Implementing Standards-Based Mathematics Instruction: A Casebook for Professional Development

by Mary Kay Stein, Edward A. Silver, Margaret Schwan Smith

Now in its second edition, this essential textbook and professional development resource offers: a new foreword by James Hiebert and two important new chapters that focus on the ways in which the book can be used to support the learning of teachers and administrators. Drawing on the authors' work over the past decade, Chapter 11 illustrates the various ways in which teacher educators and professional developers might use the materials in the book to aid in the professional growth of teachers, including how to directly improve teachers' instruction practices and Chapter 12 discusses ways in which principals and school leaders can use the book to become better instructional leaders of teachers who are attempting to teach with cognitively demanding tasks.

This essential book:

Describes the Mathematical Tasks Framework, a tool that has been proven effective in evaluating instructional decisions, the choice of materials, and learning outcomes. Provides narrative cases of actual classroom instruction that include Discussion Questions and Teaching Notes. Includes a link to a downloadable PowerPoint presentation containing an expanded overview of the research for use with teachers, parents, and other interested stakeholders.

Genres: Mathematics, Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2000

Reviews

[Betsy Annie Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I hadn’t already read Building Thinking Classrooms, I might give this a higher rating, but the information in here seems a little outdated compared to the new book by Peter L.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really good. Lots of practical examples of what can go wrong in a math classroom. I think the overall biggest problem in the way we teach math is how heavily based in algorithms it tends to be. Follow the rules, regardless of whether you know why they work or not. Students need the space to form their own meaningful connections, which can be more painful and frustrating than giving them a set of instructions to follow. For example, when you add/subtract fractions, they need to have a common denominator. When you multiply/divide them, they do not. Why? If a student can articulate the reasoning behind this, they won't need to memorize a set of rules for how to manipulate fractions. The algorithms will be born out of the understanding. As a teacher, it can be hard to let them explore, try, and sometimes fail. And I often find myself modeling my own thinking for them, but the truth is that there isn't any exact "right" way, and sometimes my understanding can get in the way of them forming their own. Anyway, I really liked this book.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing resource. It's for math teachers who are using high-level cognitively demanding tasks to teach mathematics concepts vs drilling procedures. Ever notice how you'll start a lesson with a cognitively demanding task, yet by the end of the lesson it has devolved into something less? That's what this book is about: how to IMPLEMENT tasks well to keep demand up. Stein and Smith give you all the common classroom patterns that lower a task's cognitive demand. Then they offer you six detailed cases so you can figure out what works yourself. Possibly the best feature happens in the first few cases, where they'll talk through two teachers delivering the same lesson, so you can compare and contrast what made or broke the lesson. Very grateful to have come across this!

[Kim Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was pretty good. However, as time went on, it seemed as though all the authors did was explain how everything teachers did was wrong. They were trying and not getting any credit for that. I also felt like some of the concerns of the teachers were quite legitimate. The authors showed how those concerns decreased the effectiveness of the activity the teachers were trying to do, but didn't give any suggestions on overcoming these problems...problems that all teachers face.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sounds dry as hell, but if what you do is implement standards-based mathematics instruction, it's excellent as professional development.