The most challenging parts of teaching mathematics are engaging students and helping them understand the connections between mathematics concepts. In this volume, you'll find a collection of low floor, high ceiling tasks that will help you do just that, by looking at the big ideas at the kindergarten-grade level through visualization, play, and investigation.
During their work with tens of thousands of teachers, authors Jo Boaler, Jen Munson, and Cathy Williams heard the same message - that they want to incorporate more brain science into their math instruction, but they need guidance in the techniques that work best to get across the concepts they needed to teach. So the authors designed Mindset Mathematics around the principle of active student engagement, with tasks that reflect the latest brain science on learning. Open, creative, and visual math tasks have been shown to improve student test scores, and more importantly change their relationship with mathematics and start believing in their own potential. The tasks in Mindset Mathematics reflect the lessons from brain science that:
- There is no such thing as a math person - anyone can learn mathematics to high levels.
- Mistakes, struggle and challenge are the most important times for brain growth.
- Speed is unimportant in mathematics.
- Mathematics is a visual and beautiful subject, and our brains want to think visually about mathematics.
With engaging questions, open-ended tasks, and four-color visuals that will help kids get excited about mathematics, Mindset Mathematics is organized around nine big ideas which emphasize the connections within the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and can be used with any current curriculum.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Low-Floor, High-Ceiling Tasks 2
Youcubed Summer Camp 3
Memorization versus Conceptual Engagement 4
Mathematical Thinking, Reasoning, and Convincing 5
Big Ideas 9
Structure of the Book 9
A Note on the Structure of Kindergarten 15
Note on Materials 17
Manipulatives and Materials Used in This Book 17
Big Idea 1: Understanding the Physical Quantity of Number 21
Count a Collection 23
How Many Do You See? 30
Making a Counting Book 40
Big Idea 2: Using Fingers as Numbers 47
Feeling Fingers 49
Show Me with Your Fingers 64
Hand Mirrors 70
Big Idea 3: Talking about and Making Shapes 77
Talking about Shapes 79
Make a Shape 93
Building Blocks 97
Big Idea 4: Seeing Numbers inside of Numbers 103
Dot Talks 105
Snap It! 118
Which is More? 123
Big Idea 5: Putting Numbers Together 135
Growing Bigger and Bigger 137
Roll the Dice 144
Foot Parade 151
Big Idea 6: Describing and Sorting Objects 159
Sorting Supplies 161
Sorting Emojis 168
Sorting Buttons 174
Big Idea 7: Seeing and Making Patterns Everywhere 181
A World of Patterns 184
DIY Patterns 195
Kinder Dance Party 200
Big Idea 8: Stretching Counting toward 100 205
Counting Larger Collections 207
Making a Collection 213
Hundred Chart Patterns 219
Appendix 231
About the Authors 235
Acknowledgments 237
Index 239
