The Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit: A guide for Staff Development

 

Level

Middle and High Schoo

 

Cost

Available from Heinemann Publishing  (ca. $225) 

http://www.heinemann.com/products/E01147.aspx

 

Type of Video

Small groups of middle and high school students engaged in working collaboratively on rich geometric tasks.  

 

Length of Videos

5 - 20 minutes

 

Number of Videos

15 videos

 

Content Domains

Geometric thinking, transformations, properties of shapes and lines.  

 

Description of the Videos

Small groups of middle and high school students engaged in working on rich geometric tasks.  

• They reason about spatial relationships, and properties of shapes.  They engage in conjecturing and the beginnings of proof in the context of solving problems connected to constructions. They also push each other to be clear and consistent.  An off-camera teachers sometimes asks questions of the students.  

• There is also text interspersed with the video that identifies the kind of thinking that students engage in, aligned with frameworks described in the staff development materials.  

 

Usefulness of the Videos

These videos are good examples of students persisting with doing mathematics tasks, as well as addressing both reasoning and precision of language.  

 

Ancillary Materials

These videos are part of a set of professional development materials in which participants learn about a framework for geometric thinking and engage in working to understand how students might develop and exhibit these types of thinking. The whole package has lesson plans, handouts and assignments for participants.

 

Author/Sponsor

Mark Driscoll, Rachel Wing DiMatteo, Johannah Nikula, Michael Egan, June Mark, 

Grace Kelemanik of Educational Development Center. Inc.