Full Description

If you're searching for practical answers to the challenge of inquiry while meeting the demands of covering the curriculum, look no further than A Mathematical Passage.

In this book, classroom teacher Robin Cox and university professor David Whitin tell how they devised strategies and activities to nurture the same kind of initiative, voice, and ownership in mathematics that children display in writing their own stories and choosing their own books to read. They offer a wealth of information for teachers who want to make a similar kind of passage toward inquiry in mathematics. Here you will find:

• lesson plans that outline mathematical content and strategies, as well as important attitudes and dispositions
• specific connections to NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
• detailed descriptions of ways to build a community of mathematical inquirers
• strategies for developing and managing a math workshop
• suggestions for encouraging children to be independent, responsible, and reflective decision makers
• ways to use math journals to assess children's understandings
• activities that promote interdisciplinary connections
• strategies for using conversation to challenge, clarify, justify, and extend mathematical thinking
• tips on communicating with parents
• references to manipulatives, children's literature, and real-world applications
• parallels between the work of children and the work of mathematicians, such as discovering patterns, developing hypotheses, posing and extending problems.

Better understand the nature of inquiry learning. Nurture its growth in your own classroom. See how key principles of learning are consistent across the curriculum. Read Whitin and Cox.

Additional Resource Information

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

Introduction: Looking at the Beliefs in the Mathematics Community
Chapter 1:	Understanding the Classroom: An Interview with the Teacher
Chapter 2:	Mathematicians Keep Records and the Pose Their Own Problems
	The Investigation Begins
	Generating and Pursuing New Questions
	Reflecting on the Process
	What We Learned About the Process of Inquiry
	Going Beyond the Experience
Chapter 3:	Mathematicians Are Skeptics Who Go Beyond the Data
	The Investigation Begins
	Discussing Our Findings
	Skepticism Leads to Further Investigating
	Mathematicians Go Beyond the Data
	Mathematicians Create Their Own Language
	Going Beyond the Experience
Chapter 4:	Mathematicians Are Problem Solvers Who Invest Their Own Tools
	Starting the Investigation
	Generating and Pursuing New Questions
	The First Day: Examining the Potato and the Squash
	Developing Tools for Calculating the Area
	Testing Their Measuring Tools
	A Window into One Child’s Thinking
	Calculating the Area Using Water
	Using Clay to Determine Area
	Summarizing Our Findings
	Going Beyond the Experience
Chapter 5:	Mathematicians Discover Patterns and Relatioinships
	The Initial Investigation
	The First Conversation: Mathematicians Analyze Patterns and Develop Theories
	Teachers Are Vulnerable Too: Reflecting on What We Did Not Know
	Conjectures About Patterns Build a Sense of Community
	Children Reflect on the Conversation
	The Strength of Triangles: Mathematicians Connect Concepts to the Real World
	Building Structures on Their Own: Mathematicians Apply Their New Knowledge
	Children Reflect on Working Together
	Investigating the Strength of Structures
	Examining the Buildings of Others
	Reflecting on the Experience with Triangles
	Going Beyond the Experience
	Notes: Clarification from a University Colleague
Chapter 6:	Developing a Math Workshop
	Laying the Groundwork for the Math Workshop
	Pursuing Heartbeats, Deaths, and Nanoseconds
	Exploring the Largest Potato Chip and the Largest Stamp
	How Long Does It Take a Jet to Go Around the World?
	Investigating the Fort McHenry Flag
	Counting to One Million
	Other Math Workshop Explorations
	Teachers’ Reflections on Math Workshop: Benefits and Next Steps
	Children’s Reflections on the Benefits of Math Workshop
Chapter 7:	Reflections on Living a Mathematical Life
	A Conversation with Jason
	A Mathematician’s Bill of Rights
References

Samples

• Review a demonstration of how children discover and extend a mathematical problem. (PDF, 602 KB)