Children's books provide an authentic context for using mathematics. They celebrate mathematics as a language for describing and framing our world. And they are also a nonthreatening vehicle for investigating a variety of mathematical concepts and relationships.
Read Any Good Math Lately? acquaints readers with some of the best children's literature containing a mathematical subtext, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, books of games and puzzles, books that reflect different cultures. The titles are diverse, but they all address a range of mathematical topics: place value, estimation, large numbers, geometry, measurement, fractions, classification, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Plus comprehensive bibliographies of books for all ages are provided for further exploration.
Filled with children's work and numerous classroom scenarios, Read Any Good Math Lately? demonstrates the rich potential literature holds for engaging learners in a variety of mathematical investigations. It is an invitation to teachers, parents, and librarians to make the reading and sharing of good literature a natural part of mathematics teaching and learning.
About the Author: David J. Whitin is a Professor of Elementary Education at Wayne State University, where he teaches courses in mathematics education and elementary school curriculum. David has been an elementary school principal and teacher. David has a Baccalaureate degree from Princeton University, a master's degree from Boston University, an M.A.T. from the University of New Hampshire, and a doctorate in elementary education from Indiana University. David's presentations are lively and interactive. He involves teachers themselves in a variety of experiences so that they have the opportunity to reflect on their own learning. He shares numerous samples of children's work to demonstrate how teachers have enacted these beliefs about learning in creative ways. He has frequently spoken for such groups as NCTE, NCTM, IRA and many groups nationally and internationally.
Sandra Wilde, Ph.D., is the author of numerous Heinemann professional books including Quantity & Quality and Funner Grammar as well as the firsthand classroom resource Strategic Spelling. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developmental spelling and her advocacy of holistic approaches to spelling and phonics. She is Professor of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is best known for her work in invented spelling, phonics and miscue analysis. She specializes in showing teachers how kids' invented spellings and miscues can help us work with them in more sophisticated and learner-centered ways. Looking at what kids do as they read and write is at the heart of Sandra's presentations and workshops. She can do lively keynote presentations that highlight the interesting things that we can learn by paying close attention to students' invented spellings and miscues, as well as workshops of varying lengths that focus on student-centered teaching of spelling and phonics. She has recently begun offering workshops that focus on understanding students' miscues as a guide to appropriate instruction, particularly for struggling readers. She lives in New York City. Sandra is quoted in this Huffington Post article about trends in grammar instruction in the Common Core era.
