The Math Pact, Middle School
Achieving Instructional Coherence Within and Across Grades
Foreword by Robert Q. Berry III and Matt Larson, Featuring Rules That Expire and Other Dos and Don'ts
Corwin Mathematics Series
A schoolwide solution for students’ mathematics success!
Do you sometimes start to teach a mathematics concept and feel like you’re staring at a sea of bewildered faces? What happens when you discover students previously learned a calculation trick or a mnemonic that has muddied their long-term understanding? When “rules” seem to change from year to year, teacher to teacher, or school to school, mathematics can seem like a disconnected mystery for students. Clear up the confusion with a Mathematics Whole-School Agreement!
Expanded from the highly popular “Rules that Expire” series of NCTM articles, this essential guide leads educators through the collaborative step-by-step process of establishing a coherent and consistent learner-centered and equitable approach to mathematics instruction. Through this work, you will identify, streamline, and become passionate about using clear and consistent mathematical language, notations, representations, rules, and generalizations within and across classrooms and grades. Importantly, you’ll learn to avoid “rules that expire”—tricks that may seem to help students in one grade but hurt in the long run. Features of this book include
· Abundant grade-specific examples
· Effective working plans for sustainability
· Barrier-busting tips, to-dos, and try-it-outs
· Practical templates and checklists
· PLC prompts and discussion points
When teachers unite across grades, students hit the ground running every year. Take the next step together as a team and help all your students build on existing understanding to find new success and most importantly, love learning and doing mathematics!
"What is one way that you and your colleagues can support all learners? By engaging in thoughtful conversations in which priorities and plans can lead to sustained change. At the outset, exploring and committing to a Mathematics Whole School Agreement with your colleagues creates the opportunity for consistency in a grade level, a school, as well as in a district. The Math Pact, Middle School: Achieving Instructional Coherence Within and Across Grades not only challenges stakeholders including teachers, parents, community members, paraprofessionals, coaches, learning specialists, and school leadership to explore these foundational agreements but importantly provides a clear pathway to achieve them, and as a result, creates a collective responsibility for the mathematical learning of all students."