Anthony Lopez 30 November 2016 Mathematics with Peers (College students)

Socratic Seminar Plan

Reading/Art Selection: Katie Zernike’s “Test Scores Show a Decline in Math Among High
School Seniors”
Objective (s):
 Active participation
 Focus on listening skills
 Enhanced questioning skills
Core Question: Is there a significant decline in mathematics in High School?
Key Concepts: Testing averages, sampling studies
Key Skills: reading, discussion, questioning

Pre-Activities: Seminar Core Questions: Post-Activities:

1. Seminar Overview and
expectations
2. Read the article
Opening Questions:
1. Do you think that high
school students know less
mathematics then when we 2. Are the statistics
were in high school?
1. What makes a change in
student scores significant?
2. What is the goal sample
size for score averages?
3. Which is more important
to improve, reading scores
or mathematics scores?
Text Analysis Questions:
1. Does this text seem
biased?
consistent throughout?
3. Is the article well
supported?
1. Make a list of elements
that either personally
negatively affected your
mathematics learning or
that might negatively
affect current high school
students’ mathematics
learning.
Closing Questions:
1. Are there ways that people
in society, like you, can
help students with
understanding math?

Resource: Zernike, K. (2016). Test Scores Show a Decline in Math Among High School Seniors. The New York
Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/us/math-test-scores-decline-high-school-
seniors.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FMathematics&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=str
eam&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=collection&_r=0