Making Math Meaningful

Many teachers who teach at the K-8 level have not had the luxury of specialist training in mathematics, yet are expected to teach an increasingly sophisticated curriculum to an increasingly diverse student population in a climate where there are heightened public expectations. Making Math Meaningful, 3rd Edition is designed to support you in teaching mathematics in the Canadian K-8 classroom by providing you with insight into how to make mathematics make sense to students and how to capture their interest. Author Marian Small combines her wealth of research and practical experience to give you the confidence to teach mathematics with a student-centered, problem-solving approach. You will be better able to let students explore because you will have a deeper understanding of the mathematics, which will make it easier for you to deal with students’ varied ideas. You will be better able to focus discussion in your classroom because you will be more aware of possible misconceptions and of what aspects of the mathematics are worthy of development. You will also be better able to critically evaluate other people’s ideas about how to approach mathematics instruction because you will be starting with a well-founded base of knowledge. More than that, this text can serve as a resource to which you will return again and again when you are ready to focus on particular content or particular strategies.