[Blindmath] AFB Teleseminar Dec 2nd on How will students with Vision Loss Fare in Common Core Assessments
Mary Woodyard
marywoodyard at comcast.net
Mon Nov 25 13:03:04 UTC 2013
I am going to refrain from commenting on all of the unfair testing questions
I have noticed with respect to testing my child and just let anyone reading
this list know that the AFB has a teleseminar Dec 2nd to discuss testing
issues with Common Core for Students with vision loss. The trend that I
have already noticed is that educators are trying to push all students with
readers to use screen readers instead of human readers which is limiting
with Math and Science. There are several main problems I have discovered.
One - the screen reader is Kurzweil - not really a screen reader. The
reason this is done is so that the testing authorities can limit what
information is read to the student.
That limiting of information is critical to the problem that all low
vision/blind students face - how does someone sighted decide what my student
who has several eye conditions that fluctuate can see at any given time.
Also, he prefers a human reader so why should he be forced to use a machine
that has proved unreliable on other high stakes tests? At the moment all of
the testing decisions that are made with respect to limits are done on a
state by state basis - the benefit of Common Core is that it allows a
central recommendation for 45 states. We just need to make sure that our
voices are heard while that limit is being made.
I would encourage anyone who is interested in testing low vision/blind
students in k-12 to listen to this teleseminar.
-----Original Message-----
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Sent: Monday, November 25, 2013 7:00 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 88, Issue 19
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Understanding math versus passing standardized tests of
math (Lewicki, Maureen)
2. Re: Understanding math versus passing standardized tests of
math (sabra1023)
3. Re: An issue with JAWS and Wolfram Alpha -- how canthisbe
resolved? (Wheatley, Richard)
4. When accommodation is meaningless (Susan Jolly)
5. Re: When accommodation is meaningless (Amanda Lacy)
6. Re: Understanding math versus passing standardized tests of
math (Lewicki, Maureen)
7. Re: Understanding math versus passing standardized tests of
math (Bente Casile)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 15:10:13 +0000
From: "Lewicki, Maureen" <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>
To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
standardized tests of math
Message-ID:
<AD0247C3A039BA4B87F37DD2B02CCCEF12429227 at HEX2.mail.neric.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I agree, Susan about this: " a growing disconnect between
> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests."
Essentially we can 'thank' the developers of Common Core for the disconnect!
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Teacher of Visually Impaired
Bethlehem Central School
332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
http://bethlehemschools.org
(518) 439-7460
Fax (518) 475-0092
"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists. If a
blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can be
reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David
Tseng
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 6:01 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing standardized
tests of math
I agree with you on your general point that there's issues in the way blind
students are taught math today.
Teachers and VI specialists take on the task of creative ways to represent
information to a blind student if the student is lucky. However, the quality
of this "creativity" varies wildly amongst educators. You get even more
variation when you get to university where professors can have all sorts of
competing priorities and demands on their time.
With that said, to address your specific point, I firmly believe
visualization is quite important when dealing with math. Many concepts (i.e.
the derivative), have an intuitive definition only obtained by visual means.
Graphing functions is another way to understand relationships between two
sets of numbers (or three in the case of three variables, and so on).
The challenge lies in the way blind students should be taught and tested.
It doesn't change the usefulness of picturing a graph. Going through the
steps of plotting helps reinforce the aspects of functions that can seem
"abstract" when only staring at an equation.
On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Susan Jolly <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>wrote:
>
> I'm commenting as a "sightling."
>
> I'm retired from a successful career involving applied math and
> computational math. I started out as a high school chemistry teacher
> and then went to graduate school to get a degree in computational
> (theoretical) chemistry. I can't ever remember having to plot by hand
> a function of two variables either as a student or in my career and
> I've had very little need to even interpret a plane projection of a
> such a function. I do not consider this an important general "math
> skill". It is, rather, something someone can learn when necessary.
