Classroom-Ready Rich Math Tasks, Grades 2-3
Engaging Students in Doing Math
- Beth McCord Kobett - Stevenson University
- Francis (Skip) Fennell - McDaniel College, USA
- Karen S. Karp - Johns Hopkins University
- Desiree Harrison
- Barbara Ann Swartz
Corwin Mathematics Series
Do you work tirelessly to make your math lessons meaningful, challenging, accessible, and engaging? Do you spend hours you don’t have searching for, adapting, and creating tasks to provide rich experiences for your students that supplement your mathematics curriculum? Help has arrived! Classroom Ready-Rich Math Tasks for Grades 2-3 details research- and standards-aligned, high-cognitive-demand tasks that will have your students doing deep-problem-based learning. These ready-to-implement, engaging tasks connect skills, concepts and practices, while encouraging students to reason, problem-solve, discuss, explore multiple solution pathways, connect multiple representations, and justify their thinking. They help students monitor their own thinking and connect the mathematics they know to new situations. In other words, these tasks allow students to truly do mathematics! Written with a strengths-based lens and an attentiveness to all students, this guide includes:
• Complete task-based lessons, referencing mathematics standards and practices, vocabulary, and materials
• Downloadable planning tools, student resource pages, and thoughtful questions, and formative assessment prompts
• Guidance on preparing, launching, facilitating, and reflecting on each task
• Notes on access and equity, focusing on students’ strengths, productive struggle, and distance or alternative learning environments.
With concluding guidance on adapting or creating additional rich tasks for your students, this guide will help you give all of your students the deepest, most enriching and engaging mathematics learning experience possible.
“This book’s title reveals its promise. Classroom-Ready Rich Math Tasks offers teachers an abundant collection of practical challenges for engaging their students in building mathematical fluency and developing strategic reasoning—exactly what all the Mathematics Standards expect.”
“I highly recommend this book, which provides a research-based framework for engaging in rich tasks that are connected to and build on previous mathematical understanding, relevant contexts, and students’ experiences and resources, as well as connecting to mathematics teaching practice. The 55 high cognitively demanding tasks included support the development of important mathematics norms, practices, and concepts.”
“By integrating the latest research with a powerful teacher voice, the authors have written a must-read for every teacher of mathematics who wants their students to have a more motivating and powerful classroom experience. But the authors don’t simply argue that teachers include high-cognitive demand tasks in their teaching—they take the next steps and actually demonstrate how to plan for, implement, and support these tasks so each student can authentically engage in doing mathematics!”
“This book answers the often-asked question, ‘Where can I find good tasks?’ The authors have assembled a collection of rich mathematical tasks and provided guidance on how to plan and implement lessons around them in ways that will support opportunities for students to learn mathematics with understanding. This book is a game changer for 2nd and 3rd grade teachers who want their students to do math!”
“The core of great math teaching is the high-quality task, brought to life through rich interactions. These tasks must be engaging and both mathematically and pedagogically generative—of interesting content and mathematical processes and practices. This valuable book is filled with such tasks, as well as guidance in planning and implementing them and materials for maximum enjoyment and benefit for teachers and their students.”
“Classroom-Ready Rich Math Tasks, Grades 2–3 is an excellent resource for teachers, teacher educators, and professional development providers who want to engage students in high-level, cognitively demanding mathematics tasks. The book does an excellent job of explaining the why and the how of implementing doing mathematics tasks. To top it off, this book has a treasure trove of rich mathematics tasks for teachers to choose from.”
“This book takes the mystery out of how to implement rich, engaging tasks. It supports teachers with appropriately facilitating productive struggle and formative assessment through strengths spotting, and includes loads of fantastically written tasks. No longer will teachers need to hunt for tasks to utilize in their classrooms or struggle with how to structure environments that promote deep learning.”
“Finding the right task that invites young learners to think and reason mathematically isn’t always easy. This impressive book offers various high-quality tasks and addresses planning and implementation considerations. It is an invaluable resource for everyone who strives to provide worthwhile learning experiences for kindergarten and first grade mathematicians!”
