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Maiko Hosokawa
EDUC 659
Dr. Alan Campbell
January 9, 2017

Module 7 Activity 2 — Using Technology to Teach Mathematics: Web Site Critiques

NCTM Illuminations
Age/grade level appropriateness
Animations and characters are appropriate for young students, and more realistic
images for older students.

Usefulness or purpose in math instruction

Provide quality standard-based resources for teachers quickly and easily.
Provide lessons integrated with interactive tools for students and instructional support
for teachers.
Share the success stories with other teachers.
Provide the CCSS Standards of Math Practice

Positive or negative aspects of site

+Scope and sequence
+One or more of assessment options
+Extensions for students
+Fun
+Math strategies
+Math literacy (integrating math story books) and manipulative tools
+Open-ended (what and how) questions are listed
+Lesson plans for teachers and interactive programs/games
+For Free
+Printable activity sheets and materials

-Too many materials which attract teachers and give them many options. But time
consuming to decide which materials they use.
-Lesson plan doesn’t have small sections of building and connecting to background
knowledge, focusing on vocabulary words and content.

User friendliness of site

Friendly for teachers in the states adopting CCSS.
Less friendly for teachers in the states adopting their own state standards.
Easy navigation page and search box.
For Free
Printable activity sheets and materials

Ideas offering ways to expand on concepts taught in regular math instruction.

Extensions can be used for gifted students.
Related resources and extensions can be used with stations in the class.
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Explore Math
Age/grade level appropriateness
Animations for younger students and realistic images for older students are appropriate.

Usefulness or purpose in math instruction

Provide interactive simulations.
Build success experience with fun and engaging tools.
Develop both mastery of fundamental skills and deep conceptual understanding.

Positive or negative aspects of site

+Teacher guides, student explanation sheets and answer keys, and vocabulary sheets.
+Instruction ideas in different class settings.
+Easily access to all materials with lessons.
+Materials can be customized by teachers. (provided as PDF and MS Word)
+Students experiment and try, then make conclusion from exercise.
+Sharing ideas and materials with other teachers.
+Learning objectives
+Assessment questions
+Vocabulary, prior knowledge, warm-up, and activity sections. Separate vocabulary
learning sheets.

-Not free. Unknown price. Price depends on the number of teachers and students.

User friendliness of site

Search with standards, grade and topic, and textbook.

Ideas offering ways to expand on concepts taught in regular math instruction.

One of the activities of stations.
Try and check practice as well as being persistent for problem solving.
Sub teachers can easily handle the class with materials.

Math Antics
Age/grade level appropriateness
Appropriate especially for older students. Not funny or cute characters for younger
students but includes humor.

Usefulness or purpose in math instruction

Provide simple and engaging math resources.
Make learning math more fun for students of all ages.
Provide video lessons.

Positive or negative aspects of site

+Focusing on vocabulary words in almost all video lesson .
+Lessons are all free. Needed to subscribe in order to access all exercises, examples,
worksheets, and answers. But the fee is cheap.
+Color codes in videos (Very helpful for students with ELL and SPED)
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+Example videos for exercises.
+Exercise includes various types of problems (True or False, fill in the blank, re-write,
solving)
+Calculator mark when okay to use.
+Worksheets always have at least one work sample.
+Worksheets have the corresponding name of the video lessons.
+Simple navigation page

-Subscription is needed to access all materials.

-No lesson plan for teachers.
-No standards and learning objectives aligned with lessons.
-Compare to other video lesson websites, limited numbers of lessons.
-No search box.

User friendliness of site

Easy and simple website for teachers and parents.
All materials with each lesson are available in the navigation page.

Ideas offering ways to expand on concepts taught in regular math instruction.

Advanced students can proceed to next lessons by themselves.
Exercises can be used as class notes, pre-assessment, and post-assessment. With
examples videos, exercises can be used even as homework.