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News > 2011 > CPM December 2011 Newsletter
CPM December 2011 Newsletter
Directors Corner
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Chris Mikles –
Director of Teacher Education
Mathcasts, videos, and tips
 Mathcasts are a new and valuable resource that we
have been working on this year. There is a teacher-to-teacher recording for nearly every single lesson in the Connections series of books. We hope to complete this project by the end of the year. The teacher talk often includes a heads-up about the lesson, questions to ask, resources to prepare, reminders about circulation or study team strategies and other ideas. Each is between 1-12 minutes long; they were recorded by classroom teachers. www.cpm.org > Teacher Support > Professional Development > Lesson Mathcasts
We have also posted many new videos - some including actual lessons with students. Others show closure activities, study team strategies and how to set up some of the more complicated manipulatives (like the clinometers). www.cpm.org > Teacher Support > Management Resources > Video Models
Please remember that mastery takes time. Your first year teaching with CPM texts can be difficult if you do not trust the curriculum. Many teachers resist moving on until every student has attained mastery. That is unnecessary. Opportunities to master topics are woven through the Review & Preview sections for many lessons past the introduction of a topic. Mastery will happen for most students throughout the year, not necessarily when you expect it to happen. Stopping to make sure that all students have mastered a topic creates the risk of not completing all the important content for the year. At the last workshop of the year, many teachers shared their regret in not trusting the curriculum in that first year. They realized, too late, that it would have saved a lot of time and much more content could have been covered.
Many teachers plan to take several weeks before state tests to "prepare" for the exam. Years of prior experience has shown that when using CPM texts (and the students are completing their work), they are well prepared for cumulative high stakes exams without sacrificing weeks to prepare. To avoid any surprises, we recommend that you weave problems into your chapter and semester assessments that mirror the same format as those that the students will experience on their state test.
TEXTBOOKS & CURRICULUM UPDATES
Brian Hoey – Executive Director
 Web-based assessment access
In order to enhance the security of the assessment website, we have changed the new user access codes. If you have lost your access information or would like to begin using the web-based assessment resources (including the test generator), contact graham@cpm.org with a request for the username and password you will need to log in. Please include the name of your school, city and state, and name(s) of the CPM course(s) you teach. Once you receive these, simply go to
http://assessment.cpm.org (note: no www), enter your information, get a confirming e-mail from CPM, and go to work! You will find tutorials at the site if you encounter difficulties. (Try the tutorials first before calling tech support.)
PCT and Calculus solution manuals
We created solution manuals for the PCT and Calculus courses a couple of years ago. Since then, we have been publishing the access URLs in the newsletters. We are now discontinuing that practice for two reasons. First, this will enhance security. Second, at the time we created these resources, there were no course assessment CDs available. Everyone who teaches these courses should now have a copy of the PCT and/or the Calculus CD. (It also includes a PDF copy of the teacher edition.) We are taking the Word version of these files down from the website. They are available on the CD if you want to customize the solution manual for your students. If you need the access URL or a CD, email your regional coordinator. (Send a mailing address for the CD.) Please do not use Facebook and other social network media to make the URLs available to your students. These sites compromise the site's security.
By next fall we expect to add these two courses to the online homework help available at the CPM website. About one-third of the problems will have a solution, another third will have hints, and the remainder will have answers only. The editors of the texts created the solutions manuals because these two courses study advanced mathematics. These kinds of courses typically have a solution manual available to students. The Word files allow you to edit the manual so that, for example, you could eliminate the classwork problems if you prefer. We encourage you to share this resource with your students.
ASSESSMENT UPDATE
Karen Wootton –
Director of Assessment
 Proficiency or Mastery?
