Adult education classrooms are commonly comprised of learners who have widely disparate levels of mathematical problem-solving skills. This is true regardless of what level a student may be assessed at when entering an adult education program or what level class they are placed in. Providing students with differentiated instruction in the form of Push and Support cards is one way to level this imbalance, keeping all students engaged in one high-cognitive task that supports and encourages learners who are stuck, while at the same time, providing extensions for students who move through the initial phase of the task quickly. Thus, all
students are continually moving forward during the activity, and when the task ends, all students have made progress in their journey towards developing conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas along with a productive disposition, belief in one’s own ability to successfully engage with mathematics.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: use the area of right triangles to deduce the areas of other shapes; use dissection methods for finding areas; organize an investigation systematically and collect data; deduce a generalizable method for finding lengths and areas (The Pythagorean Theorem.)

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: translate between decimal and fraction notation, particularly when the decimals are repeating; create and solve simple linear equations to find the fractional equivalent of a repeating decimal; and understand the effect of multiplying a decimal by a power of 10.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students: are able to use frequency graphs to identify a range of measures and make sense of this data in a real-world context; and understand that a large number of data points allow a frequency graph to be approximated by a continuous distribution.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to interpret data using frequency graphs and box plots. In particular this unit aims to identify and help students who have difficulty figuring out the data points and spread of data from frequency graphs and box plots. It is advisable to use the lesson: Representing Data 1: Frequency Graphs, before this one.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: recognize and visualize transformations of 2D shapes; and translate, reflect and rotate shapes, and combine these transformations. It also aims to encourage discussion on some common misconceptions about transformations.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to solve problems involving area and arc length of a sector of a circle using radians. It assumes familiarity with radians and should not be treated as an introduction to the topic. This lesson is intended to help teachers identify and assist students who have difficulties in: Computing perimeters, areas, and arc lengths of sectors using formulas and finding the relationships between arc lengths, and areas of sectors after scaling.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to solve a real-world modeling problem. There are several correct approaches to the problem, including some that involve proportional relationships.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to identify and use geometrical knowledge to solve a problem. In particular, this unit aims to identify and help students who have difficulty in: making a mathematical model of a geometrical situation; drawing diagrams to help with solving a problem; identifying similar triangles and using their properties to solve problems; and tracking and reviewing strategic decisions when problem-solving.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: solve linear equations in one variable with rational number coefficients; collect like terms; expand expressions using the distributive property; and categorize linear equations in one variable as having one, none, or infinitely many solutions. It also aims to encourage discussion on some common misconceptions about algebra.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to solve quadratics in one variable. In particular, the lesson will help teachers identify and help students who have the following difficulties: making sense of a real life situation and deciding on the math to apply to the problem; solving quadratic equations by taking square roots, completing the square, using the quadratic formula, and factoring; and interpreting results in the context of a real life situation.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: interpret a situation and represent the variables mathematically; select appropriate mathematical methods to use; explore the effects of systematically varying the constraints; interpret and evaluate the data generated and identify the break-even point, checking it for confirmation; and communicate their reasoning clearly.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: form and solve linear equations involving factorizing and using the distributive law. In particular, this unit aims to help teachers identify and assist students who have difficulties in: using variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem and solving word problems leading to equations of the form px + q = r and p(x + q) = r.

Teaching Pragmatics explores the teaching of pragmatics through lessons and activities created by teachers of English as a second and foreign language. This book is written for teachers by teachers. Our teacher-contributors teach in seven different countries and are both native-speakers and nonnative speakers of English. Activities reflect ESL and EFL classroom settings. The chapters included here allow teachers to see how other teachers approach the teaching of pragmatics and to appreciate the diversity and creativity of their endeavors.

This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students are able to: recognize and use common 2D representations of 3D objects and identify and use the appropriate formula for finding the circumference of a circle.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to understand and use directed numbers in context. It is intended to help identify and aid students who have difficulties in ordering, comparing, adding, and subtracting positive and negative integers. Particular attention is paid to the use of negative numbers on number lines to explore the structures: starting temperature + change in temperature = final temperature final temperature Đ change in temperature = starting temperature final temperature Đ starting temperature = change in temperature.

Challenged with a hypothetical engineering work situation in which they need to figure out the volume and surface area of a nuclear power plant’s cooling tower (a hyperbolic shape), students learn to calculate the volume of complex solids that can be classified as solids of revolution or solids with known cross sections. These objects of complex shape defy standard procedures to compute volumes. Even calculus techniques depend on the ability to perform multiple measurements of the objects or find functional descriptions of their edges. During both guided and independent practice, students use (free GeoGebra) geometry software, a photograph of the object, a known dimension of it, a spreadsheet application and integral calculus techniques to calculate the volume of complex shape solids within a margin of error of less than 5%—an approach that can be used to compute the volumes of big or small objects. This activity is suitable for the end of the second semester of AP Calculus classes, serving as a major grade for the last six-week period, with students’ project results presentation grades used as the second semester final test.

In this video segment from Cyberchase, Bianca goes on a quest to find out if a coin toss really is a 50-50 proposition.