Math That Matters

Math That Matters
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2019-05-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807761427

In this insightful math resource for grades 3–8, popular professional developer Marian Small helps teachers understand and facilitate meaningful assessments to advance student understandings. Small shows new and veteran teachers how to do three fundamental things well: identify the most important math to assess; construct meaningful assessments—both formative and summative—to measure student understanding; and provide students with feedback that is clear, timely, and specific. Examples for each grade level are provided, along with details on how to pose questions, analyze errors, and help students understand and learn from their mistakes. The book provides specific guidance for when and how to offer feedback on both correct and incorrect answers in order to advance students’ mathematical thinking. Like other Marian Small bestsellers, Math That Matters combines her special brand of lucid explanation of difficult concepts with fresh and engaging activities. “Our understanding of the power of assessment to improve learning has deepened significantly in the past two decades. . . . Marian Small draws upon the critical research behind this understanding to explain what effective practice looks like. It is essential reading for all elementary educators and has the potential to profoundly affect the quality of mathematics assessment in our schools.” —From the Foreword by Damian Cooper, president, Plan Teach Assess “Teachers are often clamoring for concise classroom assessments that can capture students’ conceptual understanding. Clamor no more! Math That Matters is a timely response to that need. Marian Small removes the mystery of how to engage students in learning while collecting assessment data that drive next instructional plans.” —Karen Karp, Johns Hopkins University “The beauty of this book is that it is simple enough for brand new teachers and complex enough for experienced teachers. The author offers an amazing gift by linking assessment ideas directly to common state standards.” —Felicia Darling, Santa Rosa Junior College

Good Questions

Good Questions
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807753130

Expanded to include connections to Common Core State Standards, as well as National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards, this critically acclaimed book will help every teacher and coach to meet the challenges of differentiating mathematics instruction in the K–8 classroom. In this bestseller, math education expert Marian Small explains two powerful and universal strategies that teachers can use across all math content: Open Questions and Parallel Tasks. Showing teachers how to get started and become expert with these strategies, Small also demonstrates more inclusive learning conversations that promote broader student participation and mathematical thinking required by CCSS. Specific strategies and examples for each grade band are organized around NCTM content strands: Number and Operations, Geometry, Measurement, Algebra, and Data Analysis and Probability.

The School Leader’s Guide to Building and Sustaining Math Success

The School Leader’s Guide to Building and Sustaining Math Success
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: ASCD
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2018-07-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1416626387

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.

Eyes on Math

Eyes on Math
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2015-04-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807772364

This new book is an exciting follow-up to the authors’ bestsellers on differentiated math instruction, Good Questions and More Good Questions. Eyes on Math is a unique teaching resource that provides engaging, full-color graphics and pictures with text showing teachers how to use each image to stimulate mathematical teaching conversations around key K–8 concepts. Teachers using the book can download the images for projection onto classroom white boards or screens. The questions and answers will help both students and teachers look more deeply and see the math behind the math! For each of more than 120 visuals, the text identifies the key math concept and the Common Core State Standard being addressed and then provides teachers with: Mathematical background and context.Questions to use with students to lead the instructional conversation.Expected answers and explanations of why each question is important.Follow-up extensions to solidify and assess student understanding. This book will be useful to a broad range of teachers who will find new ways to clarify concepts that students find difficult. It can be used as a resource to prepare teachers for the higher mathematical thinking requirements of the CCSS Mathematical Practices. It will also be an invaluable resource for teachers working with students with low reading ability, including English language learners and special education students. “This book provides a way for both teachers and students to get used to talking about mathematics in nonthreatening, open-ended ways. The author’s friendly explanations of the mathematical ideas the pictures are intended to surface give teachers who are less confident about the conceptual aspects of mathematics the support they need to facilitate less-scripted mathematical discourse with their students.” —Lucy West, education consultant Praise for Good Questions and More Good Questions! “A must for any educator who is serious about reaching more students more often and achieving more positive results.” —Resources for the Mathematics Educator “A valuable book for mathematics teachers, teacher educators, and faculty involved in differentiated instruction.” —Choice “A great resource.” —Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School “I highly recommend this user-friendly resource for all mathematics teachers.” —Teaching Children Mathematics

