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Brain-Compatible Mathematics

Second Edition
By: Diane L. Ronis

Foreword by Bena Kallick

Recharge your math instruction with brain-friendly teaching units!

This second edition bridges the world of brain research with improved mathematics instruction through updated teaching samples, connections to the most recent standards, new research findings, and integration with other content areas. The author provides teachers and math leaders with an abundance of sample lessons, units, and strategies linked to the 2000 NCTM standards while providing:

Brain friendly strategies for math teaching that meets NCLB requirements
How-to guides for creating more brain-tuned math teaching
Ideas for incorporating technology into the math curriculum
Planning templates for immediate use

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412939386
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2006
Page Count: 200
Publication date: September 26, 2006

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Description

Recharge your math instruction with brain-friendly teaching units!

Students' brains are wired to make them natural, curious learners. The mathematical world around them offers a vast classroom, filled with shapes, spaces, quantities, and experiences to discover and explore, all leading to the construction of understanding. Teachers can use this natural curiosity to tap the inborn neural mechanisms that motivate students to learn—to make relevance and meaning of their surroundings. Brain-Compatible Mathematics, Second Edition bridges the findings from the realms of brain research and improved mathematics instruction through updated teaching samples, connections to the most recent standards, newest research findings, and integration to other content areas.

Each brain is different, and when teachers teach problem-solving skills to help students arrive at their own solution paths, students go beyond mere memorization of facts and algorithms to being an actual participant in the development of mathematical understanding. In an informative and relevant approach, Diane Ronis presents teachers and math leaders with an emphasis on thinking, mathematical representation, and construction of ideas and an abundance of:

Sample lessons, units, and strategies linked to 2000 NCTM standards
Brain-friendly strategies for math teaching that meet NCLB requirements
How-to guides for creating more brain-tuned math teaching
Ideas for incorporating technology into the math curriculum
Planning templates for immediate use

By integrating math learning into real-world applications, students can actively practice what they learn, make meaning out of their everyday experiences, and think mathematically for success within today's information age.

Key features

Incorporates brain friendly strategies for teaching of mathematics
Connects brain friendly math to meeting requirements of NCLB
Provides sample lessons for immediate use
Guides the how-to for creating more brain-tuned math teaching
Incorporates technology
Models content-integrated teaching and learning
Links units to 2000 NCTM standards

Author(s)

Diane L. Ronis

Diane Ronis is a professor of education at Southern Connecticut State University and has a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. Her drive to make learning meaningful to all students comes from 17 years of teaching middle school and high school mathematics and fine arts as well as eight years of experience instructing preservice teachers at the college and graduate level. Ronis has been a presenter and keynote speaker at numerous conferences, workshops and seminars, and is the author of Brain Compatible Mathematics, Brain Compatible Assessments, Critical Thinking in Math, Problem Based Learning for Math & Science: Integrating Inquiry and the Internet, and Clustering Standards in Integrated Units.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Publisher's Acknowledgements

Introduction

About the Author

1. Performance-Based Learning and Assessment

Traditional Versus Brain-Friendly Assessments

Importance of Performance Assessment

Alignment of Curriculum and Assessment

Assessment as Continuous Monitoring

Assessment as Tool for Learning

Grades K-2 Units

2. The Six Pillars of Performance Task Development

Set Up Clear Performance Goals

Employ "Authentic" Project Tasks

Teach and Emphasize Criteria Levels and Performance Standards

Provide Models and Demonstrations of Excellence

Teach Strategies Explicitly

Use Ongoing Assessments for Feedback and Adjustments

Brain-Compatible Framework

Grades 3-5 Units

3. Multiple Intelligences and Brain-Compatible Learning

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Multiple Intelligences Model

Assessment for Multiple Intelligences

Grades 6-8 Units

4. Performance-Based Instructional Strategies

Cooperative Learning

Writing and Communicating in the Classroom

Classroom Practice

Challenge Project Unit

5. Problem-Solving Strategies

Instructional Strategies

Problem Exploration

Heuristics

Study Skills, Thinking Skills, and Thinking Processes

Mnemonic Techniques

Organizational Strategies

Patterning

Challenge Project Unit

6. Teaching and Assessing With the Rubric

Scoring Rubrics

Categories for Rubrics

Types of Rubrics

Brain-Compatible Assessment

Challenge Project Unit

7. Teaching and Assessing With the Portfolio

Student Evaluations

Portfolio Assessment

A Portfolio System

Conclusion

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics

Glossary

Resources

Bibliography

Index

Reviews

“Ronis grounds her pedagogy in the current understanding of how the brain operates and in multiple intelligences. This book provides rich classroom examples with management tools to move teachers immediately into practice.”

From the Foreword by Bena Kallick

"Provides theory and practice and carefully grounds pedagogy in the current understanding of how the brain operates and multiple intelligences. The book offers rich classroom examples with management tools to move teachers immediately into practice."

Bena Kallick, Educational Consultant

"A fine key to successful teaching: it takes advantage of a student's natural inclination to learn and pairs this with the latest brain research on learning to provide a set of lessons and strategies linked to 200 UCTM standards. Any math teacher must read this."

California Bookwatch, December 2006

Other Titles in: Mathematics | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles | Learning Styles

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