Tag Archives: algebraic thinking

Hundreds of Challenging Math Problems Worth Solving

The Mathematical Practices that are in the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education define what it means to be a mathematically proficient student. As adult education instructors, our job is to help our students navigate over the swells in the tempest of their angst until they get to the point where they have enough confidence in their own abilities to weather the sea of mathematics.   
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Math Problems Aligned to the Common Core

Illustrative Mathematics is a great resource that brought together teachers, math educators and mathematicians to create mathematical tasks aligned to each standard of the Common Core. There are currently over 1000 tasks, from grades K through 12. Because it is K-12, some tasks will need to be adapted, but because it is K-12, there are rich materials for adult education students at all levels, from ABE to HSE. Continue reading Math Problems Aligned to the Common Core

Developing Algebraic Thinking Through Visual Patterns

Visual Patterns is a very simple and wonderful website, created by a public middle school teacher in Southern California named Fawn Nguyen.

The site is essentially a collection of 157 different visual patterns (and growing). For each pattern, you are given the first three figures/stages of the pattern. For example, Continue reading Developing Algebraic Thinking Through Visual Patterns

Deepen Conceptual Understanding in Math with Virtual Manipulatives (and it’s fun!)

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is a website that houses a goldmine of visual models and interactive virtual manipulatives for mathematics instruction.  The library began as a project in 1999 with support from the National Science Foundation and was developed at Utah State University. It has since undergone numerous revisions and additions and presently contains over 100 virtual manipulatives. Continue reading Deepen Conceptual Understanding in Math with Virtual Manipulatives (and it’s fun!)