Teaching Key Algebraic Concepts Through Interdisciplinary Mathematics

In the clips featured in "Preparing Presentations" and "Final Student Presentations," you will see evidence of the following results:

a) Students develop their own unique understanding of algebraic representations. For example, in the Preparing Presentations page, you will notice Kenny making a point about balance and symmetry while Stevie works out his own sense of a variable.
b) Insisting on an audience provides an opportunity for students' own unique understanding to have status in the classroom. While Preparing Presentations, you will see Stevie and Kenny worrying about "making it so the audience understands" and in doing so, are interested in discussing their perceptions with each other .
c) Factoring and multiplying are understood and referred to in terms of dimensions and area whereas I am accustomed to hearing students refer to algorithms. During his final student presentation, you will hear Kenny make a point of saying "factoring is like dividing " while referring to length and width.
d) The activities, journal prompts, writing assignments, and discussions all help students to keep from "talking off task" which is something all the boys mentioned as an obstacle in the past.

Preparing Presentations

Preparing for Presentations
Helping boys to prepare for presentations I emphasize presentations as not only a form of assessment but as an opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning.
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Scaffolding their Preparations
Kenny searches for the right word. Here is where he relates the technique of combining like terms with his version of "making it shorter."
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Final Student Presentations

Final Presentations Introduction
What does the audience get out of this?
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Final Presentations: Steve
In this clip, you will hear Steve's unique understanding of a variable in relation to his color choices.
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Final Presentations: Kenny
Kenny had developed a good sense of many of the toolkits.
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Final Presentations: Donny
Donny expressed his mathematical decisions articulately.
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Discussion: New Toolkits
Learning about new toolkits, and discussion of Kenny's painting.
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View assessment that was used to evaluate these students' presentations