Dan Siebert and Amy Tanner published an article titled “GPS: Sorting Activities” in the journal Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching.
Dan Siebert and Amy Tanner published an article titled “GPS: Sorting Activities” in the journal Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching. Amy has answered a few questions about this article below:
Who were your co-authors on this article?
Dan Siebert
Who would you say is the target audience for this article?
Practicing teachers, all grades (PreK-12)
What is the big problem you hoped to address with this article?
We were hoping to help teachers to understand particular challenges and teaching opportunities around the meaning of equality and use of the equal sign at different grade levels, and to provide examples of tasks that would help support students' developmentally appropriate learning around the equal sign.
What are some of the key ideas in the article?
For some readers, the difference between an operational meaning (the equal sign means do an operation and put down an answer) and relationship meaning (equal sign means equality) of the equal sign may already be familiar, but they may not have considered that as students progress through the grades, there are new challenges to students' understanding of equality. The article is meant to highlight this progression, and if teachers know where students are coming from, and where they are going, they can better address the learning of their students right now.
What are some of the main ideas you hope your audience will take from this article?
The GPS column is targeted directly to teachers, with engaging and conceptually-focused tasks that are written to be taken directly into the classroom. I hope teachers can look at this set of tasks and, whether or not they try this particular task, use them as a springboard for thinking about the ways they help their own students make meaning of equality.
What else would you like to say about this article?
Several of these tasks were tested with actual learners, who responded in interesting (and sometimes surprising) ways. Their responses and feedback helped us to improve the tasks and consider things we wouldn't have otherwise considered.