Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching High School (Understanding How to Use Functions)

There are so many things I can highlight about this book! It really is full of treasures for the high school teacher of mathematics who is seeking a way to enhance or refresh his/her mathematics knowledge (content and pedagogical) for teaching. It appears that the authors carefully selected the mathematics content to cover – not everything – but the right things so that teachers can better focus their efforts on the content that matters the most and content that is really driven by conceptual understanding and not just procedures and operations. For instance, the authors’ presentation of types of functions is really thorough and supported by great images and narrative. I really like how each content area is presented through the lens of progression and accompanied by meaningful tasks that teachers can try as they read along. Another thing I appreciated the authors doing is providing classroom video that is aligned with the narrative of the book and that showcases the authors themselves actually teaching what they talk about in the book. This not only adds to the credibility of the book itself, but it supports the reader who asks, “Yeah, but how do I teach tasks like this?” In addition, if readers take time to follow the Task Question Evidence process described in each chapter, respond to questions that accompany each video, and respond to the reflection questions at the end of each chapter, readers will close the book well-equipped to make sense of mathematics for teaching high school students. Thomasenia Lott Adams, Mathematics Teacher Educator/Researcher, University of Florida

Great resource for moving beyond superficial procedural knowledge to developing a rich understanding of the mathematics. What I appreciate the most is that it allows you to actually DO THE MATH while learning! There are also awesome embedded videos so you can see it in action. Videos serve as great launch points for discussions if you are reading the text with a group of colleagues. Personally, I am using this text to help improve my own content knowledge (I'm an elementary teacher) so that I do a better job with my little people. I am currently reading this text with an eighth grade math teacher who said to me, "Wow, I have always been able to do this math, but I never fully understood it."

Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching High School does a great job of helping shift the mindset of teaching mathematics from teacher-centered towards student-centered. The text is organized to provide a clear explanation of the mathematics, and provides videos, tasks, and ideas to help ensure all of our students are able to access and represent grade level content. This tool will be a great resource to ensure that our PLCs are strategically planning for students to engage regularly in appropriate Standards for Mathematical Practice daily. Great self-guided professional development!

The book is PACKED with useful examples as well as LINKS TO VIDEOS where Dr. Safi HIMSELF (and others) are teaching lessons to students. I changed how I used to teach solving radical equations with extraneous solutions after reading this book. Lots of practical insight. I highly recommend this book to all high school math teachers.

Good

I purchased the Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching High School (on twitter #MSMTHS) as a pre-order. The day I received the book, I dove in with some fellow Math Twitter Blogosphere friends (find us on twitter #MTBOS) and we have been working our way through the book together. Juli Dixon, Ed Nolan, and Farshid Safi (the authors) have been participating in the twitter chat and obviously care about maths pedagogy and students' understanding. The book has QR codes with videos of students working through problems and extensive descriptions of what happens in engaging mathematics lessons. The book begins with the quote, "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics" (Paul Halmos). The authors have stood by that statement as each chapter focuses on a big idea of the grade level bands and presents a problem for the reader to do. The problems are followed by questions and guiding statements so that the reader deepens their own understanding of the content. I have learned more HS math in the two weeks I have had this book than I did in four years of HS! I highly recommend this book to math teachers and PLCs to help facilitate teaching for conceptual understanding. Jill Buecking, Ed.D. Math Learning and Instruction Specialist (with a K-6 teaching certificate and specializing in early numeracy!) Eagle, Colorado

As a leader of 6-12 mathematics for a large school district, I find some teachers who are uncomfortable changing instructional practices. Teachers are asked to teach in a way that they may not have ever experienced as a student, and it is our duty to shift our practices and mindsets because our students deserve better! This book addresses the mathematical content knowledge gap that exists for teaching and provides a structure for teachers to engage in mathematics learning at a deeper level. The book guides teachers in making explicit connections among multiple representations as well as vertical connections as the mathematics builds throughout the students' high school experience. I cannot wait to engage in learning around the core beliefs of this book with my high school mathematics teachers!

Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching High School is a great resource for new teachers as well as experienced teachers. This is the ideal book to bring to the math department in all high schools to bring continuity into the classrooms by making sure all classes adhere to the same norms and students are doing the sense making. If you are looking for a way to engage students, provide high cognitive demand tasks and rigor then this book is a must read. Not so sure how to structure your class, then view the video clips included to observe the T.Q.E process in action.