Curriculum Focal Points

As teachers and administrators, we have been looking forward to the latest document from NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). I am urging all parents to download this document at www.nctm.org/focalpoints. This is the most important document to come along in many years and will help explain many math misconceptions that have been circulating Narragansett.

Fennell, current President of NCTM, makes this one statement (among others):

"What some refer to as basic skills (for example, multiplication facts, and fluency with the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers) have always been a fundamental core of elementary school mathematics. Always. But we want more. We want the children to understand the mathematics they are learning, and we want them to be able to solve problems, which is, in the long run, why we do mathematics."

Please download this document and read more or see me and I would be glad to make you a copy.

Susan Naysnerski

Math Happenings

Now that we are in our second year of Investigations, we are looking at materials to complement the various units. With the help of our Newport colleagues, we are identifying books to purchase that will help us select supplemental materials. The math consultant from Westerly is working with individual grade levels to choose common assessments. On the professional day last week, our entire day was devoted to problem solving and differentiation. We have purchased a program titled Exemplars that will help us embed problem solving tasks into Investigations. Grade levels will work together to identify tasks to use at the end of each unit. These may be in addition to the lessons in each unit or they may replace an activity that is similar. All teachers are hard at work, making the mathematics program at NES the best it can be.