Teaching Mathematical Thinking: Tasks and Questions to Strengthen Practices and Processes

This new resource by math education expert Marian Small helps schools and districts to refine their teaching of standards-based mathematical practices. Small devotes a chapter to each of the eight standards of practice and includes a discussion of what each standard looks like in grades K–2, 3–5, and 6–8. Specific attention is given to helping students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (Standard 1) and to encouraging students to create viable mathematical arguments and to effectively and respectfully critique the reasoning of others (Standard 3). The author also discusses how to formatively assess student performance for each practice standard. To provide additional support to U.S. teachers in their instructional planning, this resource includes attention to the Canadian math processes of visualization and mental math and estimation.

"Whether you are a new teacher or a seasoned educator, this book will enrich your abilities to develop your students' mathematical thinking."
—From the Foreword by Linda Dacey, professor emerita, Mathematics, Lesley University

"One of the best ways to prepare students for their futures is to teach mathematical thinking. Marian Small shows us the way with powerful tasks, probing questions, and incredible student work samples. This is the book I have been looking for and is definitely a —Ruth Harbin Miles, Mary Baldwin University