Product Description

"It is fun to figure out the puzzle of how children go about making sense of mathematics and then how to help teachers help kids." John A. Van de Walle, Late of Virginia Commonwealth University This is the philosophy behind Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. John A. Van de Walle wrote this book to help students understand mathematics and become confident in their ability to teach the subject to children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Although he could not have foreseen the changes in mathematics teaching over the last three decades, he was at the forefront of the movement towards a constructivist view of teaching, or teaching developmentally. Constructivism says that children construct their own knowledge. They are not blank slates waiting to absorb whatever the teacher tells them. Teachers must understand both mathematics itself and how students learn mathematics in order to teach it effectively. Learning through problem solving is another major theme of this book. Students solve problems not just to apply mathematics, but also to learn new mathematics.Effective problems will take into account where students are, the problematic or engaging aspect of the problem must be due to the mathematics that the students are to learn and not be diluted by non-mathematical activities such as cutting or pasting, and the problem must require justifications and explanations for answers and methods. Learning then becomes an outcome of the problem solving process. The book also addresses in more detail than any other book on the market the effect that the trends of standards-based education, increased pressure to test, and increased teacher accountability have had on teaching mathematics. He addresses the 2000 NCTM Standards in depth, in Chapter 1 on Teaching Mathematics in the Era of the NCTM Standards, through the NCTM icon that appears in the margins throughout the text, and in two appendices in the back of the book. Chapter 5 on Building Assessment into Instruction has also been heavily revised to focus on increased testing pressure, creating more explicit links between objectives and assessment, and including assessments for students with special needs.Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally is a book for doing math today--for both students who want to become teachers, and the students they will eventually teach. New To This Edition: NEW! Revises Chapter 5 on assessment--Discusses increased testing pressure and accountability, adds more information on equitable assessments, creates more explicit links between objectives and assessment, and includes assessments for students with special needs. NEW! Updates the Literature Connections feature to remove all out of print children's literature and include more non-fiction, poetry, and other types of readings. NEW! Weaves the Focal Points throughout the chapters as well as links them with the Big Ideas feature--Focal Points have also been added to the Appendix. NEW! Includes expanded coverage of working with diverse learners. NEW! Gives greater emphasis on dealing with math anxiety.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1586 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
Praise for Elementary and Middle School Mathematics. "Overall, this book is an excellent resource for those who are investigating the teaching of mathematics at the elementary and middle school levels...Above all, the emphasis on student-centered problem solving is consistent with current trends and practices. This book is unique in that it challenges assumptions and traditional practices." Katherine Chamberlain, Lycoming College ~"I have used Van de Walle since it came on the market and still feel it is, by far, the best available! The layout is excellent. The philosophical basis of the text is superb-It's easy to read by both undergraduates and graduate students in that it makes connections between their experiences and the philosophical foundations. Three major strengths include the references to the NCTM Standards, inclusion of algebraic thought at all grade levels, and the continued development of the same themes and philosophical foundations." Tim Whiteford, Trinity College of Vermont ~" [One] of the major reasons why Van de Walle's text is so useful...is the text's involvement of the reader in the development of 'mathematical reasoning.' It creates a thinker." Timothy Touzel, Coastal Carolina University

From the Back Cover
 

Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, Seventh Edition

John A. Van de Walle, Late of Virginia Commonwealth University

Karen S. Karp, University of Louisville

Jennifer M. Bay-Williams, University of Louisville

Written by leaders in the field of mathematics education, this best-selling book will help teachers and K-8 students make sense of math. For each strand of the mathematics curriculum, numerous problem-based activities are interwoven with a discussion of the mathematical content and how children develop their understanding of that content.

This book is uniquely designed to help your students:

• Prepare for mathematics instruction in today’s classroom:
• NEW!  MyEducationLab website for this text presents classroom video, clips of teacher workshops presented by John Van de Walle, expanded lessons, real curriculum materials, children’s literature resources, and more. Margin notes throughout the text seamlessly integrate website material for instructors and readers.
• NEW!  Field Experience Guide Connections at the end of each chapter showcase specific classroom-based tasks, activities, and resources available to readers in the popular Field Experience Guide.
• Develop a constructivist and problem solving approach to the learning and teaching of mathematics
• NEW! Use the 2000 NCTM Principles and Standards and Curriculum Focal Points to inform their instruction by providing the most complete coverage of the NCTM guidelines available.
• UPDATED! Effectively integrate technology to support teaching and learning with comprehensive coverage of new technologies and teaching strategies.
• Practice doing the mathematics that they will teach through numerous activities in each of the 16 content chapters
• NEW! Meet the needs of all learners through discussion of differentiating instruction, adaptation of the response to intervention (RTI) model for use with students with special needs in the mathematics classroom, and more.

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Must have!
If you learned math from traditional methods or algorithms, you must read this book. Math today is so different from how I learned it. This book explains how and why math has changed so much. I recommend it to teachers and parents alike. The author explains how to teach math using problem-solving. The method makes so much more sense than traditional mathematics. The book is filled with activities for every math concept and age that are easy to find, read, and use without much prep or prop. It also has ideas and resources for including literature and technology into math class.
I find it highly valuable as a 3rd year teacher of fifth grade. My district uses the Visual Math program, and this book has helped me understand why visual math works much more than any inservice. I have the fifth edition as a textbook for a methods class, and I'll never leave home without it.

a must have for any elementary - middle school math teacher
This book has not only taught me to teach math effectively but it has changed the way I understand mathematic concepts as well. I was taught math walking step by step through each chapter in a text book, learning skills and not concepts, learning algorithms rather than developing logical reasoning strategies. Van De Walle has suited me as a textbook for myself and a resource for curriculum planning in my sixth grade math class. I am so thankful to have stumbled into this text - it has been a life saver!

A Great Resource!
As an elementary teacher and college math methods instructor, I have found this book to be an excellent resource for teaching children math in an engaging, meaningful way. The author includes lots of examples of useful activities for all areas of mathematics. A book I'll use over and over in the years to come...