Provides instructional tools and methods to help teachers understand various problem solving strategies and discusses how to use each strategy with students.
Dig into problem solving and reflect on current teaching practices with this exceptional resource. Meaningful instructional tools and methods are provided to help teachers understand each problem solving strategy and how to use it with their students. Teachers are given opportunities to practice problems themselves and reflect on how they can better integrate problem solving into their instruction. This resource supports College and Career Readiness Standards.
The term problem-solving sounds scary. Who wants problems? Why do we want to subject ourselves and youngsters to problems? The word problem comes from the word probe, meaning inquiry. Inquiry is a much friendlier idea. Rather than attack a problem that has been given to us, let us accept an invitation to inquire into and to explore an interesting opportunity. Even toddlers can excel at inquiring, exploring, and investigating the world around them!PROBLEM-SOLVING TECHNIQUESSuccessful FlailingDo SomethingWishful ThinkingThe Power of DrawingMake It SmallEliminate Incorrect ChoicesPerseverance Is KeySecond-Guess the AuthorAvoid Hard WorkGo to the Xtremes
In this new book from popular math consultant and bestselling author Dr. Nicki Newton, you’ll learn how to help students become more effective and confident problem solvers. Problem solving is a necessary skill for the 21st century but can be overwhelming for both teachers and students. Dr. Newton shows how to make word problems more engaging and relatable, how to scaffold them and help students with math language, how to implement collaborative groups for problem solving, how to assess student progress, and much more. Topics include: Incorporating problem solving throughout the math block, connecting problems to students’ real lives, and teaching students to persevere; Unpacking word problems across the curriculum and making them more comprehensible to students; Scaffolding word problems so that students can organize all the pieces in doable ways; Helping students navigate the complex language in a word problem; Showing students how to reason about, model, and discuss word problems; Using fun mini-lessons to engage students in the premise of a word problem; Implementing collaborative structures, such as math literature circles, to engage students in problem solving; Getting the whole school involved in a problem-solving challenge to promote schoolwide effort and engagement; and Incorporating assessment to see where students are and help them get to the next level. Each chapter offers examples, charts, and tools that you can use immediately. The book also features an action plan so that you can confidently move forward and implement the book’s ideas in your own classroom. Free accompanying resources are provided on the author's website, www.drnickinewton.com.
This invaluable resource provides teachers with the tools they need to facilitate mathematical discourse and create opportunities for students to think constructively, communicate effectively, and increase mathematics proficiency. This book will help teachers develop a new set of pedagogical skills and strategies to assess, plan, and organize their classrooms in a manner that is conducive to mathematical discourse. With helpful tips and strategies that are easy to implement, this standards-based book supports an equitable learning environment by encouraging active listening, clear communication, justification of perspective, and acknowledgement of students' experiences. Each chapter includes Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning strategies to address cultural norms for diverse populations, and support the needs of English language learners. With tips for implementing Math Talks and Number Talks, this resource will get students thinking like mathematicians in no time.
This second edition is a must-read for today's mathematics teachers offering research-based strategies and best practices that are critical and highly effective in mathematics instruction. This invaluable resource provides practical suggestions, resources, and templates to support the areas of classroom management, instructional planning, content and practice standard implementation, assessment, and differentiation, as well as methods to build students' conceptual understanding. It also guides teachers in using the Professional Learning Community model effectively in order to support professional growth and student achievement. With a focus on student thinking and learning, this book is an essential guide for all educators.
With this seventh volume, as part of the series of yearbooks by the Association of Mathematics Educators in Singapore, we aim to provide a range of learning experiences and teaching strategies that mathematics teachers can judiciously select and adapt in order to deliver effective lessons to their students at the primary to secondary level. Our ultimate goal is to develop successful problem solvers who are able to understand concepts, master fundamental skills, reason logically, apply mathematics, enjoy learning, and strategise their thinking. These qualities will prepare students for life-long learning and careers in the 21st century.The materials covered are derived from psychological theories, education praxis, research findings, and mathematics discourse, mediated by the author's professional experiences in mathematics education in four countries over the past four decades. They are organised into ten chapters aligned with the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework to help teachers and educators from Singapore and other countries deepen their understanding about the so-called 'Singapore Maths'.The book strikes a balance between mathematical rigour and pedagogical diversity, without rigid adherence to either. This is relevant to the current discussion about the relative roles of mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in effective teaching. It also encourages teachers to develop their own philosophy and teaching styles so that their lessons are effective, efficient, and enjoyable to teach.
This book is an amazing resource for teachers who are struggling to help students develop both procedural fluency and conceptual understanding.. --Dr. Margaret (Peg) Smith, co-author of5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions Robert Kaplinsky, the co-creator of Open Middle math problems, brings hisnew class of tasks designed to stimulate deeper thinking and lively discussion among middle and high school students in Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grades 6-12. The problems are characterized by a closed beginning,- meaning all students start with the same initial problem, and a closed end,- meaning there is only one correct or optimal answer. The key is that the middle is open- in the sense that there are multiple ways to approach and ultimately solve the problem. These tasks have proven enormously popular with teachers looking to assess and deepen student understanding, build student stamina, and energize their classrooms. Professional Learning Resource for Teachers: Open Middle Math is an indispensable resource for educators interested in teaching student-centered mathematics in middle and high schools consistent with the national and state standards. Sample Problems at Each Grade: The book demonstrates the Open Middle concept with sample problems ranging from dividing fractions at 6th grade to algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Teaching Tips for Student-Centered Math Classrooms: Kaplinsky shares guidance on choosing problems, designing your own math problems, and teaching for multiple purposes, including formative assessment, identifying misconceptions, procedural fluency, and conceptual understanding. Adaptable and Accessible Math: The tasks can be solved using various strategies at different levels of sophistication, which means all students can access the problems and participate in the conversation. Open Middle Math will help math teachers transform the 6th -12th grade classroom into an environment focused on problem solving, student dialogue, and critical thinking.
Why is math so hard? And why, despite this difficulty, are some people so good at it? If there's some inborn capacity for mathematical thinking—which there must be, otherwise no one could do it —why can't we all do it well? Keith Devlin has answers to all these difficult questions, and in giving them shows us how mathematical ability evolved, why it's a part of language ability, and how we can make better use of this innate talent.He also offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development—that language evolved in two stages, and its main purpose was not communication—to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the emergence of true language. Why, then, can't we do math as well as we can speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we can and do—we just don't recognize when we're using mathematical reasoning.
This book take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess project based learning (PBL) using a classroom-tested framework. Also included are chapters for school leaders on implementing PBL system wide and the use of PBL in informal settings.