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13497_preface

The document discusses the development of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989, which aimed to enhance the mathematics curriculum for grades K-12. It introduces a collection of problems and activities for middle school mathematics, emphasizing representation, generalization, problem solving, and connections, aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The book is organized into four chapters and includes adapted problems from the original Addenda series, providing resources for teachers to implement effective mathematics instruction.

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5 views

13497_preface

The document discusses the development of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989, which aimed to enhance the mathematics curriculum for grades K-12. It introduces a collection of problems and activities for middle school mathematics, emphasizing representation, generalization, problem solving, and connections, aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The book is organized into four chapters and includes adapted problems from the original Addenda series, providing resources for teachers to implement effective mathematics instruction.

Uploaded by

ika septiana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction

Introduction

I n march 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics officially


released Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM
1989). The document provided a vision and a framework for strengthening the
mathematics curriculum in kindergarten through grade 12 in North American
schools. During NCTM’s development of the document, it became apparent that
the document would need a plethora of examples to illustrate how to implement
the vision in the grades K−12 classroom. This, in turn, led to NCTM inviting
leaders in the mathematics education community to write a series of supplemen-
tary books for teachers. The purpose of those books, referred to as the Addenda
series, was to support the implementation of the 1989 Standards document. Al-
though NCTM has produced a number of documents since then (e.g., Principles
and Standards for School Mathematics [2000]; Curriculum Focal Points for Pre-
kindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence [2006]), each
one builds on and refines the original vision set forth in Curriculum and Evalu-
ation Standards. Therefore, much of the content in the Addenda series applies as
extensively today as it did the 1990s. In this spirit, NCTM’s Educational Materi-
als Committee invited us, Elizabeth Phillips and Judith Zawojewski, in 2006 to
coordinate developing this book as a collection of the best of the Addenda series,
grades 5−8.
The problems selected for this book represent important content for today’s
middle school mathematics curriculum. We chose them because they emphasize
the roles of representation, generalization, problem solving, and connections in
mathematics learning and teaching. These four practices first put forth by NCTM
(2000) also appear in the set of Mathematical Practices that the Common Core
State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) described in 2010. The eight Math-
ematical Practices are as follows:
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them;
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively;
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others;
4. Model with mathematics;
5. Use appropriate tools strategically;
6. Attend to precision;
7. Look for and make sense of structure; and
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

1
Reasoning and Sense-Making Problems and Activities for Grades 5−8

We do not intend the resulting set of problems to be comprehensive, because


complete coverage is not possible in a book of this size. Therefore, we left many
worthy problems and activities behind, as opportunities for the reader to revisit
some of the experiences from the original series. Further, the introduction to
each of the series’ original books is a rich source of information on that book’s
mathematics content. We believe that all the original books would be well worth
a reread.
We have organized this book into four chapters: Number and Operations,
Measurement and Geometry, Data and Chance, and Algebra. The chapters
draw on a variety of problems that the Addenda series, Grades 5−8—Develop-
ing Number Sense in the Middle Grades; Understanding Rational Numbers and
Proportions; Measurement in the Middle Grades; Geometry in the Middle Grades;
Dealing with Data and Chance; and Patterns and Functions—originally pub-
lished. We have placed some of the problems that occurred in a given chapter in
the Addenda in different chapters. For example, problem 10 in chapter 1, Num-
ber and Operations, originally occurred in the Patterns and Functions book. To
present all the various problems and activities in one publication, we adapted the
original work to fit a common format and provide consistent support for imple-
menting the activities. Therefore, although we have noted each problem’s origin,
we adapted, added to, and subtracted from the original work to create a cohesive
set of experiences for this book. We composed each problem with a goal state-
ment, a list of the needed materials, possible solutions, teacher’s notes, and ideas
for extensions. The teacher’s notes include the problem’s mathematical goals,
essential information for implementing the problem, elaboration on students’
possible strategies, sample questions for use in class discussion, and commentary
on and answers to the questions. Throughout the book we have identified some
situations that represent the CCSSM Mathematical Practices. Since all the prob-
lems and activities in this book reflect the Mathematical Practice, “Make sense of
problems and persevere in solving them,” we have not always listed this practice.
We invite the reader to look for more instances of the Mathematical Practices
and to add more questions, explanation, organization, and pedagogy to adapt the
experiences to each unique classroom setting.
We hope that you find this rich collection of activities a valuable resource
as it supplements your curriculum, and that it helps you, together with your
students, develop deeper understandings of, and appreciation for, the important
ideas in middle school mathematics.

2
Introduction

References
Bezuk, Nadine. “From the File: Easy Pieces.” Arithmetic Teacher 36 (February 1989): 3.
Curcio, Frances J., Nadine S. Bezuk, Barbara E. Armstrong, Alice F. Artzt, Heidi
Janzen, Steven T. Klass, Tami Martin, J. Lewis McNeece, Claire M. Newman,
Francine Sicklick, Susan B. Turkel, and Judith S. Zawojewski. Understanding
Rational Numbers and Proportions. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics, 1994.
Geddes, Dorothy, Julianna Bove, Irene Fortunato, David J. Fuys, Jessica Morgenstern,
and Rosamond Welchman-Tischler. Geometry in the Middle Grades. Reston,
Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1992.
Geddes, Dorothy, Robert Berkman, Iris Fearon, Michael Fishenfeld, Caroline Forlano,
David J. Fuys, Jodi Goldstein, and Rosamond Welchman. Measurement in the
Middle Grades. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1994.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Curriculum and Evaluation
Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, Va.: NCTM, 1989.
———. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, Va.: NCTM, 2000.
———. Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics:
A Quest for Coherence. Reston, Va.: NCTM, 2006.
Phillips, Elizabeth, Theodore Gardella, Constance Kelly, and Jacqueline Stewart. Patterns
and Functions. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1991.
Reys, Barbara J., Rita Barger, Maxim Bruckheimer, Barbara Dougherty, Jack Hope, Linda
Menbke, Zvia Markovits, Andy Parnas, Sue Reehm, Ruthi Sturdevant, and
Marianne Weber. Developing Number Sense in the Middle Grades. Reston, Va.:
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1992.
Zawojewski, Judith S., Gary Brooks, Lynn Dinkelkamp, Eunice D. Goldberg, Howard
Goldberg, Arthur Hyde, Tess Jackson, Marsha Landau, Hope Martin, Jeri
Nowakowski, Sandy Paull, Albert P. Shulte, Philip Wagreich, and Barbara
Wilmot. Dealing with Data and Chance. Reston, Va.: National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics, 1991.

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