From: Suzanne A. (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Apr 16, 2000 at 15:36:31
Subject: Re: What is a math unit?

Oh, dear. I can see that you are frustrated. Hopefully, I can help a little!
I am a middle school teacher in California and I know right now with a lot of
the requirements teaching can be a bit stressful.

Here's my definition of a "math unit" - A lesson would be when you have one
day planned out but a unit is when you have a larger concept in mind and you
plan several days in a row in order to get across that larger concept. I
think it might help if I give you an example. My students (seventh grade) do
a unit I call The Traffic Jam Activity. It takes about a week to complete and
the end result is that the students have worked through building an algebraic
function. You can see it here:

http://mathforum.org/alejandre/frisbie/jam.html

I wrote a Polyhedra Unit a few years back and you can see the organization of
it from this page:

http://mathforum.org/alejandre/workshops/unit14.html

If you want to see more examples, they are here:

Last year's:
http://www.rialto.k12.ca.us/frisbie/coyote/math/unit7.html

This year's:
http://www.rialto.k12.ca.us/frisbie/math/7th.math.html

If any of these is more confusing or if you have questions, please write
back. I will be happy to try to clarify more!

Hang in there! We need you. :)

 -Suzanne A., for the Teacher2Teacher service

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