Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, 6-12 - Softcover

Kaplinsky, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1625311745 ISBN 13: 9781625311740

Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers, 2019

Synopsis

Imagine that you assign a math problem and your students, instead of getting discouraged after not solving it on the first attempt, start working harder—as if on a quest to figure out the answer. They talk to each other and enthusiastically share their discoveries. What could possibly make this fantastic scenario come true? The answer is: the Open Middle math problems and strategies in this book.

Open Middle Math by Robert Kaplinsky gives middle and high school teachers the problems and planning guidance that will encourage students to see mathematics in an entirely different light. These challenging and rewarding Open Middle math problems will help you see your students build genuine conceptual understanding, perseverance, and creativity.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Implement Open Middle math problems that are simultaneously accessible for both students who are struggling and those looking for more challenge.
• Select and create Open Middle math problems that will help you detect students' misconceptions and strengthen their conceptual understanding.
• Prepare for and facilitate powerful classroom conversations using Open Middle math problems.
• Access resources that will help you continue learning beyond this book.

With these practical and intuitive strategies, extensive resources, and Robert’s own stories about his journey learning to use Open Middle math problems successfully, you will be able to support, challenge, and motivate all your students.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Kaplinsky has worked in education since 2003 as a classroom teacher, teacher specialist for Downey Unified School District, instructor for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and presenter at conferences around the world. He’s also the co-founder of the website OpenMiddle.com.

Review

Open Middle Math gives teachers valuable guidance on creating safe and discovery-rich conversational spaces where students find learning math can be fun. -- Carole Seubert

Robert Kaplinsky's Open Middle Math provides teachers with ready-made resources and practical strategies so their students can enjoy learning math through challenging problems they’ll look forward to solving. -- Andrew Stadel

This book is an amazing resource for teachers who are striving to help students develop both procedural fluency and conceptual understanding. Open Middle problems provide students with the opportunity to move beyond traditional procedural practice problems to explore mathematical relationships more deeply. In addition, Open Middle problems provide teachers with insights into what students really understand about the procedures they learned and important formative assessment data they can use to modify instruction. This book is a very practical guide to implementing a new class of tasks that have the potential to improve student learning!

-- Dr. Margaret Smith

Do you ever wish you could get a glimpse into a designer’s mind for how they implement their innovation? Robert Kaplinsky’s Open Middle Math gives educators an inside look into how Open Middle problems are designed to assist students to engage in, learn from, and persevere in productive struggle. Robert has always been willing to share his learning progress, struggles, and mistakes openly. Through his humility, he encourages readers to remember the joy that comes with productively struggling with a mathematics problem, and that we often learn more from the journey of solving than arriving at a solution. The mathematics education community will simply devour this delicious book.

-- Lauren Baucom

Robert offers teachers strategies for adding openness and richness to problems that are at first closed and meager. So take heart, teachers! The interest and learning of your students aren’t dictated by the problems in your textbook as you first find them, only by your imagination and design.

-- Dan Meyer

WARNING: Your students may not leave your mathematics classroom when the bell rings if you start using Open Middle tasks. In his book, Robert Kaplinsky gives math educators a roadmap to effectively implement Open Middle Math with tips, multiple examples at each secondary level, answers to the ‘what ifs,’ resources, and structures for creating your own tasks. . . . Open Middle Math is a quick read. A must-read. A read with the potential for immediate transformation of the quality of discourse in your classroom.”

-- Sara Vanderwerf

Edition details

• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1625311745
• ISBN 13: 9781625311740
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192