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Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics

Building Community in the Elementary Classroom

By: Susan Jo Russell, Deborah Schifter

A powerful resource that fosters a true sense of community, this book focuses on a dual commitment: to teaching deep and challenging mathematics and to equitable participation for all students in the classroom.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781071947739
Published By: Corwin
Series: Corwin Mathematics Series
Year: 2024
Page Count: 256
Publication date: November 12, 2024

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Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.

Description

Creating mathematical community in elementary classrooms to support equitable engagement in deep mathematical content

What does a mathematical community look like in an elementary classroom? How do teachers engage young mathematicians in deep and challenging mathematical content? How do we ensure that every student contributes their voice to this community?

Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics: Building Community in the Elementary Classroom focuses on a dual commitment: to teaching deep and challenging mathematics and to equitable participation for all students in the classroom community. With practical strategies and real-life examples, Susan Jo Russell and Deborah Schifter offer a design for building community organized around four key aspects: every voice matters; collaboration supports student agency; student-created representations offer anchors, openings, and depth; and students become initiators and advocates for their own learning. Each chapter examines how teachers implement these ideas through video examples from six public elementary-school classrooms.

A powerful resource for any educator interested in a mathematics education that fosters a true sense of community, this book

Provides a window into a learning community of educators applying their understanding of mathematics to develop a teaching practice that fosters students’ curiosity, meaning-making, and mathematical agency
Presents vivid examples of teachers and students in diverse classrooms engaged in rich mathematical tasks and deep collaborative conversations, inviting readers to reflect on their practices and students' learning
Engages readers in math investigations to help them understand student thinking, provides reflection questions about the classroom video, and offers suggestions for taking next steps in one's own practice
Includes commentaries on the videos by a group of “critical friends”—educators with deep experience in mathematics and equity—and by the teachers of the classrooms in the videos
Offers free online tools for professional development and book study groups, including a Facilitator’s Guide and a Notes Organizer, and suggests resources for continued learning.

This book is a must-read for anyone passionate about creating positive change in the mathematics education system and ensuring that every student has the opportunity to thrive in their mathematical journey.

Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics includes commentaries by:

Collaborating Teachers:
Quayisha Clarke, Emmanuel Fairley-Pittman, Natasha Gordon, Jeff Parks, Isabel Schooler, and Michelle Sirois

Critical Friends:
Cindy Ballenger, Virginia Bastable, Yi Law Chan, Marta Garcia, Lynne Godfrey, Hetal Patel, and Darlene Ratliff

Author(s)

Susan Jo Russell

Susan Jo Russell began her career in education as a K-3 classroom teacher and elementary mathematics coach. For the last four decades, she has been a senior researcher at TERC, a nonprofit organization that focuses on mathematics and science education, where she directed projects on children’s mathematical understanding and on supporting teachers to learn more about mathematics and about children's mathematical thinking. She spearheaded the original development and second edition of the K-5 mathematics curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data and Space, and contributed to the conceptualization of the Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics. In recent years, her research has centered on how students engage in early algebra, number and operations, and mathematical argument, and how to support teachers to engage all of their students in high-level mathematical reasoning.

Deborah Schifter

Deborah Schifter has worked as an applied mathematician; has taught elementary, secondary, and college level mathematics; and, since 1985, has been a mathematics teacher educator and educational researcher at Mount Holyoke College and at the Education Development Center. She authored Reconstructing Mathematics Education: Stories of Teachers Meeting the Challenge of Reform and edited a two-volume anthology of teachers' writing, What's Happening in Math Class? for which she received the American Educational Research Association Professional Service Award in recognition of an outstanding contribution relating research to practice. She was a writer for The Mathematical Education of Teachers as well as the second and third editions of the K-5 curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. Her recent research has focused on students’ mathematical generalizations and how students use a variety of representations to explain why such generalizations are true.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: What Is Mathematical Community?

Part One: Every Voice Matters

Chapter 1: Creating Multiple Openings into Engaging Mathematics

Chapter 2: Establishing Expectations and Structures for a Participatory Mathematics Community

Chapter 3: Making Space and Time for Every Student

Chapter 4: Encouraging Persistence

Part Two: Collaboration Supports Student Agency

Chapter 5: Noticing Patterns as a Gateway to Building Mathematical Ideas Together

Chapter 6: Collaboratively Building Towards a Conjecture

Chapter 7: Centering Students’ Ideas to Formulate a Class Conjecture

Part Three: Student-Created Representations Offer Anchors, Openings, and Depth

Chapter 8: Raising Student Voices through Student-Created Representations

Chapter 9: Looking Across Representations

Chapter 10: Facilitating Critique and Revision of Student-Created Representations

Part Four: Students Become Initiators and Advocates for Their Own Learning

Chapter 11: Supporting Students to Take Charge of Their Own Learning

Chapter 12: Normalizing Confusion

Conclusion: What To Do Next

Appendix A: Mathematical Generalizations Explored in This Book

Appendix B: Resources for Continued Learning

Reviews

While reading this book and watching the videos, I found myself wishing that I had read it when I was a classroom teacher. The authors give readers a window into a learning community of educators as they apply their new sense-making about mathematics to their teaching. While the academic content is mathematics, we are guided through the creation of a community where each learner’s sense of self and agency is strengthened around their own learning.

Janice E. Jackson
Boston Public Schools

Other Titles in: Mathematics | Elementary Teaching Methods

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Related Resources

Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.
Chapter 1: Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics [Book Excerpt]
Introduction: Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics [Book Excerpt]
Professional Development Guide: Interweaving Equitable Participation and Deep Mathematics [Study Guide]