A Focus on Addition and Subtraction: Bringing Mathematics Education Research to the Classroom

This innovative text offers a unique approach to making mathematics education research on addition, subtraction, and number concepts readily accessible and understandable to pre-service and in-service teachers of grades K–3.

Revealing students’ thought processes with extensive annotated samples of student work and vignettes characteristic of teachers’ experiences, this book provides educators with the knowledge and tools needed to modify their lessons and improve student learning of additive reasoning in the primary grades. Based on research gathered in the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP), this engaging, easy-to-use resource features practical resources such as:

• A close focus on student work, including 150+ annotated pieces of student work, to help teachers improve their ability to recognize, assess, and monitor their students’ errors and misconceptions, as well as their developing conceptual understanding;
• A focus on the OGAP Addition, Subtraction, and Base Ten Number Progressions, based on research conducted with hundreds of teachers and thousands of pieces of student work;
• In-chapter sections on how Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSSM) are supported by math education research;
• End-of-chapter questions to allow teachers to analyze student thinking and consider instructional strategies for their own students;
• Instructional links to help teachers relate concepts from each chapter to their own instructional materials and programs;
  
• An accompanying eResource, available online, offers an answer key to Looking Back questions, as well as a copy of the OGAP Additive Framework and the OGAP Number Line Continuum.

A Focus on Addition and Subtraction marks the fourth installment of the popular A Focus on… collection, designed to aid the professional development of pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers. Following from previous volumes on ratios and proportions, multiplication and division, and fractions, this newest addition is designed to bridge the gap between what math education researchers know and what teachers need to know in order to better understand evidence in student work and make effective instructional decisions.

Caroline B. Ebby is a Senior Researcher at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth T. Hulbert is Managing Partner and Professional Development Coordinator at the Ongoing Assessment Project.

Rachel M. Broadhead is Project Director for the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative, University of South Alabama.