Once a week, I allow myself the treat of spending $4.00 on a cup of coffee. This past week I fell in line behind a woman I know by sight as a parent at my children's school. We began chatting, and she quickly shared her frustrations about the grading policy at the school. She told me about her son's math class where it can take weeks to get a test back because of all the kids who have to take the test again. She told me about her daughter's frustration in her English class where she turns everything in on time while others do not, but those who lag are not penalized for turning in late work. After ten minutes she said, "I don't get it. This proficiency policy is teaching kids bad habits. If they forget to study, or are too busy to study, it doesn't matter. The teacher gives them a 'redo', and the kids can keep on taking 'redos' indefinitely. The kids aren't learning what they did wrong because they don't see their tests for weeks. What's the point?"
Good question! What is the point? In this era of standards-based grading, proficiency grading, and mastery grading, how do we know what is best or what really works? I proffered the classic line about taking a driver's license test. "If you fail your driving test, you are allowed to go back and try again, aren't you? Your whole future as a driver is not destroyed with the one test you take when you are 16 years old, so why not let the student retake a test in a class? What if that student just took longer to learn the material?" This parent wasn't buying it.
The bigger issue, however, is that this school is not clear about what their "proficiency policy" is. The policy that affects this parent's and my children is the following:
| "Grades earned will be a reflection of student's mastery of the related and relevant national, state, and industry standards pertaining to the course of study. Assignments, projects and assessments are aligned with these standards." |
This policy does not mention "proficiency" but "mastery." Are they the same thing? If a student is proficient with a topic, has the student mastered the topic? Maybe this is the gray area. If a student can solve any equation, any time, we would say the student has mastered the process of solving an equation. But what about the student who usually solves the equations correctly, but sometimes, when there are fractions involved, or when the variable is on both sides of the equal sign, makes a mistake? Can we say this student has mastered solving equations? Maybe this student has not mastered solving equations, but is this student proficient at solving equations? How do we define these things?
Although we wish there was a "one size fits all" response, there really isn't; there seems to be nothing but gray area. I consider myself to have mastered solving equations, but I know, once in a while I make a mistake when solving one. It happens. Does that mean I cannot consider myself as having achieved mastery? To answer this question, I think we need to look further, not just at the solution, but at what it would take for the student to correct the solution. If I can say, "Hey, you forgot to divide both sides by two" and the student responds with, "What? Oh yeah. Oops. I'll fix that," then the student could still be classified as "mastered." In contrast, if I say the same thing and the student responds with, "What? Huh? What do you mean both sides? Why would I do both sides?" this indicates there is more learning that needs to take place for the student to master this concept.
Trying to reflect this "grayness" in a policy is difficult. Should a teacher allow a student to retake a test indefinitely until the student passes? Or does this just promote "bad habits?" In the workplace, some professions allow for "redo." An architect may render a plan based on initial meetings with a client, present what she has so far and, armed with feedback, revise the plan. So, is allowing students the time to learn material and redo work doing them a disservice for their future careers?
What do you think? Consider these ideas and see if you can construct a policy that you believe is appropriate. Share them at the CPM discussion forum, and let's see if we can remove some of the "grayness." We will revisit this topic further in February.
TECHNOLOGY TOPICS
Carol Cho –
Director of Technology
 Moving to e-books
CPM e-books are being well received. The teacher version of the e-books have three tabs: the student version, teacher notes, and answers. Teachers can project the answers at the beginning of class to allow students to check their homework. The student lesson can also be projected to help pace student teams through the lesson. Electronic tools and virtual manipulatives linked to problems in the e-books allow the teacher to easily demonstrate the manipulatives that teams will use at their desks. The teacher notes have linked mathcasts, resource pages, occasional videos, SMART Board files and critical notes/ideas for delivering the lesson.
The CPM student version e-books have many of the same virtual tools linked to their books so that students can practice using manipulatives at home. All homework problems have linked help and hints to guide students through each problem.
Teachers who would like a free two-week preview license for an e-book should contact Carol Cho at cho@cpm.org. You may request more than one e-book from the current Connections series. E-books for the new CCSS aligned Core Connections books will be available for the 2012-2013 school year. Please email me any ideas for improvement, as well as any errors found in e-books. We have the ability to edit these very quickly!
back to CPM December 2011 Newsletter
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