Concept-Based Mathematics: Teaching for Deep Understanding in Secondary Classrooms

Give math students the connections between what they learn and how they do math—and suddenly math makes sense

If your secondary-school students are fearful of or frustrated by math, it’s time for a new approach. When you teach concepts rather than rote processes, you show students math’s essential elegance, as well as its practicality—and help them discover their own natural mathematical abilities.

This book is a road map to retooling how you teach math in a deep, clear, and meaningful way —through a conceptual lens—helping students achieve higher-order thinking skills. Jennifer Wathall shows you how to plan units, engage students, assess understanding, incorporate technology, and even guides you through an ideal concept-based classroom.

• Practical tools include:
• Examples from arithmetic to calculus
• Inquiry tasks, unit planners, templates, and activities
• Sample assessments with examples of student work
• Vignettes from international educators
• A dedicated companion website with additional resources, including a study guide, templates, exemplars, discussion questions, and other professional development activities.

Everyone has the power to understand math. By extending Erickson and Lanning’s work on Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction specifically to math, this book helps students  achieve the deep understanding and skills called for by global standards and be prepared for the 21st century workplace.