Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally

This is the rare textbook that's worth every penny of its breath-taking price. It's well written, enjoyable, and has relevance for teaching far beyond merely math. I would highly recommend it for home-schooling parents. Back when we went to school, we were just taught procedures: these are the steps in doing long division. Now educators realize it's important for children to be able to think mathematically and to really grasp mathematical concepts, not just follow rote steps. This book will help convince you of that and guide you through it.

Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, Fifth Edition is an extremely practical and useful tool for teachers. Chapters include information for varying grade levels. All chapters relate mathematics instruction to the NCTM content and process standards. Principles of a high quality mathematics program (equity, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment and technology) are presented throughout. Great suggestions for manipulatives and alternative ways to assist student's understanding of the concepts. This text helps the teacher make math "real world" and better yet, fun!

This book has not only taught me to teach math effectively but it has changed the way I understand mathematic concepts as well. I was taught math walking step by step through each chapter in a text book, learning skills and not concepts, learning algorithms rather than developing logical reasoning strategies. Van De Walle has suited me as a textbook for myself and a resource for curriculum planning in my sixth grade math class. I am so thankful to have stumbled into this text - it has been a life saver!

If you learned math from traditional methods or algorithms, you must read this book. Math today is so different from how I learned it. This book explains how and why math has changed so much. I recommend it to teachers and parents alike. The author explains how to teach math using problem-solving. The method makes so much more sense than traditional mathematics. The book is filled with activities for every math concept and age that are easy to find, read, and use without much prep or prop. It also has ideas and resources for including literature and technology into math class. I find it highly valuable as a 3rd year teacher of fifth grade. My district uses the Visual Math program, and this book has helped me understand why visual math works much more than any inservice. I have the fifth edition as a textbook for a methods class, and I'll never leave home without it.

As an elementary teacher and college math methods instructor, I have found this book to be an excellent resource for teaching children math in an engaging, meaningful way. The author includes lots of examples of useful activities for all areas of mathematics. A book I'll use over and over in the years to come...