Beating the CSET! Methods, Strategies, and Multiple Subjects Content for Beating the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (Subtests I-III) (Boosalis Series)

ethods, Strategies, and Elementary Content for Beating AEPA, FTCE, ICTS, MSAT, MTEL, MTTC, NMTA, NYSTCE, OSAT, PLACE, PRAXIS, an.......2007-02-01

What kind of supports would keep teachers well equipped to help all of their students succeed? What if these same supports kept teachers energized, passionate, and informed about their fields? Content-Focused Coaching offers just such a sustaining system. CFC is a long-range professional development practice in which coaches work individually or with groups of classroom teachers to design, implement, and reflect on rigorous, standards-based lessons that promote student learning. Authored by two educators closely involved with the design of CFC, this book is perfect for K-8 staff developers, teacher leaders, administrators, and others interested in improving mathematics education.

Lucy West and Fritz Staub explain the general tenets of CFC and the fundamental foundations upon which it rests. Then they provide a wealth of examples of coaching in action in New York City's Community School District #2, a district known nationally for its progressive, innovative, and rigorous focus on professional development. To give readers a richer picture of what CFC entails, the three accompanying CD-ROMs contain extensive video footage of coaching sessions, including the preconference, lesson, and postconference. Full transcripts of the video segments can be used with the book or as independent tools for study groups.

Improve mathematics education. Rekindle teachers' passions for their profession. Read West and Staub and implement Content-Focused Coaching in your school or district.

Designed to help prospective teachers of elementary school mathematics learn content beyond the rote level, this text stimulates readers to think beyond just getting the problem right and fosters their development into thoughtful, reflective, self-motivated, life-long learners. It stresses the what and why of elementary school mathematics content. Hints are provided about how to teach the content but this is mostly left to courses and texts that are dedicated to that purpose.

The text is organized around the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The Standards dictate the basic sections of the text. Within each section, appropriate specific topics are developed, intertwined with technology, problem solving, assessment, equity issues, planning, teaching skills, use of manipulatives, sequencing, and much more. In addition, major focal points of the Standards are emphasized throughout: effective teachers of mathematics should be able to motivate all students to learn, should understand the developmental levels of how children learn, should concentrate on what children need to become active participants in the learning environment, and should be engaged in ongoing investigations of new mathematical concepts and teaching strategies.

Mathematics Content for Elementary Teachers is based on several fundamental premises:
*The focus of mathematics education should be on the process, not the answer.
*Elementary teachers should know the mathematics content they are teaching, know more than the content they are teaching, and teach from the overflow of knowledge.
*It is important for teachers to be flexible in allowing students to use different procedures--teaching from the "overflow of knowledge" implies knowing how to do a given operation more than one way and being willing to examine many different ways.
*Teachers need to learn to carefully cover the topics to be taught, to reflect upon them, and to be able to organize them. To help prospective elementary teachers concentrate on the mathematics content they will be expected to teach and begin to build the foundation for the methods they will use, this text includes only elementary mathematics content and does not address middle school concepts.

Pedagogical features:
*The text is organized according to NCTM Standards.
*An informal writing style speaks directly to readers and is geared to pre-service teachers.
*Focus is given to multiple methods of problem solving at four developmental levels.
*Questions, exercises and activities are interspersed throughout each section rather than gathered at the end of each chapter.
*Complete solutions for exercises are provided.