Ep: 26 Book Recommendations to Learn How Kids Learn Math

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If you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want to learn more about math pedagogy

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and teaching math, so today I'm going to share with you some books that have really helped

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me learn more about the pedagogy of math.

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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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In college, I had one class about teaching math and I felt like it was very broad.

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It was just one class and I feel like the general thing, I guess, that you get when

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you're in a class about how to teach math is they usually give you a third grade lesson

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– no hate to third grade teachers – but they give you a third grade lesson because

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it's kind of in the middle.

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They don't really talk to you too much about differentiating down or differentiating up

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and that's all well and good when it's theoretical when you're in college, but when you're

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actually in the classroom, it's like, well, that's not really going to help me if my

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kids can't count yet.

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So I found myself, you know, teaching kindergarten in math.

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If you've heard my very first episode, my math origin story, you know I had a...

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I didn't have the best relationship with math period, so I already felt a little bit

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uncomfortable teaching math and I feel like I'm definitely not the only teacher who has

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felt that way.

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And so I was really looking for help.

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I was really looking for support.

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I was a first-year teacher.

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I was starting a new program.

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I was starting a Spanish immersion program and I don't know this for a fact, but I know

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it's true.

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The school that I had started at, they were just starting Spanish immersion in kindergarten

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and they didn't necessarily...

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The feeling I got was that they didn't necessarily want immersion there and I felt very much

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like because they didn't want immersion there, there weren't necessarily that many people

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other than my amazing kindergarten team who were willing to help me, maybe because they

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didn't know how to help, maybe because it's not a testing year, so it often gets pushed

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aside.

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I don't really know.

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So I felt like I really didn't have anybody to help me figure out how to do this job and

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how to really dig deep because I wasn't teaching any language arts.

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I was only teaching math and science and especially in the younger grades, I had one class on

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math.

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I had countless classes on how to teach reading.

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So I had one class on how to teach math, didn't even show me how to teach my age level well

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that I felt prepared for.

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So I was really between a rock and a hard place.

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I was like, how am I going to do this?

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Luckily, there was one other person other than my amazing team who could help me and

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that was our math, our title one math specialist, Bobby, and literally the only other person

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who would help me.

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So I'm going to share with you some things that my amazing math resource person told

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me.

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So if you find yourself in a similar situation and you don't have a Bobby, I am happy to

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be your Bobby.

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And when she retired, she gave me a lot of her materials.

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She pointed me in the right direction.

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So I am happy to do that with you today.

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So like I said, I am there trying to figure out how to teach math and these are some of

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the resources that I found the most helpful.

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And this is I'm speaking specifically about the theory of math, math pedagogy and the

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way that kids learn math, not necessarily centers.

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A lot of these books do have centers, but I wouldn't necessarily go to these first if

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I'm looking for math centers.

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The first one that she gave me was teaching student centered mathematics, developmentally

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appropriate instruction for great for grades pre K to two by John Van de Waal.

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And colleagues, they have one for third to fifth grade, which I've also looked at.

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It's in the same vein, very good.

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I think they have one for middle school too, but I haven't actually looked at that.

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Like I don't have that one in my hands.

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And I found that the student centered mathematics book to be extremely helpful.

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It talks about setting up your classroom.

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It talks about the pedagogy.

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So how kids learn different math skills.

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It does give you center ideas and station ideas, but it really, I felt wraps it up really

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well.

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It gives you just enough theory and just enough centers to marry it together and help you

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feel really prepared.

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So I highly, highly, highly recommend the teaching student centered mathematics series.

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And like with most books, they're not necessarily the most budget friendly, but see if you can

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get them either in your school professional library or your district professional library.

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You can usually find them used for not too expensive, but I highly recommend that one.

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The next books I recommend are the ones that go with the math recovery series.

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If you've taken the advantage math recovery course, it's very good.

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They talk about the purple book in the first one and the purple one is good.

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But the one I found most helpful is actually the green book.

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The green book is called teaching number, advancing children's skills and strategies.

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This one is more specifically just about counting and numbers.

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You might hear me flipping through the pages.

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I want to make sure I don't forget anything.

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So the purple book has more like it talks about counting.

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It also talks about decomposing.

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So if you're looking more global, there's that one.

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But this one really digs into the counting the green book.

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I wouldn't say you need to take the math recovery course to use those, but you have to understand

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the way that the math recovery course is set up.

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They have their assessment that you give to your student, the students one on one.

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And if they get this answer right, you move on to the next one and the next one.

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And wherever their ceiling is, wherever they were not able to solve the problem, that kind

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of tells you what their level is.

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And from there, you would look in this book and be like, okay, this was their level.

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And now I can do these activities or do this kind of station or do this kind of one on

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one or this kind of small group activity to help them move to the next level.

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So how to use that book.

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But if you're just picking up that book hold, you might not understand how to use it.

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So that's kind of what it is.

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It was basically the idea is you give this assessment and then from there you figure

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out what level they're at.

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And then from there, pick the activities that you're going to use to support that.

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So for those ones, it's helpful to have a more general overview of the different stages

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to be able to use it.

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However, you can definitely find that.

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So I wouldn't say it's a no go, but the teaching students that are in mathematics, you can

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pick it up and use it on day one.

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The next book I'm going to recommend is not necessarily a math book, but it's more general.

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And that's culturally responsive teaching and the brain.

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And that book, I feel like just kind of goes not just into math, but it really talks about

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how the brain works.

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It can get a little bit dense, like it's very much talking about how their brain works and

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how the brain learns.

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So once you have an idea of how the brain works and how their brain learns, you can

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apply that to every subject, not just math.

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So I would highly recommend that book and looking into that book by Zaretta Hammett.

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And that book, I've already done a episode comparing kind of the steps that she lays

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out in that book and part of this book to the building thinking classrooms book, which

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is my next recommendation.

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I didn't put that first because I think most people who are listening to this podcast have

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already read that book, so I didn't put it as my number one.

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But that one, if you have not read it, is also a great book, the building thinking classrooms

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book.

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And that book sets up a framework for a different way to teach problem solving that is very

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effective.

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And I know I had been struggling for years with a good way to teach problem solving that

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gets all students engaged because a lot of times you have your students who felt more

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confident in math engaging in problems and other students who maybe didn't feel as confident

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just would not, they would just sit there, you would really try and help them, and it

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was just not working out.

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So building thinking classrooms is a great way to kind of sweep more students up in the

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problem solving process in a way that's effective.

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And I saw really great results with that.

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So as a recap, the teaching student centered mathematics by John Van de Waal, the math

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recovery series, they have books for different topics, but the purple book and the green

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book are the ones that I used the most and like the green book is specifically for counting,

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the purple book has more of an overview, culturally responsive teaching and the brain by Zaretta

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Hammond and building thinking classrooms by Peter Liliedal.

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An author I haven't dug into yet, but I've heard a lot of good things about, it's next

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on my list, is Julie J. Uli Dixon.

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I've heard a lot of good things about that.

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It comes highly recommended.

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Her books come highly recommended, so I'm excited to dig into those as well.

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And I will keep you updated on how I find those.

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I hope I've given you some ideas of where to start.

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As always, feel free to send me a message.

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I'm happy to discuss any of them if you have any questions.

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And if you would like me to dig into more of these books in detail, you can always fill

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out the Google form linked in every single show notes to give me some feedback or any

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questions you might have that you'd like me to do a whole episode on.

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I'm happy to do that for you.

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Until then, you'll hear me next time.