“WARNING: Your students may not leave your mathematics classroom when the bell rings if you start using Open Middle tasks." —Sara Vanderwerf

The problems and strategies in Open Middle Math by Robert Kaplinsky gives middle and high school teachers the guidance and materials not only engage students in math class, but get them excited to dig into a problem as if on a quest, and enthusiastically share discoveries with their peers. Matt Larson wrote, "Not only will your students experience mathematics in more authentic ways, but your teaching will be simultaneously energized as your classroom becomes a motivating space where students meet and enjoy the challenge of really doing mathematics.” Find out what else folks are saying about Open Middle Math.

"Teaching with text sets is not a luxury. It’s a possibility. It’s an approach to student-centered teaching that allows you to cover what you need to cover while engaging students in perspective taking and sense making. Because of that, it is both practical and aspirational."

In this Introduction to the forthcoming book, Text Sets in Action, the authors, Mary Ann Cappiello and Erika Thulin Dawes, tell us their "origin stories" that led them to write a book about how to successfully use text sets to carve a pathway through content area literacy. They show us how using text sets in instruction is both aspirational and practical in helping to create structures and contexts in which required learning can take place while going beyond what is merely required. They show us how this work allows for an integrated curriculum that will lead to working smarter, taking advantage of students’ interests, and customizing a curriculum that takes advantage of contemporary issues, values, and contexts. Take a look!

"There's a reason why compare and contrast is one of the top research-based strategies across any curriculum area. Think about it. Anytime you want to teach something, you want to talk about what it is and what it isn't. And that's what starts to get that conversation going."