Making Math Meaningful To Canadian Students K 8

This remarkable book shows teachers how to stop working harder and start working smarter. It describes a shift from “teach-test-move-on” to “teach-connect-apply” to optimize student learning. This valuable resource provides teachers with an understanding of simple, manageable, and sustainable strategies to change their approach immediately. These strategies build on helping students retain math concepts so they can apply them in novel situations down the road. The focus is on supporting teachers in framing instruction so that students strengthen their understanding, and can remember and apply learning. Making Math Stick is a game-changer that champions durable learning for all students.

The pressure is on. Principals, expected to improve math performance at their schools, often don’t know where to begin—as they may be uncomfortable with math themselves or believe that their schools are already doing all that they can. How can K–12 school leaders recognize and ensure that their school or district is supporting good math instruction? Marian Small and Doug Duff provide the answer to that and other questions in The School Leader’s Guide to Building and Sustaining Math Success. Drawing on their vast experience working with administrators, Small and Duff provide practical advice and helpful tools for improving math instruction. They guide you through the initial steps of establishing a strong math culture, developing common tasks, and getting buy-in, and then offer specific suggestions for monitoring, supporting, and sustaining improvement. You’ll learn what sort of data to collect, what to look for in the classroom, what to listen for in conversations with teachers and students, and how to deal with reluctant staff or parents. With its real-world examples and insights, this book is essential reading for any principal who wants to bring about positive change and real growth in the teaching and learning of math in their school.

How can you broaden student thinking and help them develop their independence and confidence as problem solvers? Real-life problems are a remarkable tool to stretch student thinking and help them develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and its role in everyday life. Rather than using textbook exercises, the book argues that solving real-world problems promotes flexibility and encourages students to adjust and grow their thinking. It inspires them to consider alternatives and apply math in authentic contexts. You will find practical ways to engage students in critical thinking, develop their independence, and make connections with the world.

Although proportional reasoning is not formally introduced as a topic in the Common Core and other mathematics curricula until 6th grade, introducing its fundamental ideas in the early grades helps students develop essential skills in ratios, percentages, and other proportional representations when they reach the upper grades. The author takes this complex subject and crafts examples and questions that help teachers see the larger purpose in teaching concepts, such as unitizing, and how that understanding is essential for more complex ideas, such as ratios. Teachers and vertical teams can see how the concepts can build year after year. This new resource by well-known professional developer Marian Small suggests questions that are both interesting for students and useful for providing diagnostic information to teachers. Chapters are organized by grade level (K-8) around the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics to help teachers use the resource more easily.

In the second book in the Uncomplicating Mathematics Series, professional developer Marian Small shows teachers how to uncomplicate the teaching of algebra by focusing on the most important ideas that students need to grasp. Organized by grade level around the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, Small shares approaches that will lead to a deeper and richer understanding of algebra for both teachers and students. The book opens with a clear discussion of algebraic thinking and current requirements for algebraic understanding within standards-based learning environments. The book then launches with Kindergarten, where the first relevant standard is found in the operations and algebraic thinking domain, and ends with Grade 8, where the focus is on working with linear equations and functions. In each section the relevant standard is presented, followed by a discussion of important underlying ideas associated with that standard, as well as thoughtful, concept-based questions that can be used for classroom instruction, practice, or assessment. Underlying ideas include: Background to the mathematics of each relevant standard. Suggestions for appropriate representations for specific mathematical ideas. Suggestions for explaining ideas to students. Cautions about misconceptions or situations to avoid. The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics challenges students to become mathematical thinkers, not just mathematical “doers.” This resource will be invaluable for pre- and inservice teachers as they prepare themselves to understand and teach algebra with a deep level of understanding. “Uncomplicating Algebra is an excellent resource for teachers responsible for the mathematical education of K–8 students. It is also a valuable tool for the training of preservice teachers of elementary and middle school mathematics.” —Carole Greenes, associate vice provost for STEM education, director of the Practice Research and Innovation in Mathematics Education (PRIME) Center, professor of mathematics education, Arizona State University “The current climate in North America places a major emphasis on standards, including the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in the U.S. In many cases, teachers are being asked to teach content with which they themselves struggle. In this book, Dr. Small masterfully breaks down the big ideas of algebraic thinking to assist teachers, math coaches, and preservice teachers—helping them to deepen their own understanding of the mathematics they teach. She describes common error patterns and examines algebraic reasoning from a developmental viewpoint, connecting the dots from kindergarten through grade 8. The book is clearly written, loaded with specific examples, and very timely. I recommend it strongly as a ‘must-read’ for all who are seeking to broaden their understanding of algebra and how to effectively teach this important content area to children.” —Daniel J. Brahier, director, Science and Math Education in ACTION, professor of mathematics education, School of Teaching and Learning, Bowling Green State University

Focus on “moving” the teaching and learning of mathematics by shifting instruction and assessment practices. This unique book uses critical thinking skills — inferring and interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, making connections, synthesizing, reasoning and proving, and reflecting — to help students make sense of mathematical concepts and support numeracy.