Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning, Grades K-8


Book Description

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet. Fluency in mathematics is more than adeptly using basic facts or implementing algorithms. Real fluency involves reasoning and creativity, and it varies by the situation at hand. Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offers educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency, along with a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a fluency approach. In a friendly and accessible style, this hands-on guide empowers educators to support students in acquiring the repertoire of reasoning strategies necessary to becoming versatile and nimble mathematical thinkers. It includes: "Seven Significant Strategies" to teach to students as they work toward procedural fluency. Activities, fluency routines, and games that encourage learning the efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy essential to real fluency. Reflection questions, connections to mathematical standards, and techniques for assessing all components of fluency. Suggestions for engaging families in understanding and supporting fluency. Fluency is more than a toolbox of strategies to choose from; it’s also a matter of equity and access for all learners. Give your students the knowledge and power to become confident mathematical thinkers.




Figuring Out Fluency - Addition and Subtraction with Whole Numbers


Book Description

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet. The landmark book Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offered educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency, along with a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a fluency approach. Now, teachers have the chance to apply that inspiration through explicit instruction and practice every day with the classroom companion Figuring Out Fluency: Addition and Subtraction with Whole Numbers. With this book, teachers can: - Dive deeper into the Significant Strategies for fluency explained in the anchor book - Learn how these strategies grow from and relate to the basic fact strategies children learn - Access over 100 strategy-aligned and classroom-ready activities for fluency instruction and practice in adding and subtracting multi-digit whole numbers, including worked examples, routines, games, and centers - Find activities for assessing all components of addition and subtraction fluency plus support for engaging families - Download all of the needed support tools, game boards, and other resources from the companion website for immediate implementation.




Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12


Book Description

A thinking student is an engaged student Teachers often find it difficult to implement lessons that help students go beyond rote memorization and repetitive calculations. In fact, institutional norms and habits that permeate all classrooms can actually be enabling "non-thinking" student behavior. Sparked by observing teachers struggle to implement rich mathematics tasks to engage students in deep thinking, Peter Liljedahl has translated his 15 years of research into this practical guide on how to move toward a thinking classroom. Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K–12 helps teachers implement 14 optimal practices for thinking that create an ideal setting for deep mathematics learning to occur. This guide Provides the what, why, and how of each practice and answers teachers’ most frequently asked questions Includes firsthand accounts of how these practices foster thinking through teacher and student interviews and student work samples Offers a plethora of macro moves, micro moves, and rich tasks to get started Organizes the 14 practices into four toolkits that can be implemented in order and built on throughout the year When combined, these unique research-based practices create the optimal conditions for learner-centered, student-owned deep mathematical thinking and learning, and have the power to transform mathematics classrooms like never before.




Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning in Mathematics


Book Description

"This book is a game changer! Strengths-Based Teaching and Learning in Mathematics: 5 Teaching Turnarounds for Grades K- 6 goes beyond simply providing information by sharing a pathway for changing practice. . . Focusing on our students’ strengths should be routine and can be lost in the day-to-day teaching demands. A teacher using these approaches can change the trajectory of students’ lives forever. All teachers need this resource! Connie S. Schrock Emporia State University National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics President, 2017-2019 NEW COVID RESOURCES ADDED: A Parent’s Toolkit to Strengths-Based Learning in Math is now available on the book’s companion website to support families engaged in math learning at home. This toolkit provides a variety of home-based activities and games for families to engage in together. Your game plan for unlocking mathematics by focusing on students’ strengths. We often evaluate student thinking and their work from a deficit point of view, particularly in mathematics, where many teachers have been taught that their role is to diagnose and eradicate students’ misconceptions. But what if instead of focusing on what students don’t know or haven’t mastered, we identify their mathematical strengths and build next instructional steps on students’ points of power? Beth McCord Kobett and Karen S. Karp answer this question and others by highlighting five key teaching turnarounds for improving students’ mathematics learning: identify teaching strengths, discover and leverage students’ strengths, design instruction from a strengths-based perspective, help students identify their points of power, and promote strengths in the school community and at home. Each chapter provides opportunities to stop and consider current practice, reflect, and transfer practice while also sharing · Downloadable resources, activities, and tools · Examples of student work within Grades K–6 · Real teachers’ notes and reflections for discussion It’s time to turn around our approach to mathematics instruction, end deficit thinking, and nurture each student’s mathematical strengths by emphasizing what makes them each unique and powerful.




Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Math


Book Description

Your guide to grow and learn as a math teacher! Let’s face it, teaching elementary math can be hard. So much about how we teach math today may look and feel different from how we learned it. Today, we recognize placing the student at the center of their learning increases engagement, motivation, and academic achievement soars. Teaching math in a student-centered way changes the role of the teacher from one who traditionally “delivers knowledge” to one who fosters thinking. Most importantly, we must ensure our practice gives each and every student the opportunity to learn, grow, and achieve at high levels, while providing opportunities to develop their agency and authority in the classroom which results in a positive math identity. Whether you are a brand new teacher or a veteran, if you find teaching math to be quite the challenge, this is the guide you want by your side. Designed for just-in-time learning and support, this practical resource gives you brief, actionable answers to your most pressing questions about teaching elementary math. Written by four experienced math educators representing diverse experiences, these authors offer the practical advice they wish they received years ago, from lessons they′ve learned over decades of practice, research, coaching, and through collaborating with teams, teachers and colleagues—especially new teachers—every day. Questions and answers are organized into five areas of effort that will help you most thrive in your elementary math classroom: 1. How do I build a positive math community? 2. How do I structure, organize, and manage my math class? 3. How do I engage my students in math? 4. How do I help my students talk about math? 5. How do I know what my students know and move them forward? Woven throughout, you′ll find helpful sidebar notes on fostering identity and agency; access and equity; teaching in different settings; and invaluable resources for deeper learning. The final question—Where do I go from here?— offers guidance for growing your practice over time. Strive to become the best math educator you can be; your students are counting on it! What will be your first step on the journey?




Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding, Grades K-2


Book Description

Being an effective math educator is one part based on the quality of the tasks we give, one part how we diagnose what we see, and one part what we do with what we find. Yet with so many students and big concepts to cover, it can be hard to slow down enough to look for those moments when students’ responses tell us what we need to know about next best steps. In this remarkable book, John SanGiovanni helps us value our young learners’ misconceptions and incomplete understandings as much as their correct ones—because it’s the gap in their understanding today that holds the secrets to planning tomorrow’s best teaching. SanGiovanni lays out 160 high-quality tasks aligned to the standards and big ideas of grades K-2 mathematics, including counting and representing numbers, number relationships and comparison, addition and subtraction within 100 and 1000, money and time, and multiplication and division. The tasks are all downloadable so you can use or modify them for instruction and assessment. Each big idea offers a starting task followed by: what makes it a high-quality taskwhat you might anticipate before students work with the task 4 student examples of the completed task showcasing a distinct "gap" commentary on what precisely counts for mathematical understanding and the next instructional steps commentary on the misconception or incomplete understanding so you learn why the student veered off course three additional tasks aligned to the mathematics topic and ideas about what students might do with these additional tasks. It’s time to break our habit of rushing into re-teaching for correctness and instead get curious about the space between right and wrong answers. Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding is a book you will return to again and again to get better at selecting tasks that will uncover students’ reasoning—better at discerning the quality and clarity of students’ understanding—and better at planning teaching based on the gaps you see.




The Imperfect and Unfinished Math Teacher [Grades K-12]


Book Description

The system won’t do it for us. But we have each other. In The Imperfect and Unfinished Math Teacher: A Journey to Reclaim Our Professional Growth, master storyteller Chase Orton offers a vulnerable and courageous grassroots guide that leads K-12 math teachers through a journey to cultivate a more equitable, inclusive, and cohesive culture of professionalism for themselves...what he calls professional flourishment. The book builds from two bold premises. First, that as educators, we are all naturally imperfect and unfinished, and growth should be our constant goal. Second, that the last 40 years of top-down PD efforts in mathematics have rarely supplied teachers with what they need to equitably grow their practice and foster classrooms that are likewise empowered, inclusive, and cohesive. With gentle humanity, this book inspires teachers to break down silos, observe each others’ classrooms, interrogate their own biases, and put students at the center of everything they do in the math classroom. This book: Weaves raw and authentic stories—both personal and those from other educators—into a relatable and validating narrative Offers interactive opportunities to self-reflect, build relationships, seek new vantage on our teaching by observing others’ classrooms and students, and share and listen to other’s stories and experiences Asks teachers to give and accept grace as they work collaboratively to better themselves and the system from within, so that they can truly serve each of their students authentically and equitably Implementing the beliefs and actions in this book will position teachers to become more active partners in each other’s professional growth so that they can navigate the obstacles in their professional landscape with renewed focus and a greater sense of individual and collective efficacy. It equips teachers—and by extension, their students—to chart their own course and author their own equitable and joyful mathematical and professional stories.




