Math education consultant Marilyn Burns finds that teachers ask her the same three questions so often she's named them "The Big Three": What can I do with students who finish their math work more quickly?, How can I free up time to work with kids who need extra help?, and How can I differentiate math learning experiences? Burns, who…

Teachers often express to Marulyn Burns their worry about the need to "cover the curriculum." In response, she draws on one of her favorite quotes: "You don't want to cover a subject; you want to uncover it." This quote is from "The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning" by Eleanor…

Over the years, the author has learned that illustrated books can help dispel the myth that math is dull, unimaginative, and inaccessible. They can spark children's mathematical imaginations in ways that textbooks and workbooks often don't. Picture books can also help students who love to read--but think math isn't their thing--experience the…

Everyday, people face situations that call for adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing, and at least half of the time, these calculations are accomplished without the use of pen, paper, or calculators. Because figuring "in your head" is such an important life skill, it should have a regular role in classroom math teaching. This article…

Describes a high school math unit in which students took a mathematical look at the problems faced by families during the westward migration of the 1840s and 1850s. Shows how writing can be used in the mathematics classroom. (PRA)

More than two-thirds of American adults fear and/or loathe mathematics. This book looks at why math has the dreadful reputation that it does and provides a chance to face math phobia and help others. This book delivers a positive message about what math can and should mean to all and how children can be kept from adopting the negative attitudes…

This book poses more than 100 questions that new and experienced K-6 teachers often ask themselves and provides in-depth answers to these questions on the following topics: (1) "Preparing for a Successful Year"; (2) "Planning Effective Math Instruction"; (3) "Leading Class Discussions"; (4) "Number Sense and the Basics"; (5) "Using Manipulative…

Innovative teachers can make writing as an integral part while teaching math to students. The teachers will have to implement the math instruction that enables students to organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication, analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking of others, and use the language of mathematics to…

Describes a game whose goal is to make the largest three or four digit number possible from numbers appearing on successive rolls of a die. Discusses the written strategies developed for this game by third and seventh grade students. (RS)

Describes an activity used with a fifth-grade mathematics class in which students solved a problem and wrote a convincing argument to prove their solution made sense. (SR)

Providing students with realistic problems will facilitate a better understanding of and reason for computation. Specific suggestions for introducing and for increasing problem-solving skills are described. (CJ)

For many teachers, the storybook shelf is not the first place that they go to when they start to plan a math lesson. But children's books can be a great math teaching tool. They spark students' imaginations in ways that exercises in textbooks or workbooks often don't. In this article, the author shares three possible lessons based on favorite…

What are often missing for children in classroom instruction are experiences with numbers that stretch beyond computation skills and word problems. This lesson models such an experience for third graders. Students use small boxes of raisins in several problem-solving activities. Children apply whole number operations, estimate, consider…

Describes a mathematics lesson for use with first graders based on a storybook about 10 black dots. (SR)

Teaching teachers to become observers and inquirers into mathematics will help change how they teach math to students. Essential to all professional development in mathematics is the idea that making sense of mathematics is key to learning. Just as learning to read calls for bringing meaning to the printed page, learning math calls for bringing…