>
> From the latest discussion on this list and also from reading about
> math education it seems to me there is a growing disconnect between
> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests.
> Questions based on visual representations are clearly unfair to
> students who are blind or have various visual impairments but they may
> also be unfair to sighted students if they obscure the students' lack of
real understanding.
>
> The CAST organization has a number of US government supported research
> programs aimed at Universal Design for Learning. They have not to my
> knowledge addressed the problem of testing. Here is a link to their
> website if you want to read more about UDL and/or contact them.
>
> http://www.cast.org/index.html
>
> Best wishes,
> SusanJ
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
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> Blindmath:
>
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> mail.com
>
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------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 10:01:25 -0600
From: sabra1023 <sabra1023 at gmail.com>
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
standardized tests of math
Message-ID: <54AA0954-35E1-4577-BB7B-38C053ECC6D0 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Even on the standardized test, it's not fair for a blind person to have to
interpret 2-D representation of a 3-D object when that entire representation
is based on a lifelong visual perception. I don't like those tests much, but
their makers care about whether they're biased toward all manner of minority
group, but apparently don't care if they're fair for blind people.
> On Nov 24, 2013, at 9:10 AM, "Lewicki, Maureen" <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>
wrote:
>
> I agree, Susan about this: " a growing disconnect between
>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
>> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests."
Essentially we can 'thank' the developers of Common Core for the disconnect!
>
> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
> Teacher of Visually Impaired
> Bethlehem Central School
> 332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
> http://bethlehemschools.org
> (518) 439-7460
> Fax (518) 475-0092
> "The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
> problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists. If
> a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can
> be reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> David Tseng
> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 6:01 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
> standardized tests of math
>
> I agree with you on your general point that there's issues in the way
blind students are taught math today.
>
> Teachers and VI specialists take on the task of creative ways to represent
information to a blind student if the student is lucky. However, the quality
of this "creativity" varies wildly amongst educators. You get even more
variation when you get to university where professors can have all sorts of
competing priorities and demands on their time.
>
> With that said, to address your specific point, I firmly believe
visualization is quite important when dealing with math. Many concepts (i.e.
the derivative), have an intuitive definition only obtained by visual means.
> Graphing functions is another way to understand relationships between two
sets of numbers (or three in the case of three variables, and so on).
>
> The challenge lies in the way blind students should be taught and tested.
> It doesn't change the usefulness of picturing a graph. Going through the
steps of plotting helps reinforce the aspects of functions that can seem
"abstract" when only staring at an equation.
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Susan Jolly
<easjolly at ix.netcom.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm commenting as a "sightling."
>>
>> I'm retired from a successful career involving applied math and
>> computational math. I started out as a high school chemistry teacher
>> and then went to graduate school to get a degree in computational
>> (theoretical) chemistry. I can't ever remember having to plot by
>> hand a function of two variables either as a student or in my career
>> and I've had very little need to even interpret a plane projection of
>> a such a function. I do not consider this an important general "math
>> skill". It is, rather, something someone can learn when necessary.
>>
>> From the latest discussion on this list and also from reading about
>> math education it seems to me there is a growing disconnect between
>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
>> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests.
>> Questions based on visual representations are clearly unfair to
>> students who are blind or have various visual impairments but they
>> may also be unfair to sighted students if they obscure the students' lack
of real understanding.
>>
>> The CAST organization has a number of US government supported
>> research programs aimed at Universal Design for Learning. They have
>> not to my knowledge addressed the problem of testing. Here is a link
>> to their website if you want to read more about UDL and/or contact them.
>>
>> http://www.cast.org/index.html
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> SusanJ
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blindmath mailing list
>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> Blindmath:
>>
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/davidct1209%40
>> g
>> mail.com
> _______________________________________________
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Blindmath:
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>
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> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
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Blindmath:
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> il.com
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:04:15 +0000
From: "Wheatley, Richard" <r.wheatley2 at lancaster.ac.uk>
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] An issue with JAWS and Wolfram Alpha -- how
canthisbe resolved?
