For years I taught my math students that thinking, stewing, and creative problem solving will help them a lot longer than memorizing the types of triangles. I also knew that students learned at their own pace from different levels. I searched for math resources that aligned with my philosophy. I wanted independent, self-paced, and brain-streching materials. I couldn’t find anything.
So I set out to create my own, and have used them in my classroom with great success. I called them Tour Books. They are basically lessons that encourage students to think through real life questions, and that by doing a series of these questions, patterns will form, and then by seeing the patterns, students develop their own strategies to solve problems. Then their strategies turn into our standard algorithms. It makes for powerful learning, but it takes time. When the Common Core were announced, I knew that it was time to put these into some sort of format (besides my hand drawings). And I finally have…
I just finished “Teaching Multiplying Fractions the Common Core Way.” Available on www.teacherspayteachers.com.
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