Weblog: Numeracy
New Focus on Basics Issue's Theme is Numeracy
The new issue of "Focus on Basics" (Volume 9, Issue A) is now available. Published by World Education, the theme is Numeracy. Click here and scroll down the page for Volume 9.
Articles include:
Cognitive Instruction Strategies Website
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has built a website devoted to Cognitive Strategy Instruction. While it is geared mainly to children, many of the strategies are also applicable to adults. Check it out at: http://www.unl.edu/csi/index.shtml
The Media Library of Teaching Skills
The Media Library of Teaching Skills (MLoTS) project, a free web-based library of short digital videos of adult education classrooms and tutorials. These videos are intended to applicable to all levels of ESOL, ABE, and GED instruction.
This article continues... »Adult Learning Mathematics Conference
The fifteenth annual conference of Adults Learning Mathematics - A Research Forum (ALM), A Declaration of Numeracy: Empowering Adults through Mathematics Education, will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from June 30, 2008 to July 3, 2008.
This article continues... »New Math Workshops for the Non-Math Teacher!
As we delivered the four strands of Numeracy Workshops around Virginia last year, teachers began asking us interesting questions - not just how to teach math concepts to learners, but more detail on what those concepts were all about for their own professional development. Many of you adult education math teachers are not certified in math and feel that math is not your strength, but you bravely teach our students because you have a good heart and a multi-level and/or multi-subject classroom! These workshops are for you. They are expanded to allow time for extra Q&A, and will not only offer new activities, but revisit ones demonstrated in the standard workshop. You will get a chance to dig deeper and truly understand the math involved, to teach it better to your students.
This year two strands of "Math for the Non-Math Teacher" will be offered: Numbers & Number Sense and Patterns & Algebra
The other two strands for the "Non-Math Teacher" will be offered in 2008-2009: Measurement & Geometry and Data & Statistics
Be sure to request a numeracy workshop in your region. Ask for one of the two new "Math for the Non-Math Teacher" workshops or one of the "Standard" Numeracy Workshops (still available in all four strands this year).
Contact Nancy Chapin, the new Numeracy Project Coordinator, at 540-989-8005 or nachapin@cox.net
Graph Paper Provided - All Sorts!
This site "Mathematics Help Central" has a fun and friendly approach to math from a doctorate who loves the subject and wants to answer questions that puzzle us. I needed graph paper in centimeters and found it (and any type you could want!) for free on this site. See what you think, and help our students with that area that so many struggle with on the GED: Graphs and Charts. See http://www.mathematicshelpcentral.com/graph_paper.htm.
Problem Solving with a Graphic Organizer
According to USDOE's Mathematics Training Institute, our students often have difficulty with problem solving because they neglect to read the problem carefully, define the type of answer required, identify key words, use a graphic organizer, estimate, and/or check for reasonableness. The attached graphic organizer is a tool that may help you help them hone their problem-solving abilities and come up with the right answer. Give it a try by clicking on this link.
Components of Numeracy (NCSALL): Quotes for Thought
The need: Based on the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey, "US adults performing at numeracy levels 1 and 2 (the lowest of five levels) are about three times more likely to receive social assistance payments from the state...than those who score in levels 3, 4 and 5." Studies have determined that "58.6% of US adults was below level 3, the minimum for coping with today's skill demands."
Professional Development demands "With regard to context, teachers would benefit from the ability to enmesh instruction into contexts as well as to draw the math out from the contexts with which learners are familiar. Teachers should have a mastery of all the content strands, including but not limited to the computational aspects."
It's a high calling but worth the effort! See the Components of Numeracy.
Trainer Favorite: Ruler Activity
This activity allows students to work with fractions in a practical way. The learning here is appropriate for building GED skills without overwhelming students with drills on fictional fractions that they will never see in the real world. In fact, computing fractions rarely appears on the GED, but working with them in practical ways, such as comparing relative sizes, calculating proportions, or understanding decimals and percentages are GED-oriented uses of fractions. Click this link print off the handouts prepared for you, and try it out with your class!
Trainer Favorites- Gas Prices!
Keep current with http://www.fueleconomy.org. This is a great site for charts and graphs. Data & Statistics, which includes charts and graphs to a great extent, is one of our students' most challenging subject areas on the GED Math test. And yet it is crucial for life and work. This site may be one way to help, as your student improves computer proficiency as well. Plus: let them check out local gas prices - the lowest...and the highest!
Numeracy Links: Trainer Favorites
Several of our state Numeracy trainers recently attended the national GED Mathematics Training Institute in DC, sponsored by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education. I will be sharing some of the information they received at the conference on this website over the next few weeks.
The first tidbit I have is two of our trainers' favorite websites:
See if they can help you and your learners!
Workshop Update
Numeracy workshops are posted regularly on our VALRC site. Some are restricted to a local program's teachers only and others are regional and open to all. Some workshops fill up fast and will say "Closed" for that reason. Since the status changes daily, please click on "Calendar" and see what's new and what's available for you. Ask your Program Manager when your program is hosting!
Upcoming Numeracy Workshops
As of August 31, Numeracy workshops have been successfully held at VAACE, in South Hill, Manassas, Middle Peninsula, Lebanon and Roanoke. Upcoming workshops are listed below. However, they fill up fast, so please watch the VALRC calendar to stay updated.
- Chesterfield County: Number Sense and Algebra on September 30 (CLOSED)
- Winchester: Number Sense & Data & Statistics on October 14 (OPEN)
- Fairfax: Data & Statistics on October 28 (CLOSED)
- Roanoke: Measurement & Geometry on November 2 (registration will open soon)
- Workshops in the works: Eastern Shore, Abingdon, Hampton area, Cumberland County and Central Virginia