Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction

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We know that differentiated instruction helps all students to learn. Yet DI challenges teachers, and nowhere more than in mathematics. Now math education expert Marian Small cuts through the difficulties with two powerful and universal strategies that teachers can use across all math content: Open Questions and Parallel Tasks. Showing teachers how to get started and become expert with these strategies, Small also demonstrates more inclusive learning conversations that promote broader student participation. Specific strategies and examples for each grade band are organized around the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) content strands: Number and Operations, Geometry, Measurement, Algebra, and Data Analysis and Probability.

To help K–8 teachers differentiate math instruction with less difficulty and greater success, this resource:

• Underscores the rationale for differentiating math instruction.
• Describes two universal, easy-to-implement strategies designed to overcome the problems that teachers encounter.
• Offers almost 300 questions and tasks that teachers and coaches can adopt immediately, adapt, or use as models to create their own.
• Includes Teaching Tips sidebars and an organizing template at the end of each chapter to help readers build new tasks and open questions.
• Shows how to create a more inclusive classroom learning community with mathematical talk that engages participants from all levels.

Marian Small is the former Dean of Education at the University of New Brunswick. A longtime professor of mathematics education, she speaks widely and consults with schools and districts to help teachers and coaches in the United States, Canada, and Bhutan.