Math Fact Fluency


Book Description

This approach to teaching basic math facts, grounded in years of research, will transform students' learning of basic facts and help them become more confident, adept, and successful at math. Mastering the basic facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division is an essential goal for all students. Most educators also agree that success at higher levels of math hinges on this fundamental skill. But what's the best way to get there? Are flash cards, drills, and timed tests the answer? If so, then why do students go into the upper elementary grades (and beyond) still counting on their fingers or experiencing math anxiety? What does research say about teaching basic math facts so they will stick? In Math Fact Fluency, experts Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling provide the answers to these questions—and so much more. This book offers everything a teacher needs to teach, assess, and communicate with parents about basic math fact instruction, including The five fundamentals of fact fluency, which provide a research-based framework for effective instruction in the basic facts. Strategies students can use to find facts that are not yet committed to memory. More than 40 easy-to-make, easy-to-use games that provide engaging fact practice. More than 20 assessment tools that provide useful data on fact fluency and mastery. Suggestions and strategies for collaborating with families to help their children master the basic math facts. Math Fact Fluency is an indispensable guide for any educator who needs to teach basic math facts.




Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, Grades K-8


Book Description

Using strengths-based approaches to support development in mathematics It’s time to re-imagine what’s possible and celebrate the brilliance multilingual learners bring to today’s classrooms. Innovative teaching strategies can position these learners as leaders in mathematics. Yet, as the number of multilingual learners in North American schools grows, many teachers have not had opportunities to gain the competencies required to teach these learners effectively, especially in disciplines such as mathematics. Multilingual learners—historically called English Language Learners—are expected to interpret the meaning of problems, analyze, make conjectures, evaluate their progress, and discuss and understand their own approaches and the approaches of their peers in mathematics classrooms. Thus, language plays a vital role in mathematics learning, and demonstrating these competencies in a second (or third) language is a challenging endeavor. Based on best practices and the authors’ years of research, this guide offers practical approaches that equip grades K-8 teachers to draw on the strengths of multilingual learners, partner with their families, and position these learners for success. Readers will find: • A focus on multilingual students as leaders • A strength-based approach that draws on students’ life experiences and cultural backgrounds • An emphasis on maintaining high expectations for learners’ capacity for mastering rigorous content • Strategies for representing concepts in different formats • Stop and Think questions throughout and reflection questions at the end of each chapter • Try It! Implementation activities, student work examples, and classroom transcripts With case studies and activities that provide a solid foundation for teachers’ growth and exploration, this groundbreaking book will help teachers and teacher educators engage in meaningful, humanized mathematics instruction.




Teaching Math at a Distance, Grades K-12


Book Description

Make Rich Math Instruction Come to Life Online In an age when distance learning has become part of the "new normal," educators know that rich remote math teaching involves more than direct instruction, online videos, and endless practice problems on virtual worksheets. Using both personal experience and those of teachers in real K-12 online classrooms, distance learning mathematics veteran Theresa Wills translates all we know about research-based, equitable, rigorous face-to-face mathematics instruction into an online venue. This powerful guide equips math teachers to: Build students’ agency, identity, and strong math communities Promote mathematical thinking, collaboration, and discourse Incorporate rich mathematics tasks and assign meaningful homework and practice Facilitate engaging online math instruction using virtual manipulatives and other concrete learning tools Recognize and address equity and inclusion challenges associated with distance learning Assess mathematics learning from a distance With examples across the grades, links to tutorials and templates, and space to reflect and plan, Teaching Math at a Distance offers the support, clarity, and inspiration needed to guide teachers through teaching math remotely without sacrificing deep learning and academic growth.