The Stenhouse Blog

“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.

In Deanna Pecaski McLennan’s kindergarten classroom, math isn’t limited to a specific block of time. It’s built into the environment and inseparable from everything her young students do.

All of the math in author Deanna Pecaski McLennan's instruction is infused with a sense of exploration, wonder, and joy. And in her new book, Joyful Math,  she shows us how to do the same by creating invitations for young children to engage with math ideas through art, literacy, and outdoor play. She focuses on building spaces in early childhood classrooms where children see themselves as mathematical thinkers with valuable ideas from the very start. 

Deanna Pecaski McLennan, Ph.D., is a full-day kindergarten teacher based in Ontario, Canada and the author of the new book Joyful Math: Invitations to Play and Explore in the Early Childhood Classroom  and was recently awarded the 2020 Prime Minister Award for Teaching Excellence in STEM.

As teachers and students engage in Choral Counting together, they often get quite intrigued by what they are seeing in the numbers and begin to wonder which patterns might arise, where regularities might repeat, and why certain things are happening. The ongoing thinking and conversations propel teachers to engage students in this activity over and over, finding new ways to adapt and innovate based on what students are exploring.

Chris Luzniak argues that you can make any math problem debatable, and that by incorporating debate techniques into your instruction you will get your students excited to do the math. Check out the recap of this #StenhouseMath Twitter Chat on the topic of Debating Math based on Chris's book, Up for Debate!, to find out more, and learn how others are already using these techniques in their classrooms with success!

On Tuesday, 12/10 at 9:00 p.m. ET, we will close out the year with a #StenhouseMath Twitter Chat with author of the new book, Up for Debate!, Chris Luzniak. Here are the questions we will discuss. If you're looking for ways to get your students engaged and talking about the math you're teaching them, join in the conversation!

This blog post was written by Geoff Krall, educator and author of Necessary Conditions: Teaching Secondary Math with Academic Safety, Quality Tasks, and Effective Facilitation.

There’s that famous yarn about how if someone time traveled from 100 years ago everything would look different except classrooms. That’s not really true. At least, not now. In fact, if this time traveler walked along the hallway of a math department, they’d see all sorts of disparate things. Sure, some classrooms might have desks in rows with the teacher lecturing at the board. But in other rooms students would be working in groups. In other rooms still students would be plugged into a piece of instructional software. This would-be time traveler would have no idea what’s going on!

Most students and teachers think about subtraction as "take away" but Marian Small, author of Understanding the Math We Teach and How to Teach It  is offering different ways to think about subtraction that don't expire and that lead to greater math success in grades K–8.

"The unfortunate reality is that it's really hard to standardize thinking that's not standard."

Next Tuesday night, 11/12 at 9:00 p.m. ET we will be having our November #StenhouseMath Twitter Chat with Robert Kaplinsky, author of the new book, Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking. We wanted to share the questions ahead of the chat to give people some time to think about them. Whether you use Open Middle problems in your class already, or you’ve heard of them but not sure how to use them, or you’ve never heard of them but are looking for ways to get your secondary students engaged—this chat is for you.