Message-ID:
<85C2956260657F48A7323F5433C66D8E03832F at AM2PRD0411MB411.eurprd04.prod.outloo
k.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Have you tried m.wolframalpha, I have just been introduced to wolframalpha
recently and couldn't make it work, and some -one told me about this chat
room and here's where I found out about the mobile version, I haven't tested
it as much as I should have but from what work I have got round to with it,
it works.
Cheers
Richard
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Petr
Par?zek
Sent: 24 November 2013 11:30
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] An issue with JAWS and Wolfram Alpha -- how
canthisbe resolved?
I wrote:
> Sadly, I'm only able to read the desired solutions in IE and not in
> other browsers.
To be more precise, I'm only able to click the links to the solutions in IE
and not in other browsers.
Petr
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er.ac.uk
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 09:44:31 -1000
From: Susan Jolly <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindmath] When accommodation is meaningless
Message-ID: <199AAC77-D1E4-4AEF-AA2C-25695B86101B at ix.netcom.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Thanks so much to the commenter who pointed out the unfairness of testing
blind students on perspective drawings. This is a very serious unfairness.
I've been trying to read the latest research on test accommodations. The
fancy language is that the goal is to minimize construct-irrelevant demands.
The construct is what you are actually trying to test for. An example of a
construct is knowing the capital of Texas. A construct-irrelevant demand
would be having to read the question in print. That is, using speech or
braille or some other means to ask the question of students who can't read
print is an example of avoiding the irrelevant demand.
http://padi-se.sri.com/publications.html
I am now beginning to appreciate that there are constructs that are being
tested for where the problem is that there is NO possible accommodation for
persons with certain disabilities. This is because the nature of the
disability is such that it is intrinsically impossible (or unreasonably
difficult) for the person to deal with the construct. It is sad that this
problem hasn't already been addressed and can lead to unnecessarily
discouraging competent persons. I plan to try to explain this in more
detail and then write to the reseachers in hopes of getting them to address
it.
Sincerely,
SusanJ
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 14:36:21 -0600
From: "Amanda Lacy" <lacy925 at gmail.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] When accommodation is meaningless
Message-ID: <95B94C74662748DCB9AE118EC3F27560 at DD4DJCK1>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
There were times when I couldn't understand what I was being tested for. One
incident from more than ten years ago sticks in my mind. The question simply
read, "where is the water?" Underneath were choices A through D, each one
being a small set of irregular lines. In cases like that my Braille teacher
told me just to guess an answer. Someone later suggested to me that the
choices might have been small sections of maps, but every tactile map I'd
ever been exposed to had a key and/or Braille labels so I could identify
things like water. These shapes were not labeled. So, what are testers
looking for in situations like that? I thought the basics were things like
math and reading comprehension.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Jolly" <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>
To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 1:44 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] When accommodation is meaningless
> Thanks so much to the commenter who pointed out the unfairness of
> testing blind students on perspective drawings. This is a very
> serious unfairness.
>
> I've been trying to read the latest research on test accommodations.
> The fancy language is that the goal is to minimize
> construct-irrelevant demands. The construct is what you are actually
> trying to test for. An example of a construct is knowing the capital
> of Texas. A construct-irrelevant demand would be having to read the
question in print.
> That is, using speech or braille or some other means to ask the
> question of students who can't read print is an example of avoiding
> the irrelevant demand.
>
> http://padi-se.sri.com/publications.html
>
> I am now beginning to appreciate that there are constructs that are
> being tested for where the problem is that there is NO possible
> accommodation for persons with certain disabilities. This is because
> the nature of the disability is such that it is intrinsically
> impossible (or unreasonably
> difficult) for the person to deal with the construct. It is sad that
> this problem hasn't already been addressed and can lead to
> unnecessarily discouraging competent persons. I plan to try to
> explain this in more detail and then write to the reseachers in hopes
> of getting them to address it.
