The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in collaboration with the Council on Exceptional Children (CEC) is organizing and hosting a focused working conference on Response to Intervention (RtI) and related strategies in teaching and assessment in Mathematics. The ultimate goals of this work are: To build a core community of researchers and practitioners from mathematics education and special education to identify, expand and sustain the research needs in this critical area; to identify and improve the research available related to teaching mathematics within a Response to Intervention model; and to develop professional development resources to support teachers's (pre-service and in-service) understanding and application of research-based RtI strategies in mathematics.

Expected outcomes include: a preliminary analysis of needed research studies; a synthesis of both mathematics education research and special education research around a key question of interest; and examples of content for inclusion in professional development and pre-service teacher education. Results will be disseminated through NCTM and CEC print, web, and conference facilities.

Dynabook-related videos:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11293585

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeSdC7lbAlA&feature=share

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11302550

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11293836

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11293416

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11293871

Intensified Algebra I, a comprehensive program used in an extended-time algebra class, helps students who are one to two years behind in mathematics become successful in algebra. It is a research and development initiative of the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin, the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Agile Mind, that transforms the teaching of algebra to students who struggle in mathematics. Central to the program is the idea that struggling students need a powerful combination of a challenging curriculum, cohesive, targeted supports, and additional well-structured classroom time. Intensified Algebra I seeks to addresses the need for a robust Algebra I curriculum with embedded, efficient review and repair of foundational mathematical skills and concepts. It aims to address multiple dimensions of learning mathematics, including social, affective, linguistic, and cognitive. Intensified Algebra I uses an asset-based approach that builds on students’ strengths and helps students to develop academic skills and identities by engaging them in the learning experience. The program is designed to help struggling students succeed in catching up to their peers, equipping them to be successful in Algebra I and their future mathematics and science courses.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Elementary Science Materials use inquiry as the cornerstone for the development of elementary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities. To give the degree of control over the learning environment that UDL requires, it is important that inquiry be brought under computer management. Students explore the real world using probes and simulated worlds using computational models. This gives students powerful tools in a software environment that allows the tools to be adapted to individuals.

Units were developed around four driving questions. Why are there clouds? What if there was no friction? What do plants eat? What is electricity? Each unit contains grade-appropriate (grades 3-4 and grades 5-6) hands-on, model-based, and probe-based activities with a wide range of alternatives for the way tools are used in the classroom, the materials are represented and communicated, and learning is assessed. These alternatives boil down to a series of software switches and sliders that teachers and students can control in order to individualize the learning experience.

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The goals of the project are to develop and support the use of materials that promote integration of engineering with science, math, literacy and art in the elementary grades. Children engage in designing, making and testing their own devices. These include cardboard mechanisms that animate stories; paper pop-ups; gravity-, elastic- and electric-powered cars, and gadgets with hidden switches that produce light, sound and/or motion when opened or closed. Through these activities, students develop facility with materials, plus an understanding of systems, models, design, constraints, redesign and troubleshooting, which are core concepts in engineering education. Physics concepts include motion, force and energy. Writing is an essential component of the project, and of science education generally.

There are eight curriculum units in two sets of four each, under the headings of Force & Motion and Energy Systems. Each set consists of one unit each for grades K-1 and 2-3, and two units for 4-5. Classroom sets for the units cost between $100 and $300 apiece, and many of the materials can be acquired by recycling instead of purchase. As part of the Energy Systems Curriculum, students create gravity-powered cars in the K-1 unit Invent-a-Wheel, wind-up vehicles in the 2^nd-3^rd grade unit Fantastic Elastic, and electric cars in 4^th and 5^th grades in the EnerJeeps unit. In the course of this work students write their own equipment lists, instruction manuals, trouble-shooting guides and analyses of how their devices work. The analysis leads directly to basic concepts of physical science. When students operate their wind-ups, for example, they experience the use of their own power to store energy in a rubber band, and witness its release as kinetic energy when they let it go.