John J. SanGiovanni – författare

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet. 

Fluency in mathematics is more than adeptly using basic facts or implementing algorithms. Real fluency involves reasoning and creativity, and it varies by the situation at hand.

Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offers educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency, along with a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a fluency approach. In a friendly and accessible style, this hands-on guide empowers educators to support students in acquiring the repertoire of reasoning strategies necessary to becoming versatile and nimble mathematical thinkers. It includes:

 “Seven Significant Strategies” to teach to students as they work toward procedural fluency.  Activities, fluency routines, and games that encourage learning the efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy essential to real fluency. Reflection questions, connections to mathematical standards, and techniques for assessing all components of fluency. Suggestions for engaging families in understanding and supporting fluency.

Fluency is more than a toolbox of strategies to choose from; it’s also a matter of equity and access for all learners. Give your students the knowledge and power to become confident mathematical thinkers.

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet. Fluency in mathematics is more than adeptly using basic facts or implementing algorithms. It is not about speed or recall. Real fluency is about choosing strategies that are efficient, flexible, lead to accurate solutions, and are appropriate for the given situation. Developing fluency is also a matter of equity and access for all learners.  The landmark book Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offered educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency, along with a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a fluency approach. Now, teachers have the chance to apply that inspiration through explicit instruction and practice every day with the classroom companion Figuring Out Fluency: Multiplication and Division with Fractions and Decimals. With this book, teachers can:

Dive deeper into the Significant Strategies for fluency explained in the anchor book Learn how these strategies grow from and relate to the basic fact strategies children learn  Access over 100 strategy-aligned and classroom-ready activities for fluency instruction and practice in multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals, including worked examples, routines, games, and centers Find activities for assessing all components of multiplication and division fluency for fractions and decimals, plus support for engaging families  Download all of the needed support tools, game boards, and other resources from the companion website for immediate implementation.

Give each and every student the knowledge and power to become skilled and confident mathematical thinkers and doers.

Finally! A book that helps solve the problem of teaching problem-solving!Learning to be a problem solver is hard. Teaching students how to be problem solvers themselves can be even harder. Some students may learn to mimic procedures to come up with correct answers, but are they really learning to solve problems? To become independent problem solvers, students need to practice exploring, tinkering, and most importantly thinking!!The bite-size routines in this guide are perfect for teachers looking for the interesting, engaging, and doable practice students need to become problem-solving masters. These flexible, modifiable bursts of quality practice are designed to get students to look at problems in different ways, spark discussion, make connections, and boost mathematics achievement. This collection addresses the common challenges students and teachers face when learning to problem solve byDeveloping students’ mathematical reasoning and conceptual understandingBuilding students’ skills with various problem-solving strategiesNurturing mathematical confidence and improving identity and agencyFortified with standards for math practices and processes, the ideas in this guide develop the reasoning and critical-thinking skills for students to become independent problem-solvers for life!

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet.

Fluency in mathematics is more than basic facts or using algorithms. It is not about recall or speed. Real fluency is about choosing strategies that are efficient, flexible, lead to accurate solutions, and are appropriate for the given situation. Developing fluency is a matter of equity and access for all learners.

The landmark book Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offered educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency. It explained the seven Significant Strategies for fluency and offered a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a greater fluency approach. However, in order to become truly adept with these strategies, children must first have certain underlying foundational concepts and skills in place. 

Figuring Out Fluency-Ten Underlying Foundations for Reasoning Strategies with Whole Numbers explores the ideas that are essential to reasoning: Number Relationships; Subitizing and Decomposing; Distance to 10, 100, and 1,000; Counting and Skip-Counting; Properties of Addition and Its Inverse Relationship with Subtraction; Properties of Multiplication and Its Inverse Relationship with Division; Multiplying by 10s and 100s; Multiples and Factors; Doubling and Halving; and Computational Estimation. With this book, elementary teachers can

Help children develop these foundational understandings, critical to reasoning and number sense.Leverage over 100 classroom-ready routines, centers, and games to develop these concepts both in first instruction, practice, and intervention.Download all of the needed support tools, game boards, and other resources from the companion website for immediate implementation

Develop each and every students’ knowledge and power to become skilled and confident mathematical thinkers and doers.

