NCTM’s Process Standards were designed to support teaching that helps children develop independent, effective mathematical thinking. The books in the Heinemann Math Process Standards Series give every elementary teacher the opportunity to explore each one of the standards in depth. And with language and examples that don’t require prior math training to understand, the series offers friendly, reassuring advice to any teacher preparing to embrace the Process Standards.
In Introduction to Representation, Bonnie Ennis and Kimberly Witeck share ways to help students use algorithms, graphs, manipulatives, diagrams, and other written and pictorial forms to express math ideas. They offer an array of entry points for understanding, planning, and teaching, including strategies that help students internalize manipulatives and other models of mathematical thinking so that they can begin documenting their mathematical processes. Full of activities that are modifiable for immediate use with students of all levels and written by veteran teachers for teachers of every level of experience, Introduction to Representation highlights the importance of encouraging children to demonstrate their mathematical thinking techniques through a variety of mathematical means, while also recommending ways to implement representation-based teaching without rewriting your curriculum.
Best of all, like all the titles in the Math Process Standards Series, Introduction to Representation comes with two powerful tools to help you get started and plan well: a CD-ROM with activities customizable to match your lessons and a correlation guide that helps you match mathematical content with the processes it utilizes.
If you need to better understand how students represent their thinking. Or if you’re simply looking for new ways to work the representation standard into your curriculum, read, dog-ear, and teach with Introduction to Representation. And if you’d like to learn about any of NCTM’s process standards, or if you’re looking for new, classroom-tested ways to address them in your math teaching, look no further than Heinemann’s Math Process Standards Series. You’ll find them explained in the most understandable and practical way: from one teacher to another.
