This book is designed for a mathematics for elementary school teachers course where instructors choose to focus on and/or take an activities approach to learning. It provides inductive activities for prospective elementary school teachers and incorporates the use of physical models, manipulatives, and visual images to develop concepts and encourage higher-level thinking. This text contains an activity set that corresponds to each section of the companion text, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach which is also by Bennett/Nelson. The Activities Approach text can be used independently or along with its companion volume. The authors are pleased to welcome Laurie Burton, PhD, Western Oregon University to this edition of Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: An Activity Approach.
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.
Textbook on numbers, arithmetic, and prealgebra for elementary school mathematics teachers. Designed to be used with five Primary Mathematics books (textbooks 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, and workbook 5A; all U.S. ed.), part of an elementary mathematics curriculum designed by Singapore's Ministry of Education and adapted for use in the U.S.
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.
Making mathematics concepts understandable is a challenge for any teacher--a challenge that's more complex when a classroom includes students with learning difficulties. With this highly practical resource, educators will have just what they need to teach mathematics with confidence: research-based strategies that really work with students who have learning disabilities, ADHD, or mild cognitive disabilities. This urgently needed guidebook helps teachers Understand why students struggle.Teachers will discover how the common learning characteristics of students with learning difficulties create barriers to understanding mathematics. Review the Big Ideas. Are teachers focusing on the right things? A helpful primer on major NCTM-endorsed mathematical concepts and processes helps them be sure. Directly address students' learning barriers. With the lesson plans, practical strategies, photocopiable information-gathering forms, and online strategies in action, teachers will have concrete ways to help students grasp mathematical concepts, improve their proficiency, and generalize knowledge in multiple contexts. Check their own strengths and needs. Educators will reflect critically on their current practices with a thought-provoking questionnaire. With this timely book--filled with invaluable ideas and strategies adaptable for grades K-12--educators will know just what to teach and how to teach it to students with learning difficulties.
Results from national and international assessments indicate that school children in the United States are not learning mathematics well enough. Many students cannot correctly apply computational algorithms to solve problems. Their understanding and use of decimals and fractions are especially weak. Indeed, helping all children succeed in mathematics is an imperative national goal. However, for our youth to succeed, we need to change how we're teaching this discipline. Helping Children Learn Mathematics provides comprehensive and reliable information that will guide efforts to improve school mathematics from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The authors explain the five strands of mathematical proficiency and discuss the major changes that need to be made in mathematics instruction, instructional materials, assessments, teacher education, and the broader educational system and answers some of the frequently asked questions when it comes to mathematics instruction. The book concludes by providing recommended actions for parents and caregivers, teachers, administrators, and policy makers, stressing the importance that everyone work together to ensure a mathematically literate society.
Freitag's MATHEMATICS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: A PROCESS APPROACH was developed using the five Content Standards from the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Traditionally, books for pre-service elementary teachers have focused on problem solving. However, problem solving is not the only process through which mathematics is learned. It is also learned through mathematical reasoning, communication, representation, and connections. Recent trends in mathematics education now advocate implementing all five processes as a vital part of learning and doing mathematics. Consequently, you need to have concrete experiences with these processes that you will be required to teach. The goal of this book is to treat each of the processes equitably by using an approach in which the five processes serve as the central pedagogical theme. Most of the examples, exercises, and activities are designed to either model the processes or to directly engage you in working with them. As a result, you will not only come to understand the different processes, but also appreciate them as an integral to learning and doing mathematics. If this broader view can be instilled, you are more likely to give your students a more well-rounded and holistic view of mathematics once you enter the classroom. The content of the book is directly related to the mathematics that is taught in grades K - 8. The purpose is not to reteach elementary mathematics. Rather, the intent is to look at the content from a theoretical or generalized point of view, so that you can better understand the concepts and processes behind the mathematics you will teach. In short, the book focuses on the why behind the mathematics in addition to the how. Available with InfoTrac Student Collections http://gocengage.com/infotrac. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Teaching our children to think and reason mathematically is a challenge, not because students can't learn to think mathematically, but because we must change our own often deeply-rooted teaching habits. This is where instructional routines come in. Their predictable design and repeatable nature support both teachers and students to develop new habits. In Teaching for Thinking, Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta pick up where their first book, Routines for Reasoning, left off. They draw on their years of experience in the classroom and as instructional coaches to examine how educators can make use of routines to make three fundamental shifts in teaching practice: Focus on thinking: Shift attention away from students' answers and toward their thinking and reasoning Step out of the middle: Shift the balance from teacher-student interactions toward student-student interactions Support productive struggle: Help students do the hard thinking work that leads to real learning With three complete new routines, support for designing your own routine, and ideas for using routines in your professional learning as well as in your classroom teaching, Teaching for Thinking will help you build new teaching habits that will support all your students to become and see themselves as capable mathematicians.
