The Five Practices in Practice [High School]: Successfully Orchestrating Mathematics Discussions in Your High School Classroom

by Margaret (Peg) S. Smith, Michael D. Steele, Miriam Gamoran Sherin

"This book makes the five practices accessible for high school mathematics teachers. Teachers will see themselves and their classrooms throughout the book. High school mathematics departments and teams can use this book as a framework for engaging professional collaboration. I am particularly excited that this book situates the five practices as ambitious and equitable practices."

Robert Q. Berry, III

NCTM President 2018-2020

Samuel Braley Gray Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Virginia

Take a deeper dive into understanding the five practices--anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting--for facilitating productive mathematical conversations in your high school classrooms and learn to apply them with confidence. This follow-up to the modern classic, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions, shows the five practices in action in high school classrooms and empowers teachers to be prepared for and overcome the challenges common to orchestrating math discussions.

The chapters unpack the five practices and guide teachers to a deeper understanding of how to use each practice effectively in an inquiry-oriented classroom. This book will help you launch meaningful mathematical discussion through

- Key questions to set learning goals, identify high-level tasks, anticipate student responses, and develop targeted assessing and advancing questions that jumpstart productive discussion--before class begins

- Video excerpts from real high school classrooms that vividly illustrate the five practices in action and include built-in opportunities for you to consider effective ways to monitor students' ideas, and successful approaches for selecting, sequencing, and connecting students' ideas during instruction

- "Pause and Consider" prompts that help you reflect on an issue--and, in some cases, draw on your own classroom experience--prior to reading more about it

- "Linking To Your Own Instruction" sections help you implement the five practices with confidence in your own instruction

The book and companion website provide an array of resources including planning templates, sample lesson plans, completed monitoring tools, and mathematical tasks. Enhance your fluency in the five practices to bring powerful discussions of mathematical concepts to life in your classroom.

Genres: Teaching

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 26, 2020

About the author

Margaret (Peg) Smith is a Professor Emerita at University of Pittsburgh. Over the past two decades she has been developing research-based materials for use in the professional development of mathematics teachers. She has authored or coauthored over 90 books, edited books or monographs, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles including the best seller Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Discussions (co-authored with Mary Kay Stein). She was a member of the writing team for Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All and she is a co-author of two new books (Taking Action: Implementation Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices Grades 6-8 & 9-12) that provide further explication of the teaching practices first describe in Principles to Actions. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (2001-2003; 2003 – 2005), of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2006-2009), and of Teachers Development Group (2009 – 2017).

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same review, kind of a different book.

I’m leading a book study on this book (and the others in the series) at work. 4 stars because 5 stars would mean I would recommend to anyone. 4 stars because I recommend this highly to any math teacher or educator who supports math teachers’ instructional practices.

Pro tip: if you read the elementary, middle and high school books at the same time, it’s like reading 3 books for the time of 2 due to all the overlap. ;)

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good resource for any high school math teacher, especially one earlier in their career or one who is looking to refresh their pedagogy. The Five Practices provides a really elegant framework around which one can routinely think about lesson planning. The examples in the book were often helpful, though the explanation of them were a bit overwritten at times. Either way, I see a lot of potential in using this with my department.