Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 6-8 (Corwin Mathematics Series)

I found this volume to be really helpful. A famous quote has offered that 'timing is everything' in life but these authors suggest that in the classroom, timing may not be everything but it is extremely important. It is not always WHAT you do in the classroom… but equally important is WHEN you do it. That was a great takeaway for me.

This is a good resource to have on hand for teaching math in the middle school years. Good examples in an easy to understand format.

I recommend reading the basic Visible Literacy book by John Hattie before jumping into this. It's a good opportunity to learn what research shows about effective teaching practice while reflecting on which of the strategies and attitudes you do and do not currently have as an educator. THEN when you jump into the series and get more granular with this book, you're ready to think about what you want to change and process the ways you can do that within middle school math, which is its own beast. I realize that's a lot of reading for a very busy teachers, but think of reading these two books as an ongoing PD. You don't want to read the book in one sitting. You want to read a little, go teach with a reflective stance or an experimental stance, come back and read a little more, and back and forth. Essentially, you can design your own PD this way, or better yet, do it as a faculty or study group so you can process and talk together, identify others around you who have different strengths to go observe, and provide support and accountability for the work. The foundations are solid -- so many researchers and education leaders cite Hattie. Best to know the source, if only so you can ferret out companies just claiming his name to sell more versus curriculum and companies that actually build their work on what Hattie has found. You likely won't be satisfied with the general book because it's too general. This book has the specifics you'll want to visualize how effective teaching looks in a middle grades math class, but you can't appreciate the specifics without an understanding of the foundations.

Math has changed a lot! Arrays are big, and new ways of doing multiplication and even division are faster and easier but NOT intuitive. So this book sort of breaks down the how to of thinking in a new way with more graphics like charts (and arrays) to see how the numbers make a pattern.Useful as a classroom assist to get familiar with new curriculum codes as well.

This is another great book to compliment the others in the series. A must read!