Anderson, a math coordinator and math teacher, curriculum specialist, and professional development leader, offers 22 activities (comic strips, writing prompts, and sample student work) meant to help students in grades four and five learn from their math mistakes related to whole-number multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, and measurement and geometry. Each activity includes a summary of the math content, the error, and the structure of the activity; relevant Common Core content standards; the prerequisite knowledge or prior experiences that students need; lists of reproducibles, manipulatives, and other tools; the underlying math ideas, possible roots of the mistake, and why the error should be addressed; suggestions for implementation; and additional classroom tasks. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
“You can’t learn to hit a three-point shot without missing a lot of shots. You can’t learn to play a piece of music correctly without striking a lot of wrong notes.” And, as Nancy Anderson explains in
What’s Right About Wrong Answers, “You can’t learn math without making mistakes.”
Nancy turns mistakes on their head and helps you cleverly use them to students’ advantage. Each of the twenty-two activities in this book focuses on important ideas in grades 4–5 mathematics. By examining comic strips, letters to a fictitious math expert from confused students, and sample student work containing mistakes, your learners explore typical math mistakes, reflect on why they’re wrong, and move toward deeper understanding.
Each activity includes:
- a summary of the mathematical content and highlighted error;
- Common Core connections;
- prerequisite knowledge that students need;
- required reproducibles, manipulatives, and other tools;
- the big underlying math ideas; and
- suggestions for implementing the activity.
Each activity can be used to enhance units of instruction and help students prepare for assessments that are aligned with the Common Core and similar state standards.