Math for Humans: Teaching Math Through 8 Intelligences, Grades 3-8

by Mark Wahl

Math for Humans is both a theory and methods resource in its first 90 pages and an activity resource with full teacher support (a kind of hands-on teacher training) in its last 150 pages. Its vocabulary is broad and its techniques more inclusive of all learners than other references. It goes ell to "color up" other teaching material. Its over 90 reproducible activities tap eight of the intelligences of students regularly, widely and innovatively, communicating the point that math can contain a kaleidoscope of appeals to a wide variety of mental processing. The two parts of the book afford the widest learning options for read up on theory and resources or plunge in and learn "in the field" while using the activities. At the end is a teacher resource list, including important resource websites. The activities are either real-life oriented or at least they have a math theory "payoff," so they don't seem trivial or irrelevant. There are easy ways to extend the activities up and down in challenge; they are graphically interesting; they cluster in fourteen integrated topical groups; and they have in-depth teacher support that provides a type of inservice training as the activities are used.

Genres: Education, Teaching

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

Reviews

[Yalonda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Required for a current class but this revised edition was published in 1999 so I am not surprised to find my response is "I've heard all of this before!" Many of the things described have been the latest and greatest professional development topics - often under different aliases - for years now. Thankfully, the current college & career ready curriculum has much of these best practices built right in so I am required to use many of these practices instead of being the weird teacher who does something hard and different. It has been nice to use these techniques and receive the support that has been lacking in previous years. While I support the primary premise of this book, I have found that most students & parents are simply neither ready for learning via intrinsic motivation nor for a grading system built around progress instead of traditional A-F grades. While we desperately need education to move in this direction, our tech-dependent, entitled society will not allow it. We must keep looking for ways to revise our educational system so it meets the needs of today's tech-driven world without giving in to the destructive sense of entitlement that is so prevalent.