>
> Sincerely,
> SusanJ
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Blindmath:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/lacy925%40gmail
> .com
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 22:00:39 +0000
From: "Lewicki, Maureen" <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>
To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
standardized tests of math
Message-ID:
<AD0247C3A039BA4B87F37DD2B02CCCEF12429363 at HEX2.mail.neric.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
In the better designed tests which have been put into braille, the
transcriber has the 3 d cube drawn but below the diagram of that is the cube
in six sections...that made so much sense to my students...that is how they
are given in NYS exams anyway..
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Teacher of Visually Impaired
Bethlehem Central School
332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
http://bethlehemschools.org
(518) 439-7460
Fax (518) 475-0092
"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists. If a
blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can be
reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of sabra1023
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 11:01 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Cc: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing standardized
tests of math
Even on the standardized test, it's not fair for a blind person to have to
interpret 2-D representation of a 3-D object when that entire representation
is based on a lifelong visual perception. I don't like those tests much, but
their makers care about whether they're biased toward all manner of minority
group, but apparently don't care if they're fair for blind people.
> On Nov 24, 2013, at 9:10 AM, "Lewicki, Maureen" <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>
wrote:
>
> I agree, Susan about this: " a growing disconnect between
>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
>> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests."
Essentially we can 'thank' the developers of Common Core for the disconnect!
>
> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
> Teacher of Visually Impaired
> Bethlehem Central School
> 332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
> http://bethlehemschools.org
> (518) 439-7460
> Fax (518) 475-0092
> "The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
> problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists. If
> a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can
> be reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> David Tseng
> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 6:01 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
> standardized tests of math
>
> I agree with you on your general point that there's issues in the way
blind students are taught math today.
>
> Teachers and VI specialists take on the task of creative ways to represent
information to a blind student if the student is lucky. However, the quality
of this "creativity" varies wildly amongst educators. You get even more
variation when you get to university where professors can have all sorts of
competing priorities and demands on their time.
>
> With that said, to address your specific point, I firmly believe
visualization is quite important when dealing with math. Many concepts (i.e.
the derivative), have an intuitive definition only obtained by visual means.
> Graphing functions is another way to understand relationships between two
sets of numbers (or three in the case of three variables, and so on).
>
> The challenge lies in the way blind students should be taught and tested.
> It doesn't change the usefulness of picturing a graph. Going through the
steps of plotting helps reinforce the aspects of functions that can seem
"abstract" when only staring at an equation.
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Susan Jolly
<easjolly at ix.netcom.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm commenting as a "sightling."
>>
>> I'm retired from a successful career involving applied math and
>> computational math. I started out as a high school chemistry teacher
>> and then went to graduate school to get a degree in computational
>> (theoretical) chemistry. I can't ever remember having to plot by
>> hand a function of two variables either as a student or in my career
>> and I've had very little need to even interpret a plane projection of
>> a such a function. I do not consider this an important general "math
>> skill". It is, rather, something someone can learn when necessary.
>>
>> From the latest discussion on this list and also from reading about
>> math education it seems to me there is a growing disconnect between
>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be
>> useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests.
>> Questions based on visual representations are clearly unfair to
>> students who are blind or have various visual impairments but they
>> may also be unfair to sighted students if they obscure the students' lack
of real understanding.
>>
>> The CAST organization has a number of US government supported
>> research programs aimed at Universal Design for Learning. They have
>> not to my knowledge addressed the problem of testing. Here is a link
>> to their website if you want to read more about UDL and/or contact them.
