Today is yet another post about the book “Good Questions for Math Teaching”!

Remember, every other week we will be bringing you posts from the two “sister” books…one geared more for elementary, and one geared more for middle.  Jennifer from “Teaching to Inspire in 5th” and I will be handling the elementary posts and today is the third one!

Today’s section is called “Space” and is filled with ways for elementary students to explore geometric concepts including:

1.  location and position

2.  2 dimensional shapes

3.  3 dimensional shapes

The text really stresses having students manipulate and explore shapes so that they can better develop their understanding of rules, features, and definitions.  I really love how many of the activities mentioned reminded me of my concept sort activities, so I feel good about many of the things I am doing with my students!  I also feel that many of the questions featured would be GREAT math class starters and would be fantastic for working on mathematical discourse!  Here’s one great example:

“Tan told me he drew a shape that had no diagonals.  What might his shape look like?”

So…if you are reading along with us, here are a few questions for you to chime in on!

1.  If you currently use a series, do you feel that geometry and “space” concepts are covered in a constructivist way or a more “there’s one right answer” way?

2.  What do you feel is the most difficult part of teaching geometric concepts to your students?

3.  Looking through the problems presented in chapter 6, which ones caught your eye?  Which problems could serve as a model for you to use in your own classroom?  

So…let’s hear it!  If you HAVE read the book…let me know. If you haven’t, I’d love for you to still chime in and let us know your thoughts about any of the above questions!  Simply add your ideas to the comments–and feel free to “piggy back” off each other!  To be a book study, we need to get that conversation going!