Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics


Book Description

Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by recent reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts. The anniversary edition of this bestselling volume includes the original studies that compare U.S and Chinese elementary school teachers’ mathematical understanding and offers a powerful framework for grasping the mathematical content necessary to understand and develop the thinking of school children. Highlighting notable changes in the field and the author’s work, this new edition includes an updated preface, introduction, and key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.




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?




Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics


Book Description

This is a textbook for pre-service elementary school teachers and for current teachers who are taking professional development courses. By emphasizing the precision of mathematics, the exposition achieves a logical and coherent account of school mathematics at the appropriate level for the readership. Wu provides a comprehensive treatment of all the standard topics about numbers in the school mathematics curriculum: whole numbers, fractions, and rational numbers. Assuming no previous knowledge of mathematics, the presentation develops the basic facts about numbers from the beginning and thoroughly covers the subject matter for grades K through 7. Every single assertion is established in the context of elementary school mathematics in a manner that is completely consistent with the basic requirements of mathematics. While it is a textbook for pre-service elementary teachers, it is also a reference book that school teachers can refer to for explanations of well-known but hitherto unexplained facts. For example, the sometimes-puzzling concepts of percent, ratio, and rate are each given a treatment that is down to earth and devoid of mysticism. The fact that a negative times a negative is a positive is explained in a leisurely and comprehensible fashion.




Partnering With Parents in Elementary School Math


Book Description

How to build productive relationships in math education I wasn’t taught this way. I can’t help my child! These are common refrains from today’s parents and guardians, who are often overwhelmed, confused, worried, and frustrated about how to best support their children with what they see as the "new math." The problem has been compounded by the shift to more distance learning in response to a global pandemic. Partnering With Parents in Elementary School Math provides educators with long overdue guidance on how to productively partner and communicate with families about their children’s mathematics learning. It includes reproducible surveys, letters, and planning documents that can be used to improve the home-school relationship, which in turn helps students, parents, teachers, and education leaders alike. Readers will find guidance on how to: · Understand and empathize with what fuels parents’ anxieties and concerns · Align as a school and set parents’ expectations about what math instruction their children will experience and how it will help them · Communicate clearly and productively with parents about their students’ progress, strengths, and needs in math · Run informative and fun family events · support homework · Coach parents to portray a productive disposition about math in front of their children Educators, families, and students are best served when proactive, productive, and healthy relationships have been developed with each other and with the realities of today′s math education. This guide shows how these relationships can be built.




Elementary School Mathematics For Parents And Teachers - Volume 2


Book Description

'The exposition is exceptionally clear, and keeps its audience in mind: in the end, this is ‘a book for adults on mathematics for children’. ‘Adults’ here includes parents as well as teachers; in the author’s words, ‘Every parent is automatically an educator!’ There is considerable merit in including parents in the elementary mathematics conversation; it is a pleasure to see books like Kupferman’s that explain elementary math to adults. If our students, in their future role as teachers, can enlist parents as allies, everyone will benefit. These books are one good way to begin addressing that challenge.'MAA ReviewsThis book covers the elementary school mathematics curriculum common in most parts of the world. Its aim is to serve educators (teachers and parents) as a guide for teaching mathematics at elementary school level. The book focuses both on content knowledge and on pedagogical content knowledge. It bridges the gap between fundamental mathematical principles and good teaching practices. It also offers the reader a glimpse on how mathematicians perceive elementary mathematics and presents ideas for specific mathematical activities.Volume 2 focuses on content taught in the higher grades of elementary school. It covers the following topics: multiplication and division of multi-digit numbers, divisibility and primality, divisibility signs, sequences, fractions and their representations, and fraction arithmetic.The author is also a co-founder of Matific, an adaptive game-based teaching and learning tool for primary school mathematics. Independent studies have shown Matific to improve test scores, reduce maths anxiety, and increase motivation. Matific is available in 26 languages and aligned to mathematics curricula in 46 countries. Awards include Best Mathematics Instructional Solution, Best Game-Based Curriculum Solution and Best Educational App. For a trial, visit https://www.matific.com.




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.




Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12


Book Description

Selected as the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics winter book club book! Rich tasks, collaborative work, number talks, problem-based learning, direct instruction...with so many possible approaches, how do we know which ones work the best? In Visible Learning for Mathematics, six acclaimed educators assert it’s not about which one—it’s about when—and show you how to design high-impact instruction so all students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of mathematics learning for a year spent in school. That’s a high bar, but with the amazing K-12 framework here, you choose the right approach at the right time, depending upon where learners are within three phases of learning: surface, deep, and transfer. This results in "visible" learning because the effect is tangible. The framework is forged out of current research in mathematics combined with John Hattie’s synthesis of more than 15 years of education research involving 300 million students. Chapter by chapter, and equipped with video clips, planning tools, rubrics, and templates, you get the inside track on which instructional strategies to use at each phase of the learning cycle: Surface learning phase: When—through carefully constructed experiences—students explore new concepts and make connections to procedural skills and vocabulary that give shape to developing conceptual understandings. Deep learning phase: When—through the solving of rich high-cognitive tasks and rigorous discussion—students make connections among conceptual ideas, form mathematical generalizations, and apply and practice procedural skills with fluency. Transfer phase: When students can independently think through more complex mathematics, and can plan, investigate, and elaborate as they apply what they know to new mathematical situations. To equip students for higher-level mathematics learning, we have to be clear about where students are, where they need to go, and what it looks like when they get there. Visible Learning for Math brings about powerful, precision teaching for K-12 through intentionally designed guided, collaborative, and independent learning.




Teaching Elementary Mathematics to Struggling Learners


Book Description

Packed with effective instructional strategies, this book explores why certain K-5 students struggle with math and provides a framework for helping these learners succeed. The authors present empirically validated practices for supporting students with disabilities and others experiencing difficulties in specific areas of math, including problem solving, early numeracy, whole-number operations, fractions, geometry, and algebra. Concrete examples, easy-to-implement lesson-planning ideas, and connections to state standards, in particular the Common Core standards, enhance the book's utility. Also provided is invaluable guidance on planning and delivering multi-tiered instruction and intervention.







Success from the Start


Book Description

This book highlights how students learn math and the pedagogy behind it. Using vignettes based on real classroom discussions, the authors illustrate effective teaching practices to support math learning. Success from the Start: Your First Years Teaching Elementary Mathematics acts as a supportive and reassuring companion that you can return to throughout your journey as an elementary mathematics teacher. As a beginning elementary mathematics teacher you might already be asking yourself these questions: How can I differentiate my teaching to meet the diverse needs of my students? What assessments best advance student learning? How can students understand math if I do not show them different strategies and tell them about the underlying mathematical structures and properties? What advice do I give parents about how to support their children’s math learning?