>>
>> http://www.cast.org/index.html
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> SusanJ
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blindmath mailing list
>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> Blindmath:
>>
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/davidct1209%40
>> g
>> mail.com
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
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Blindmath:
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> .neric.org
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
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Blindmath:
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> il.com
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------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:46:11 -0500
From: Bente Casile <bente at casilenc.com>
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
standardized tests of math
Message-ID: <9CD536FD-7775-4842-855B-135C6A519FEC at casilenc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
While I agree that there are many misperceptions and problems with the
system, I would like to suggest that we try to look forward in a proactive
way, to work together to develop possible solutions. For those of you who
are blind or low vision please share with us who are sighted and who are
educators. What's works for you? What doesn't work? Did you have teachers
who came up with creative ideas or solutions? Amanda Lacy, I would love to
know more about your 3D shapes for Calc III. I would love to see us grow a
database of best practices so that future students and teachers and parents
can benefit. Just my two cents.
Sent from my iPad
Bente J. Casile
> On Nov 24, 2013, at 11:01 AM, sabra1023 <sabra1023 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Even on the standardized test, it's not fair for a blind person to have to
interpret 2-D representation of a 3-D object when that entire representation
is based on a lifelong visual perception. I don't like those tests much, but
their makers care about whether they're biased toward all manner of minority
group, but apparently don't care if they're fair for blind people.
>
>> On Nov 24, 2013, at 9:10 AM, "Lewicki, Maureen" <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>
wrote:
>>
>> I agree, Susan about this: " a growing disconnect between
>>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to
>>> be useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests."
Essentially we can 'thank' the developers of Common Core for the disconnect!
>>
>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>> Teacher of Visually Impaired
>> Bethlehem Central School
>> 332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
>> http://bethlehemschools.org
>> (518) 439-7460
>> Fax (518) 475-0092
>> "The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
>> problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists.
>> If a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness
>> can be reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>> David Tseng
>> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 6:01 PM
>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing
>> standardized tests of math
>>
>> I agree with you on your general point that there's issues in the way
blind students are taught math today.
>>
>> Teachers and VI specialists take on the task of creative ways to
represent information to a blind student if the student is lucky. However,
the quality of this "creativity" varies wildly amongst educators. You get
even more variation when you get to university where professors can have all
sorts of competing priorities and demands on their time.
>>
>> With that said, to address your specific point, I firmly believe
visualization is quite important when dealing with math. Many concepts (i.e.
the derivative), have an intuitive definition only obtained by visual means.
>> Graphing functions is another way to understand relationships between two
sets of numbers (or three in the case of three variables, and so on).
>>
>> The challenge lies in the way blind students should be taught and tested.
>> It doesn't change the usefulness of picturing a graph. Going through the
steps of plotting helps reinforce the aspects of functions that can seem
"abstract" when only staring at an equation.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Susan Jolly
<easjolly at ix.netcom.com>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I'm commenting as a "sightling."
>>>
>>> I'm retired from a successful career involving applied math and
>>> computational math. I started out as a high school chemistry
>>> teacher and then went to graduate school to get a degree in
>>> computational
>>> (theoretical) chemistry. I can't ever remember having to plot by
>>> hand a function of two variables either as a student or in my career
>>> and I've had very little need to even interpret a plane projection
>>> of a such a function. I do not consider this an important general
>>> "math skill". It is, rather, something someone can learn when
necessary.
>>>
>>> From the latest discussion on this list and also from reading about
>>> math education it seems to me there is a growing disconnect between
>>> the math knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to
>>> be useful and the math questions that show up on standardized tests.
>>> Questions based on visual representations are clearly unfair to
>>> students who are blind or have various visual impairments but they
>>> may also be unfair to sighted students if they obscure the students'
lack of real understanding.
>>>
>>> The CAST organization has a number of US government supported
>>> research programs aimed at Universal Design for Learning. They have
>>> not to my knowledge addressed the problem of testing. Here is a
>>> link to their website if you want to read more about UDL and/or contact
them.
>>>
>>> http://www.cast.org/index.html
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> SusanJ
>>>
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>>> for
>>> Blindmath:
>>>
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/davidct1209%4
>>> 0g
>>> mail.com
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