Edited by Doris
Mohr, Crystal Walcott, and Peter Kloosterman
Mathematical
Thinking: From Assessment Items to Challenging Tasks is a
compilation of 36 problem-based lessons that encourage students to engage in
productive struggle and deep thinking. Its 36 full-length lessons for grades 2–8
are each inspired by an actual test item from the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Students will be exposed to the
tasks used on assessments, become more confident in solving them, and see how
their problem-solving ability stacks up against students nationwide.
Mathematical
Thinking includes chapters on these subjects: Number and
Operations; Algebraic Thinking; Geometry and Measurement; and Data Analysis,
Statistics, and Probability. Each chapter begins by explaining how its topic
has been treated in the NAEP assessment and what skills its lessons are
designed to build.
Each activity includes
the NAEP item that inspired it, sample student responses, and the percentage of
students who completed it correctly. All activities include these elements:
Learning and performance goals, and a list
of relevant Common Core standards and mathematical practices
A list of materials needed—with all
activity sheets and templates available for download and printing at NCTM’s
More4U website
A step-by-step lesson plan in
Launch-Explore-Summarize format, with questions and prompts to pose to students
and a range of possible responses they might give
Gearing Up and Gearing Down sections to
customize and extend the lessons
With these
assessment-based lessons, teachers can not only help students become more adept
at reaching a correct answer on tests, but they can also help them do so by
becoming better mathematical thinkers and problem solvers.