Links for Parents and Other Teachers

How should we think about and teach math topics? What do we want our children to learn? How can we tell if they understand? These websites offer resources and advice for parents and teachers.

Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics: An overview of elementary school arithmetic and how to teach it, free for downloading or reading online.

And ‘Rithmetic: The Sudbury Valley School approach to math education, by Daniel Greenberg.

Art of Problem Solving Math Articles: A variety of topics about teaching and learning math.

Education Unboxed: Videos that show you how to play with elementary math using Cuisenaire rods and other hands-on tools.

Elements of Math: Steven Strogatz’s blog post series from the New York Times. His Me, Myself and Math series is also worth reading.

Global Strategy Stage Assessment (GloSS): A one-on-one test of mathematical understanding. You read a question, give your son time to think, and then compare what he or she says to the range of possible responses. Be sure to read the Additional Information about Gloss pdf before interviewing your student.

Helping a Struggling Math Student: A 14-part blog post series at Angelicscalliwags, full of activities and encouragement. Scroll to the bottom to read the posts in the order they were published.

KenKen for Teachers: A fantastic way to practice arithmetic.

Living Math: Julie Brennan’s amazing website features the most extensive lists of living math books anywhere, plus articles about math, book and resource reviews, lesson plans. Brennan also moderates the Yahoo group, Living Math Forum.

Math by Kids!: A 78 page workbook of original math problems (including solutions) created by homeschooled students aged 4 to 17, edited by Susan Richman. If this store link stops working, go to the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers website and click around until you find the book.

Math Journals Boost Real Learning: An article by Marilyn Burns. Math journals “help students stretch their thinking and make sense of problems,” and they can help teachers evaluate student progress. See also: Math Journals For All Ages and Using Writing in Mathematics.

Math Reasoning Inventory: Find out how much your elementary or middle school students really understand about math. You do not have to sign up for an account to access the resources. Before doing the oral assessment testing, be sure to read the Reasoning Strategy PDF Files that outline what the assessment is looking for and watch the videos to see what sort of answers to expect.

Modern Math for Elementary School: Downloadable pdf book by Oleg Gleizer.

Moebius Noodles: “Adventurous math for the playground crowd.” Plenty of ideas for sharing rich math experiences with your children.

Problem Solving Articles from Math Forum: Encourage sense-making and perseverance as your students notice, wonder about, and solve math problems.

Problem Solving Strategies: Helpful tips for teaching your students to solve math problems.

Sandra Dodd’s “Unschoolers and Mathematics”: A collection of stories about children learning math naturally, without being pushed to use textbooks or to drill math facts. Inspiring.

The Singapore Maths Teacher: These slide shows demonstrate Singapore-style math models (also known as bar diagrams) step by step, beginning with relatively easy grade 3 word problems and working through to grade 6 stumpers. Excellent for elementary teachers who need to learn how to teach this method. See also: Problem Solving Strategies.

Standards for Mathematical Practice: The best part of the Common Core Math reform, a summary of what it means to think mathematically from Kindergarten to high school.

Talking Math With Your Kids: Christopher Danielson helps parents support their children’s mathematical development.

The Teaching of Arithmetic: The Story of an Experiment: In 1929, an American school superintendent delayed arithmetic to help students build a foundation in reasoning.

Ultimate List of Printable Math Manipulatives & Games: A treasure list from Jimmie Lanley of Jimmie’s Collage, one of my favorite homeschooling blogs.

Using Art Projects to Create a Math Adventure: See how a high school algebra teacher uses a math journaling project as the centerpiece of his curriculum. Students use fine-point permanent markers and quality colored pencils in artists’ sketchbooks, and then they sponge the pages of their journal with coffee for a beautiful, parchment-like effect.

Why We Don’t Divide By Zero: Professor Homunculus of The Math Mojo Chronicles explains the mathematics of dividing by zero.

Writing in Mathematics: Tips to help students reflect on their learning, deepen their understanding, and make important connections to real-life applications.

Yelena’s Hundred Chart Poster: Printable hundred chart poster and game cards from Moebius Noodles.

YouCubed: Jo Boaler’s website for research-based ways to teach math that can help discouraged students feel empowered to learn. Also try her free online course for students and their parents: How to Learn Math.

Writing Assignments in Calculus: Creative assignments and sample essays for Calculus I–III, by the author of “How to Grade 300 Mathematical Essays and Survive to tell the Tale.” See also: A Guide to Writing in Mathematics Classes, and Assessing Expository Mathematics.