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…

Presents several across-the-curriculum activities for elementary teachers. Math activities include reading a book and dividing with beans. Science activities teach about caves and about the weather. A writing activity explains how to inspire students to write good stories. An art activity focuses on Chinese landscapes. (SM)

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)

Across-the-curriculum articles focus on four areas. A math activity describes optical illusions and the properties of shapes. A hands-on science activity presents the chemistry of secret messages. A writing lesson helps students capture the essence of character. An art lesson presents a project on medieval castles. (SM)

Three articles present elementary science, mathematics, and social studies activities. A hands-on science activity introduces students to microscopic water creatures. A math in action game has students build logic and number-sense skills. A social studies activity has students weave story cloths into conflict resolution. (SM)

Math can be the sort of homework parents respect, children enjoy, and teachers savor. Suggestions for achieving this are offered. (MT)

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…

Presents two writing activities for math class that help students explore contexts for multiplication and write multiplication stories. (SR)

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 a learning strategy which asks students to write questions that can be answered from the information posted on a graph that they created. (MG)

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)