TeachingAlgebraicThinkingtoAllChildrenThrough.docVIP

Teaching Algebraic Thinking to All Children Through Collaboration Authors: Edna Bazik, National-Louis University ebazik@ Eunice Goldberg, National-Louis University egoldberg@ Paula Neville – National-Louis University pneville@, 1-847-947-5191 1000 Capitol Dr. Wheeling, IL 60090 Introduction Imagine a classroom where all of the students are confident they can learn mathematics. Further, imagine a school of classrooms where the teachers are confident they can teach mathematics to all of their students. We believe that this should be a reality rather than a figment of our imagination. In order to make our dream come true we began a process of collaboration that will make algebra accessible to a wider range of students than ever before. No Child Left Behind brought to the attention of educators the need to increase efforts to prepare teachers for diverse learners, particularly in the areas of math and literacy. Since algebra is a requirement for all students in United States schools and presents a challenge to many teachers, we decided to focus on algebra for all students. We began with the belief that with a focus on habits of mind (building rules to represent functions, doing-undoing, abstracting from computation) (Driscoll, 1999), quality problems, and the proper tools, all children are capable of algebraic thinking. Faculty in mathematics education and special education at National-Louis University began informal meetings where they discussed their concerns about the limitations on their ability to address the needs of the diverse learners (both struggling and advanced) in their classrooms. These needs involved poor knowledge of math content for future special education teachers and poor knowledge of adaptations of learning strategies for the future math teachers. Such problems translate into future teachers who are not able to satisfactorily address the needs of all of their students. In response to these needs and a natural desire to provide quality math instr