Teaching Mathematical Thinking

Teaching Mathematical Thinking
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2017-03-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807758566

This new resource by math education expert Marian Small helps schools and districts to refine their teaching of standards-based mathematical practices. Small devotes a chapter to each of the eight standards of practice and includes a discussion of what each standard looks like in grades K–2, 3–5, and 6–8. Specific attention is given to helping students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (Standard 1) and to encouraging students to create viable mathematical arguments and to effectively and respectfully critique the reasoning of others (Standard 3). The author also discusses how to formatively assess student performance for each practice standard. To provide additional support to U.S. teachers in their instructional planning, this resource includes attention to the Canadian math processes of visualization and mental math and estimation. Book Features: Addresses common misunderstandings and places where teachers and students struggle. Provides lucid explanations of difficult concepts. Presents fresh and engaging teaching examples. Offers helpful troubleshooting tips. Includes examples of student work. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Visit Marian Small’s website onetwoinfinity.ca for in-person and online professional development.

Teaching Math Online

Teaching Math Online
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2020
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807779342

Learn how to provide rich, online mathematics instruction that optimizes the limited time you have with students, while doing it in a way that does not overwhelm parents. This practical resource: highlights the value of open questions for differentiating instruction in the K–8 virtual environment; shows teachers how to adapt the materials that they are already using; illustrates how students can incorporate items from their home environment into math lessons; demonstrates how to build and maintain community with students online; explores the logistics of independent meetings with students and parents; provides samples and directions for creating tools like number lines and manipulatives at home; and much more. Featuring professional developer Marian Small’s special brand of lucid explanation of difficult concepts, engaging teaching examples, troubleshooting tips, and formative assessments, Teaching Math Online is a must-have for anyone teaching math either wholly online or in blended classrooms. Book Features: Provides immediate assistance for teachers with little or no experience teaching math online. Offers specific suggestions for supporting parents in their new role as the link between teacher and student. Addresses both logistical and pedagogical issues important to successful online learning. Provides online problem visuals for teachers to use with students. Includes reproducibles for creating math manipulatives and tools. Discusses distanced formative assessment. Includes access to exemplar videos for communicating with parents, and for providing students with spoken instruction that they can save and replay.

Fun and Fundamental Math for Young Children

Fun and Fundamental Math for Young Children
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2018
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807776963

Educators of young children who don’t yet know the work of Marian Small are in for a gift—a treasure trove to enhance their teaching and thinking about math. This book focuses on the most important concepts and skills needed to provide early learners (preK–2) with a strong foundation in mathematics, in ways that are fun for both children and educators! For each mathematical concept, professional developer Marian Small provides sample activities and lessons, as well as guidance for using children’s books, games, manipulatives, and electronic devices. This resource also demonstrates how to differentiate instruction using tasks and questions designed to include all students. Like other Marian Small bestsellers, the text features her special brand of lucid explanation of difficult concepts, fresh and engaging teaching examples, troubleshooting tips, and formative assessments. Fun and Fundamental Math for Young Children is separated into special grade level sections for pre-K, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. It can be used with any early childhood curriculum or as a stand-alone program in preschools. Marian Small is available for in-person and online professional development. “Within the first few pages it quickly became apparent that, whether you are a new or veteran teacher, your knowledge and appreciation of and for primary mathematics will grow page by page.” —From the Foreword by Graham Fletcher, math specialist, Atlanta, Georgia “Marian Small describes the development of major aspects of children’s mathematical thinking and connects them to many interesting and useful classroom activities.” —Herbert Ginsburg, professor emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University “I love this book! The ideas are invaluable and the attention to detail is amazing.” —Nicki Newton, math consultant

Building Proportional Reasoning Across Grades and Math Strands, K-8

Building Proportional Reasoning Across Grades and Math Strands, K-8
Author: Marian Small
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2015-04-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807756601

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.

Leaps and Bounds Toward Math Understanding

Leaps and Bounds Toward Math Understanding
Author: Marian Small
Publisher:
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2011
Genre: Algebra
ISBN: 9780176351502

This educational resource has been developed by many writers and consultants to bring the very best of mathematics to you.