Professional Books
This is the original 3-volume set from which the professional development resource packages were developed. In contrast to other books on math reform, Young Mathematicians at Work provides a new look at the teaching of computation. It moves beyond the current debate about algorithms to argue for deep number sense and the development of a repertoire of strategies based on landmark numbers and operations. Sample minilessons on the use of the open number line model are provided to show you how to support the development of efficient computation.
For the fourth volume Catherine teams up with Bill Jacob to offer a comfortably familiar and characteristically rich extension to the earlier work. In Constructing Algebra Catherine and Bill provide a landscape of learning that helps teachers recognize, support, and celebrate their students’ capacity to structure their worlds algebraically. They identify for teachers the models, contexts, and landmarks that facilitate algebraic thinking in young students.
Vol. 4 Learning to Support Young Mathematicians at Work
"Our digital-lab environment provides an active, more meaningful professional development experience, which empowers teachers to integrate theory and practice. We offer teachers the opportunity to embark upon their own landscape of learning journey."--Catherine Twomey Fosnot
The bestselling Young Mathematicians at Work series has helped tens of thousands of teachers inspire deep mathematical understanding in students with its signature workshop approach. The Contexts for Learning Mathematics series has helped even more teachers bring that approach into their classrooms to align their math program to the Standards of Practice in the Common Core. Now Cathy Fosnot and her colleagues have developed an invaluable resource that gives teachers ownership of the core ideas and essential understandings of early algebra. Learning to Support Young Mathematicians at Work offers Professional Development providers interactive, meaningful tools to help teachers deepen their algebraic thinking within a unique digital environment.
Two DVDs feature classroom sessions that show students exploring the sequence of investigations and activities found in the popular Contexts for Learning Mathematics algebra unit books Trades, Jumps, and Stops and The California Frog-Jumping Contest. Extensive classroom video footage allows participants to study children over time, and examine and analyze their development as well as the teacher’s pedagogy. The user can respond to prompts, create video clips and presentations, and explore related materials all from the DVD, either alone at home or in a workshop setting.
The PD facilitator’s guide features a flexible menu of workshops, ranging from two-hour sessions that focus on a particular topic to comprehensive 5-day institutes. As participants engage in the investigations, they build their own conceptual and pedagogical understanding of algebra and proof, questioning and conferring, observing children at work in mathematics, and using the powerful tools of context and representations. These learning experiences foster teachers’ algebraic thinking and set the stage for robust and active classroom practice that promotes students’ deep understanding.