Being an effective math educator is one part based on the quality of the tasks we give, one part how we diagnose what we see, and one part what we do with what we find. Yet with so many students and big concepts to cover, it can be hard to slow down enough to look for those moments when students’ responses tell us what we need to know about next best steps. In this remarkable book, John SanGiovanni helps us value our students’ misconceptions and incomplete understandings as much as their correct ones—because it’s the gap in their understanding today that holds the secrets to planning tomorrow’s best teaching. SanGiovanni lays out 180 high-quality tasks aligned to the standards and big ideas of Grades 3-5 mathematics, including addition and subtraction of multi-digit whole numbers, multiplication and division of single and multi-digit whole numbers, foundational fraction concepts, foundational decimal concepts, and operations with fractions and decimals. The tasks are all downloadable so you can use or modify them for instruction and assessment. Each big idea offers a starting task followed by:

what makes it a high-quality task what you might anticipate before students work with the task 4 student examples of the completed task showcasing a distinct “gap” commentary on what precisely counts for mathematical understanding and the next instructional steps commentary on the misconception or incomplete understanding so you learn why the student veered off course  three additional tasks aligned to the mathematics topic and ideas about what students might do with these additional tasks.

It’s time to break our habit of rushing into re-teaching for correctness and instead get curious about the space between right and wrong answers. Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding is a book you will return to again and again to get better at selecting tasks that will uncover students’ reasoning—better at discerning the quality and clarity of students’ understanding—and better at planning teaching based on the gaps you see. 

Being an effective math educator is one part based on the quality of the tasks we give, one part how we diagnose what we see, and one part what we do with what we find. Yet with so many students and big concepts to cover, it can be hard to slow down enough to look for those moments when students’ responses tell us what we need to know about next best steps. In this remarkable book, John SanGiovanni helps us value our young learners’ misconceptions and incomplete understandings as much as their correct ones—because it’s the gap in their understanding today that holds the secrets to planning tomorrow’s best teaching. SanGiovanni lays out 160 high-quality tasks aligned to the standards and big ideas of grades K-2 mathematics, including  counting and representing numbers, number relationships and comparison, addition and subtraction within 100 and 1000, money and time,  and multiplication and division. The tasks are all downloadable so you can use or modify them for instruction and assessment. Each big idea offers a starting task followed by:

what makes it a high-quality taskwhat you might anticipate before students work with the task 4 student examples of the completed task showcasing a distinct “gap” commentary on what precisely counts for mathematical understanding and the next instructional steps commentary on the misconception or incomplete understanding so you learn why the student veered off course  three additional tasks aligned to the mathematics topic and ideas about what students might do with these additional tasks.

It’s time to break our habit of rushing into re-teaching for correctness and instead get curious about the space between right and wrong answers. Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding is a book you will return to again and again to get better at selecting tasks that will uncover students’ reasoning—better at discerning the quality and clarity of students’ understanding—and better at planning teaching based on the gaps you see. 

“Too often, middle school and high school teachers say, ‘These students are lacking number sense.’ These books will help secondary teachers with good pedagogy to help build number sense in a creative way. John SanGiovanni and Eric Milou have created short routines that are teacher-friendly, with lots of examples, and easy to adapt to each teacher’s needs. These are the books that secondary teachers have been waiting for to help engage students in building number sense.”

Pamela J. Dombrowski, Secondary Math Specialist Geary County School District Junction City, KS Kickstart your middle school math class!

Do your students need more opportunities do develop number sense and reasoning? Are you looking to get your students energized and talking about mathematics? Have you wondered how practical, replicable, and engaging activities would complement your mathematics instruction?

This guide answers the question “What could I do differently?” by taking cues from some of the most effective types of routines commonly used to engage students in reasoning while developing and reinforcing their number sense. This book offers 20 different routines, all of which include content examples, extensions, and variations for grades 6–8. It includes a year’s worth of daily instructional material that you can use each class period to promote student reasoning and number sense. The routines in this book will help students

Frequently revisit essential mathematical concepts Foster and shore up conceptual understanding Engage in mental mathematics, leading to efficiency and fluency Engage in mathematical discourse by constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others Reason mathematically, which can improve performance on high-stakes assessments Move learning beyond “correctness” by valuing mistakes and discourse to encourage a growth mindset

From trusted authors and experts John SanGiovanni and Eric Milou, this teacher-friendly resource will give you all the tools and tips you need to reinvent those critical first five or ten minutes of math class for the better!