: http://ime.math.arizona.edu/progressions/ I was not able to locate them with the other progression documents. Sorry for the bother.

[nancymclaughlin]

We (a college where I adjunct) are planning a three credit course for those math folks who would like to become “Math specialists” in school districts.  This would include math coaches, math administrators, math coordinators and all the various names describing these leaders.

   We are looking for a suitable book for the course.  The problem I am having is the currency of these type books.  We would like a CCSS perspective hence a Copyright after 2011.  Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you.

[Cathy Kessel]

You’re replying to the post about Algebra and Functions, which suggests you are thinking of high school. However, the term “math specialist” is often used to describe elementary mathematics specialists.

For information about elementary mathematics specialists (EMS), including examples of programs, see https://sites.google.com/site/emstlonline/. This site acts as a clearinghouse for information about EMS.

For information about preparation and professional development for PreK–12 teachers (not a textbook, sorry, but there are links to examples of programs and other information), see the new Mathematical Education of Teachers report: http://www.cbmsweb.org/MET2/index.htm

[Cathy Kessel]

mfast: To get to the documents you need to click on the links in the blog post. These are:

Algebra: http://commoncoretools.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ccss_progression_algebra_2012_12_04.pdf

Functions: http://commoncoretools.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ccss_progression_functions_2012_12_04.pdf

[mflannery]

In reading the Algebra Progression I have a problem with the words “cancel” and “cancellations”.  I have found through the years that it a source of confusion for students.  What exactly does it mean mathematically?  Students want to use the term cancel to  mean dividing like terms to get 1.  They also want use the term cancel when adding opposites to get zero.  I think we need to be careful and make this distinction.  We also need to ask our students to make this distinction when they are solving equations.  In recent years I have not allowed the “c” word.  We need to say what we mean.

[Bill McCallum]

The language of the progressions is not necessarily the language you would use with students, and I can see that you would want to be careful about the confusion between multiplicative cancellation and additive cancellation. Still, it’s hard to avoid using the word altogether when talking about algebra. In the end the issue is not which words you use but how people understand them, and I agree with your basic point that we want kids to understand the mathematical meaning behind the word.

[Bill McCallum]

The July 2013 update to the Algebra progressions document seems to be a corrupted PDF file. Macintosh users opening this in Acrobat find huge swaths of text and images missing on pages 4 and 10-14. I found it could be viewed using Preview program and then re-saved. Can you get a better version of this document made and then make it available on the Arizona site?

Xyzzy

[Cathy Kessel]

I just downloaded the Algebra Progression. This seems to be fine on my mac, both with Adobe Reader and Preview. I just checked out Functions which also seems fine. I wonder if your OS needs updating.

I tend to wait a long time to update, so am familiar with the problems caused by not updating. With one of my old systems, I couldn’t open some progressions with Adobe but they were fine with Preview. You may want to download another copy and stay with Preview as your progressions reader.

[Bill McCallum]

I get these concerns from users occasionally, but I usually can’t diagnose them because the files work for me. I may have forgotten to print to pdf before I uploaded this one … that usually cleans out a lot of the problems. I’ll try to get to that soon.

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