Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching Grades K-2

(Communicate the Context Behind High-Cognitive-Demand Tasks for Purposeful, Productive Learning)

Develop a deep understanding of mathematics. This user-friendly resource presents grades K–2 teachers with a logical progression of pedagogical actions, classroom norms, and collaborative teacher team efforts to increase their knowledge and improve mathematics instruction. Explore strategies and techniques to effectively learn and teach significant mathematics concepts and provide all students with the precise, accurate information they need to achieve academic success. Clarify math essentials with figures and tables that facilitate understanding through visualization.

Benefits

• Dig deep into mathematical modeling and reasoning to improve as both a learner and teacher of mathematics.
• Explore how to develop, select, and modify mathematics tasks in order to balance cognitive demand and engage students.
• Discover the three important norms to uphold in all mathematics classrooms.
• Learn to apply the tasks, questioning, and evidence (TQE) process to ensure mathematics instruction is focused, coherent, and rigorous.
• Use charts and diagrams for classifying shapes, which can engage students in important mathematical practices.
• Access short videos that show what classrooms that are developing mathematical understanding should look like.

Contents

Introduction

1              Number Concepts and Place Value

2              Word Problem Structures

3              Addition and Subtraction Using Counting Strategies

4              Addition and Subtraction Using Grouping Strategies

5              Geometry

6              Measurement

Epilogue               Next Steps

Appendix A         Completed Classification of Triangles Chart

Appendix B         Completed Diagram for Classifying Quadrilaterals