Every Math Learner: A Doable Approach to Teaching With Learning Differences in Mind, Grades K-5

As an elementary teacher, you know that students are different and learn differently. And yet, when students enter your classroom, you somehow must teach these unique individuals deep mathematics content using rigorous standards. Is differentiation really the answer? How can it be done well and in less time? 

Nationally recognized math differentiation expert Nanci Smith debunks the myths, revealing what differentiation is and isn’t. In this engaging book Smith reveals a practical approach to teaching for real learning differences. You’ll gain insights into an achievable, daily differentiation process for ALL students in the K-5 classroom.

Theory-lite and practice-heavy, this book shows how to maintain order and sanity while helping your students know, understand, and even enjoy doing mathematics. Classroom videos, teacher vignettes, ready-to-go lesson ideas, and rich K-5 mathematics examples help you build a manageable framework of engaging, sense-making math. 

Busy K-5 mathematics teachers, coaches, and teacher teams will learn to

• Provide practical structures for assessing how each of your students learns and processes mathematical concepts
• Design, implement, manage, and formatively assess and respond to learning in a differentiated classroom
• Plan specific, standards-aligned differentiated lessons, activities, and assessments
• Adjust current instructional materials and program resources to better meet students′ needs

This book includes classroom videos, in-depth student work samples, student surveys, templates, before-and-after lesson demonstrations, examples of 5-day sequenced lessons, and a robust companion website with downloadables of all the tools in the books plus other resources for further planning. Every Math Learner, Grades K-5 will help you know and understand your students as learners in order to provide daily differentiation that accelerates their mathematics comprehension.

"Every Math Learner is a powerful tool for educators serious about meeting the needs of all learners in their mathematics classrooms. Nanci Smith balances philosophy with practicality while providing a glimpse into real classrooms with real students. Teachers will ultimately learn how to lift students up to their greatest potential in learning."
―Eileen Hogan, District Mathematics Facilitator, Winnetka District #36

Nanci Smith, founder of Effective Classrooms Educational Consulting (E2C2), is currently a full-time consultant in the areas of differentiated instruction, curriculum, Common Core State Standards, and mathematics. Also ASCD faculty in the differentiated instruction cadre, and a Solution Tree consultant and author on two books in press, Nanci has provided professional development in small, large, urban, rural, and suburban districts in 47 states, as well as the Netherlands, Singapore, and Japan. She has presented at conferences and institutes in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and has helped develop high-quality curriculum in the Philippines. Smith is the math consultant and author of the User′s Guide for ASCD′s Meaningful Math: Leading Students Toward Understanding and Application DVD series and has developed a CD/DVD-based professional development series for middle school math teachers. Her classroom was featured in ASCD′s video series At Work in the Differentiated Classroom. She authored a chapter in the ASCD book Differentiation in Practice, Grades 5 - 9, as well as assorted lessons in other ASCD books on differentiation.