Mind the Gap

Being an effective math educator is one part based on the quality of the tasks we give, one part of how we diagnose what we see, and one part what we do with what we find. Yet with so many students and big concepts to cover, it can be hard to slow down enough to look for those moments when students’ responses tell us what we need to know about the next best steps. In this book, John SanGiovanni helps us value our students’ misconceptions and incomplete understandings as much as their correct ones―because it’s the gap in their understanding today that holds the secrets to planning tomorrow’s best teaching.

SanGiovanni lays out 180 high-quality tasks assigned to the standards and big ideas of grades 3-5 mathematics, including addition and subtraction of multi-digit whole numbers, multiplication and division of single and multi-digit whole numbers, foundational fraction concepts and more. The tasks are all downloadable so you can use or modify them for instruction and assessment.

It’s time to break our habit of rushing into re-teaching for the correctness and instead get curious about the space between right and wrong answers.

Valuing Mathematics and Empowering Students

This text illustrates how children learn mathematics, and then shows pre-service teachers the most effective methods of teaching PreK-8 math through hands-on, problem-based activities. Examples of real student work and new common challenges and misconception tables helps visualize good mathematics instruction and assessment that supports and challenges all learners. This book reflects the Common Core State Standard and NCTM’s Principles to Actions, as well as current research and coverage of the latest teaching technology.

The text is divided into 2 parts. Part one covers the foundations and perspectives of teaching mathematics. The fundamental core of effective teaching of mathematics combines an understanding of how students learn, how to promote that learning by teaching through problem-solving, and how to plan for and assess that learning daily. Part two covers teaching student-centred mathematics. These chapters apply the core ideas of Part I to the content taught in K-8 mathematics. Clear discussions are provided for how to teach the topic, what a learning progression for that topic might be, and what worthwhile tasks look like.

 

The Power of Math Revealed

This third edition has been expanded with over 100 new tasks and questions that help experienced and novice teachers to effectively and efficiently differentiate mathematics instruction in grades K-8. Math education expert Marian Small shows teachers how to get started and become expert as using two powerful and universal strategies: open questions and parallel tasks. This volume includes key changes that will make it easier for teachers to use in all quality state standards environments, including direct links to Common Core content standards and standards for mathematical practice. 

Transform Your Mathematics Instruction

Award-winning author Page Keeley and mathematics expert Cheryl Rose Tobey apply the successful format of Keeley’s best-selling Science Formative Assessment to mathematics. They provide 75 formative assessment strategies and show teachers how to use them to inform instructional planning and better meet the needs of all students. Research shows that formative assessment has the power to significantly improve learning, and its many benefits include: stimulation of metacognitive thinking, increased student engagement, insights into student thinking, and development of a discourse community. 

Methods for Public Scholarship

The Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship presents the first comprehensive overview of research methods and practices for engaging in public scholarship. Public scholarship, which has been on the rise over the past 25 years, produces knowledge that is available outside of the academy, is useful to relevant stakeholders, and addresses publicly identified needs. By involving stakeholders in the entire process, and making the findings accessible, public scholars contribute to crucial democratization of research.

Maximum Achievements Unlocked

John Hattie’s ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesised the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning. Visible Learning for Teachers takes the next step and brings those groundbreaking concepts to a completely new audience. Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world.

The author offers concise and user-friendly summaries of the most successful interventions and offers practical step-by-step guidance to the successful implementation of visible learning and visible teaching in the classroom. 

Language and Literacy Development for Deaf Students

The difficulty that deaf and hard of hearing students have in attaining language and literacy skills has led to postulations that attribute their struggle to a development deficit. Recent research reveals, however, that deaf students acquire language structures, produce errors, and employ strategies in the same fashion as younger hearing students, though at later ages. The ability of all students to learn language and literacy skills in a similar manner at different stages forms the foundation of the Qualitative Similarity Hypothesis (QSH).

This volume describes the theoretical underpinnings and research findings of the Qualitative Similarity Hypothesis. It presents the educational implications for deaf and hard of hearing children and offers reason-based practices for improving their English language and literacy development. This collection also stresses the critical importance of exposing educators to the larger fields of literacy and second-language learning. Providing this background information expands the possibility of differentiating instruction to meet the needs of deaf students. 

Tips and Strategies for New and Experienced Teachers

Designed for professionals working in a resource room, self-contained special education classroom, or inclusive setting, this step-by-step guide helps new teachers in special education get their careers off to the right start and offers experienced teachers supportive information to help improve classroom practice.

Experts Roget Pierangelo and George Giuliani review all aspects of special education teaching, from how to get to know your students before school starts to writing end-of-the-year reports. Aligned with the reauthorization of IDEA 2004, this guidebook provides practical guidelines for appropriate classroom design, includes a complete glossary, and examines critical issues such as

      • Gathering information on students’ educational and medical backgrounds and Individual Educational Programs (IEPs)
      • Meeting with parents, aides, mainstream teachers, and service providers
      • Addressing and evaluating factors that affect learner’s performance and adapting the curriculum
      • Managing a classroom of students with specific disabilities and applying instructional interventions
      • Understanding grading options

Unleash the Science of Learning

Powerful Teaching, written by a noted cognitive scientist and a veteran classroom teacher, offers evidence-based recommendations that can be implemented in less than a minute without additional prep time or grading. Decades of research demonstrate that these few powerful—yet intuitive—strategies dramatically raise student achievement.

Readers will learn how to harness four dynamic “Power tools”:

    • Retrieval Practice: Boost learning by pulling information out of students’ heads, rather than focusing on getting information into students’ heads
    • Spaced Practice: Boost learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities our over time so learning isn’t crammed all at once
    • Interleaving: Boost learning by mixing up closely related topics and encouraging students to discriminate between key concepts
    • Feedback-Driven Metacognition: Boost learning by providing students with the opportunity to know what they know and know what they don’t know

Powerful Teaching provides the rare opportunity to adapt the science of learning for diverse students, parents, and professional development programs. With this interactive guide, think critically about teaching from a research-based perspective and transform learning in your classroom.

Independent Future for Blind/Visually Impaired Children

All parents hope for an independent future for their blind/visually impaired child. To turn that hope into a reality, parents need to understand the scope of skill development that must be addressed, along with the importance of equal expectations for the child’s development, proper training, and opportunity to practice and develop skills. But what if expectations are low, training in blindness skills is scant or even absent, and overprotection prevents the blind (VI) child from learning and practising skills? The idea of an independent future can remain a distant dream. The purpose of this book is to guide parents and teachers in fostering the blind/visually impaired child’s skill development in such critical areas as academics, independent movement and travel, social interaction, daily living, and self-advocacy so that he or she will truly be on the road to an independent future. 

A practical, easy-to-use guide, written in plain English, the book warns about common problem areas and provides ideas for getting and keeping the child’s education and development on track. It highlights the interplay between skills and competence, confidence, self-respect, and the respect of others. Of the small number of books and videos available on the subject, most were written by professionals in the field and many begin with the supposition that blindness is at best sad and at worst tragic. Few have the ardent passion for independence that the parent of a blind/visually impaired child brings to the subject. Instead of overwhelming parents and teachers with the difficulty of the undertaking before them, Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade will inspire their confidence and enthusiasm for the task at hand.