Do your students suppose that 1/3 is greater than 1/2, since 3 is greater than 2? Do they believe that having “halves” means having two, and only two, congruent “pieces” of a whole? What tasks can you offer—what questions can you ask—to determine what your students know or don’t know—and move them forward in their thinking? This book focuses on the specialised pedagogical content knowledge that you need to teach fractions effectively in grades 3–5. The authors demonstrate how to use this multifaceted knowledge to address the big ideas and essential understandings that students must develop for success with fractions—not only in their current work, but also in higher-level mathematics and a myriad of real-world contexts. Explore rich, research-based strategies and tasks that show how students are reasoning about and making sense of fractions. Use the opportunities that these and similar tasks provide to build on their understanding while identifying and correcting misunderstandings that may be keeping them from taking the next steps in learning.

Do your students believe that division "doesn't make sense" if the divisor is greater than the dividend? Explore rich, researched-based strategies and tasks that show how students are reasoning about and making sense of mulitplication and division. This book focuses on the specialised pedagogical content knowledge that you need to teach multiplication and division effectively in grades 3-5. The authors demonstrate how to use this multifaceted knowledge to address the big ideas and essential understandings that students must develop for success with these computations - not only in their current work, but also in higher-level maths and a myriad of real-world contexts. Explore rich, research-based strategies and tasks that show how students are reasoning about and making sense of multiplication and division. Use the opportunities that these and similar tasks provide to build on their understanding while identifying and correcting misunderstandings that may be keeping them from taking the next steps in learning. About the Series: You have essential understanding. It’s time to put it into practise in your teaching. The Putting Essential Understanding into Practice Series moves NCTM’s Essential Understanding Series into the classroom. The new series details and explores best practises for teaching the essential ideas that students must grasp about fundamental topics in mathematics - topics that are challenging to learn and teach but are critical to the development of mathematical understanding. Classroom vignettes and samples of student work bring each topic to life and questions for reader reflection open it up for hands-on exploration. Each volume underscores connections with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics while highlighting the knowledge of learners, curriculum, understanding into practise, instructional strategies and assessment that pedagogical content knowledge entails. Maximise the potential of student-centred learning and teaching by putting essential understanding into practise.

Focuses on the specialized pedagogical content knowledge that you need to teach ratios and proportions effectively in grades 6-8. The authors demonstrate how to use this multifaceted knowledge to address the big ideas and essential understandings that students must develop for success with ratios and proportions.

Equal parts action and humor add up to a wholly entertaining introduction to simplifying fractions, in this one-of-a-kind math picture book story. When a valuable fraction goes missing, George Cornelius Factor (a.k.a. GCF) vows to track it down. Knowing that the villainous Dr. Brok likes to disguise his ill-gotten fractions, G.C.F. invents a Reducer—half ray gun, half calculator— that strips away the disguise, reducing the fraction to its lowest common denominator and revealing its true form. With the Reducer in hand, George seeks out Dr. Brok in hopes of retrieving the missing fraction. David Clark’s illustrations are packed with humorous details as well as clearly defined fractions and their corresponding reduction equations.

Unpacking"" the ideas related to multiplication and division is a critical step in developing a deeper understanding. To those without specialised training, many of these ideas might appear to be easy to teach. But those who teach in grades 3-5 are aware of their subtleties and complexities. This book identifies and examines two big ideas and related essential understandings for teaching multiplication and division in grades 3–5. Big Idea 1 captures the notion that multiplication is usefully defined as a scalar operation. Problem situations modelled by multiplication have an element that represents the scalar and an element that represents the quantity to which the scalar applies. Big Idea 2 relates to the algorithms that problem solvers have invented - some of which have become “standard” - for multiplying and dividing. The authors examine the ways in which counting, adding and subtracting lead to multiplication and division, as well as the role that these operations play in algebraic expressions and other advanced topics. The book examines challenges in teaching, learning and assessment and is interspersed with questions for teachers’ reflection.

Describes five practices for productive mathematics discussions, including anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting.

"A series for teaching mathematics."--P. [1] of cover.