In this new book from popular math consultant and bestselling author Dr. Nicki Newton, you’ll learn how to help students become more effective and confident problem solvers. Problem solving is a necessary skill for the 21st century but can be overwhelming for both teachers and students. Dr. Newton shows how to make word problems more engaging and relatable, how to scaffold them and help students with math language, how to implement collaborative groups for problem solving, how to assess student progress, and much more. Topics include: Incorporating problem solving throughout the math block, connecting problems to students’ real lives, and teaching students to persevere; Unpacking word problems across the curriculum and making them more comprehensible to students; Scaffolding word problems so that students can organize all the pieces in doable ways; Helping students navigate the complex language in a word problem; Showing students how to reason about, model, and discuss word problems; Using fun mini-lessons to engage students in the premise of a word problem; Implementing collaborative structures, such as math literature circles, to engage students in problem solving; Getting the whole school involved in a problem-solving challenge to promote schoolwide effort and engagement; and Incorporating assessment to see where students are and help them get to the next level. Each chapter offers examples, charts, and tools that you can use immediately. The book also features an action plan so that you can confidently move forward and implement the book’s ideas in your own classroom. Free accompanying resources are provided on the author's website, www.drnickinewton.com.

In this new book from popular math consultant and bestselling author Dr. Nicki Newton, you'll learn how to help students in grades K-2 become more effective and confident problem solvers. Problem solving is a necessary skill for the 21st century but can be overwhelming for both teachers and students alike. Dr. Nicki shows how to make word problems more engaging and fun, starting in the early elementary grades so that students have a strong foundation to build upon. Topics include: Using games, songs, and poems to make complex mathematical concepts more accessib≤ Showing students how to reason about, model, and discuss word problems; Implementing problem-solving workshops and workstations to maximize practice time and encourage collaboration; Teaching students to recognize and apply elementary mathematical concepts--including addition, subtraction, part-whole relationships, etc.--in real-life situations; Incorporating different types of assessment to measure student progress and help them get to the next level. Each chapter offers examples, charts, and tools that you can use immediately. The book also features a set of action plans so you can move forward with confidence and implement the book's ideas in your own classroom.

The first book of the Mathematics in Action series, Prealgebra Problem Solving, Third Edition, illustrates how mathematics arises naturally from everyday situations through updated and revised real-life activities and the accompanying practice exercises. Along with the activities and the exercises within the text, MathXL® and MyMathLab® have been enhanced to create a better overall learning experience for the reader. Technology integrated throughout the text helps readers interpret real-life data algebraically, numerically, symbolically, and graphically. The active style of this book develops readers' mathematical literacy and builds a solid foundation for future study in mathematics and other disciplines.

In this new book from popular consultant and bestselling author Dr. Nicki Newton, you’ll discover how to use Math Running Records to assess students’ basic fact fluency and increase student achievement. Like a GPS, Math Running Records pinpoint exactly where students are in their understanding of basic math facts and then outline the next steps toward comprehensive fluency. This practical book introduces a research-based framework to assess students’ thinking and move them toward becoming confident, proficient, flexible mathematicians with a robust sense of numbers. Topics include: Learning how often to administer Math Running Records and how to strategically introduce them into your existing curriculum; Analyzing, and interpreting Math Running Records for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; Using the data gathered from Math Running Records to implement evidence-based, research-driven instruction. Evaluating students’ speed, accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency to help them attain computational fluency; Each chapter offers a variety of charts and tools that you can use in the classroom immediately, and the strategies can easily be adapted for students at all levels of math fluency across grades K-8. Videos of sample running records are also available for download at https://guidedmath.wordpress.com/math-running-records-videos. Blackline masters are available on the Running Records Dropbox at https://bit.ly/3gnggIq

Bring math to life with routines that are academically rigorous, standards-based, and engaging! Go beyond circling ABCD on your bell ringers and do nows and get your students reasoning, modeling, and communicating about math every day! In this new book from bestselling author and consultant Dr. Nicki Newton, you’ll learn how to develop effective daily routines to improve students’ thinking, reasoning, and questioning about math. The book provides a wide variety of rigorous, high-interest routines and explains how to rotate and implement them into your curriculum. Inside, you’ll find: Questioning techniques that encourage students to think beyond the "right vs. wrong" continuum Tips for building a math-learning environment that is friendly and supportive of all students Math vocabulary exercises that are meaningful and fun An assortment of innovative daily activities, including "Fraction of the Day," "Truth or Fib," "Find and Fix the Error," "Guess My Number," "What Doesn’t Belong?" and many, many more. Each chapter offers examples, charts, and tools that you can use immediately. With these resources and the practical advice throughout the book, you’ll increase students’ ability to understand math on a deeper level while keeping them engaged in their own learning processes.

This survey book reviews four interrelated areas: (i) the relevance of heuristics in problem-solving approaches – why they are important and what research tells us about their use; (ii) the need to characterize and foster creative problem-solving approaches – what type of heuristics helps learners devise and practice creative solutions; (iii) the importance that learners formulate and pursue their own problems; and iv) the role played by the use of both multiple-purpose and ad hoc mathematical action types of technologies in problem-solving contexts – what ways of reasoning learners construct when they rely on the use of digital technologies, and how technology and technology approaches can be reconciled.

All students face struggle, and they should—it is how they learn and grow. The teacher’s job is not to remove struggle, but rather to value and harness it, helping students develop good habits of productive struggle. But what’s missing for many educators is an action plan for how to achieve this, especially when it comes to math. This book guides teachers through six specific actions—including valuing, fostering, building, planning, supporting, and reflecting on struggle—to create a game plan for overcoming obstacles by sharing · Actionable steps, activities, and tools for implementation · Instructional tasks representative of each grade level · Real-world examples showcasing classroom photos and student work