Virginia Mathematics Teacher Fall 2016

Good Reads Section Editor: Dr. Jean Mistele

Eyes on Math: A Visual Approach to Teaching Math Concepts In this section, we feature mathematics literature that is appropriate for K-12 Mathematics instruction. If you use specific literature for your mathematics classroom and wish to share it with the Virginia Mathematics Teacher community, please respond to the Call for Manuscripts on page 26.

Dr. Jean Mistele Section Editor, Good Reads jmistele@Radford .edu

I was drawn to this book, because many of my students claim, “I am a visual learner.” This book responds to these students preferred learning style. The author shows teachers how to bring mathematics concepts, taught in the K-8 mathematics classroom, out of the darkness and into the light. The visual

for the reader. In another example, I was a bit disappointed with the explanation for a mathematics concept that was shown in the chapter titled, 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication, on page 86. The author demonstrated the distributed property for multiplying binomials using a grid. I wished the author extended this concept to include the FOIL method because this example shows why the FOIL method works. Likewise, on page 150 when addressing algebraic thinking with growing patterns, the author could have identified this as an example of the arithmetic sequence and include the geometric sequence. Including these two points would broaden the notion of growing patterns. The next example I found troubling occurred in the chapter titled, Equivalent Rates on page 166. In the extension section the author has students research some typical rates used in the real world. However, before the students can do such research, I believe there needs to be a discussion on the definitions of ratio and rate such as: how are they the same, how do they differ, is there agreement among mathematicians, educators, or use of these terms in the real world? The author promotes the notion that discourse in the classroom facilitates the learning for all students, which made this omission more obvious to me. Overall, the author does a good job promoting classroom discourse. The last example that I found a bit troubling was the chapter, Addition: Changing addends, but not the sum. In this chapter the author demonstrates that decomposing a number in different ways will not change the sum. She claimed this demonstrated the associative property for addition. The author gives the following example: 9 + 2 = 7 + 4 demonstrates the associative property because the first addend was decreased by 2 (to get the 7 on the right hand side of the equation) and the second addend was increased by 2 (to get the 4 on the right hand side of the equation). Actually, the associative property

demonstrations are great for your visual learners to help them understand the mathematics concepts and answer their why questions. The author links the mathematics shown in each chapter to the Common Core Standards, which makes this book a great resource for teachers. The book is 230 pages with 215 pages filled with mathematical content divided into 3 sections for each of the three grade bands: K-2, 3-5, and 6- 8. Each section focuses attention on the most crucial mathematical concepts taught in that grade band. Each chapter has the same format; a picture or diagram accompanied with a question. The author explains the mathematical concept associated with the picture, then provides a second pictorial example followed by several discussion questions. The author includes expected student responses and/or explicitly identifies the mathematics the students should notice for each example. Each chapter ends with an extension section, which is typically stated as an activity for the student that reinforces the mathematics concept addressed in the chapter. Although I enjoyed the book, there were a few places that were troubling. I was confused by the wording used in the chapter, Multiplication: The distributive principle. In the explanation, the author referenced a second picture and then immediately referred back to the original picture in the explanation without indicating this redirection

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 43, no. 1

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