Discover how the study of repeating patterns and number sequences can lead to ideas of functions, learn how to read tables and graphs to interpret phenomena of change, and use algebraic notation to write function rules.

Discover how the study of repeating patterns and number sequences can lead to ideas of functions, learn how to read tables and graphs to interpret phenomena of change, and use algebraic notation to write function rules.

What are the "big ideas" in elementary school mathematics? How do students understand them? How can teachers best offer help and support as their students grapple with these ideas? These and other questions about the practice of teaching K-8 mathematics are the focus of Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI), a powerful, engaging professional development curriculum for current and future teachers. At the heart of a DMI seminar is the casebook, sets of classroom episodes (cases) illustrating student thinking as described by their teachers. In addition to case discussions, the curriculum offers teachers opportunities: to explore mathematics in lessons led by facilitators; to share and discuss the work of their own students; to view and discuss DVD clips of mathematics classrooms; to write their own classroom cases; and to read overviews of related research.

Participants work with the collection, representation, description, and interpretation of data. They learn what various graphs and statistical measures show about features of the data, study how to summarize data when comparing groups, and consider whether the data provide insight into the questions that led to data collection.

This module is intended to help teachers explore methods by which students work with numbers to formulate generalizations about operations. By expanding students understanding of the properties that underlie the number systems introduced in the elementary grades, they will be prepared to think algebraically for success in middle school and beyond.