Seeing the Math You Teach, Grades K-6
An Elementary Teacher’s Quick-Guide to Meaningful Mathematical Strategies and Representations
Corwin Mathematics Series
Because when you see the math, they can see it too.
The role of today’s classroom teacher has evolved from being a disseminator of information to a facilitator of learning. As an elementary teacher, you can guide student thinking to deeper levels of understanding by making connections between and among physical, visual, symbolic, verbal and contextual representations.
Seeing the Math You Teach, Grades K-6 is intended to help you help your students. It is an accessible guide for elementary teachers that focuses on making mathematics meaningful through multiple strategies and representations to help foster a love for mathematics in their students. The authors have written this book based on the deep belief that everyone can be good at math. It illustrates the most commonly seen and used visual models of each of the elementary mathematical content areas the way children think about them. Rather than a book full of prescribed problem solving strategies, this book will help you and your students literally “see” the structure of mathematical concepts–how and why they work–and make connections among various representations and topics.
This is not the kind of book to be read cover-to-cover. It is organized in a flexible format to inform the math teaching and learning going on in a classroom at a given moment. Enhancing teachers’ own clarity and understanding in mathematics, or in other words, “to see the math they teach,” this book:
- Provides 16 color-coded chapters–and a Topic Index–that can be used to quickly locate specific topics such as “place value”, “unit fractions” or “equivalent ratios”
- Incorporates videos of how to use manipulatives to connect physical models to other visual representations
- Can be used as a planning tool with your PLC, a desk-reference, a teaching tool, and a family support tool.
This guide equips you to help your students derive meaning, sense, and joy out of their mathematics learning. It helps them see math as more than “just numbers”--illustrating the ways they think and focusing on their understanding of how and why math works.
Too often, in mathematics, we are in a rush to move from the concrete to abstract. In doing so, we overlook the visual. This book is an excellent reminder of the importance of the visual. It not only helps us understand how visuals can help students see mathematics but also helps us see what students see when they are doing mathematics. This book is a necessity for every K–6 teacher.
Seeing the Math You Teach delivers exactly what it promises—math you can actually see. The visuals are clean, clear, and do the heavy lifting, making tricky concepts far more intuitive for both students and teachers. If you’ve ever struggled to explain fractions without resorting to interpretive dance, this book is for you.
If we’re serious about equity in math, we must change how we teach it. Seeing the Math You Teach gives parents and teachers the tools to do just that—by using visual models and brain-friendly strategies that support all kids, not just those labeled as ‘high achievers,’ in developing real mathematical understanding.
Seeing the Math You Teach is an essential resource for educators looking to deepen their mathematical understanding and better support their students. Through clear visuals and a progression of conceptual development, this book helps teachers see how students think and learn, allowing them to meet each learner where they are. A must-have for building instructional confidence and fostering meaningful mathematical understanding in the classroom!
This book is a valuable resource for teachers who want to make math more accessible and meaningful for all students. With clear explanations, visual support, and practical strategies, it helps break down abstract concepts so that every learner can engage and build understanding. Grounded in how children learn, this book offers thoughtful guidance for creating lessons that support problem-solving, confidence, and a genuine connection to math.
Teachers often ask, ‘How can I ratchet up the quality of my math teaching to better engage my students in mathematical thinking and to deepen their understanding of math beyond answer-getting?’ Call this helpful book ‘A Compendium of Math Representations’ because it provides a slew of topic-specific ways to picture mathematics. By including these multiple representations in our lessons, we ensure that all the active, yet different, brains in our classrooms can ‘get it.’
Seeing the Math You Teach is an essential resource that transforms mathematics into a visual and accessible experience for all students. This comprehensive guide will undoubtedly become a favorite among teachers, showing signs of frequent use as they refer to it time and time again!
Seeing the Math You Teach is a valuable resource that brings clarity to mathematical representations. It will help you make essential concepts more accessible for all learners. The practical strategies and visual models will empower you to foster deeper understanding and greater confidence in math.
I’ve shared about the ‘Sweet Spot of the C-R-A model,’ where you do an activity that includes all 3 and the power that has with building your students’ understanding. Seeing the Math You Teach is full of representations to help you get to that ‘Sweet Spot.’
If you want to see math visually, then this is the book for you! Seeing the Math You Teach shows us what math looks like. It’s an easy-to-read reference book that will be on my desk to share with teachers (and students!)
