Teaching Number: Advancing Children′s Skills and Strategies

`As a classroom teacher, I found the stages and instructional strategies very helpful in identifying students′ progress along mathematical development levels′ - Teaching Children Mathematics

`I have tried many of the suggestions and teaching procedures and seen short and long-term success, both with individuals and groups. It will be a valuable resource for the primary-school teacher, especially with older children who need accurate and specialised development. A sound approach to mathematics teaching could be developed from conscientious use of this resource′ - Matthew Alcock, Primary Practice

`This is a highly detailed and well-structured text to support the teaching of number skills at the primary phase with particular emphasis given to the 4-8 years age range. From the outset, the authors take great care to set out their credentials and the scope of their writing. It is clear that the guidance, teaching approach and activities offered in the book have been thoroughly tried and tested throughout the 1990s during research and development work with teachers in Australia, England and the USA in the Mathematics Recovery (MR) and Count Me In Too (CMIT) projects′ - Mathematics in Schools

This book provides a structured approach to the teaching of early numeracy, which has been extensively developed through the Mathematics Recovery and Count Me In Too Projects in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The book lets teachers identify where their students are in terms of number skills, and sets out a strategy for developing their knowledge. The authors show how to advance children′s learning across five stages - emergent, perceptual, figurative, initial number, and facile number. This provides for increasingly sophisticated number strategies. Teaching procedures are organised into key teaching topics, and each includes:

- a clearly defined purpose

- detailed teaching procedures and learning tasks

- application in whole class, small group and individualised settings

- a link to the Learning Framework in Number.

The activities have been tested by practitioners in Australia, the United States and the United States and can be used within each country′s numeracy strategy.

This book will be useful to primary teachers, especially in the early years, mathematics co-ordinators, heads of school, mathematics advisers, learning support personnel, lecturers and educational psychologists.

This book builds on the assessment of children′s strategies set out in the authors′ Early Numeracy (Paul Chapman Publishing 2000)

Dr Robert J. (Bob) Wright holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Queensland (Australia) and a doctoral degree in mathematics education from the University of Georgia. He is an adjunct professor in mathematics education at Southern Cross University in New South Wales. Bob is an inter­nationally recognized leader in assessment and instruction relating to children’s early arithmetical knowledge and strategies, publishing six books, and many articles and papers in this field. His work over the last 25 years has included the development of the Mathematics Recovery Program, which focuses on providing specialist training for teachers to advance the numeracy levels of young children assessed as low-attainers. In Australia and New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, Mexico, South Africa and elsewhere, this programme has been implemented widely, and applied extensively to classroom teaching and to average and able learners as well as low-attainers. Bob has conducted several research projects funded by the Australian Research Council including the most recent project focusing on assessment and intervention in the early arithmetical learning of low-attaining 8- to 10-year-olds.

 

Jim Martland is a member of the International Board of Mathematics Recovery and Founder of the Mathematics Recovery Council (UK and Ireland). He was a Senior Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Liverpool. In his long career in education he has held headships in primary and middle schools and was Director of Primary Initial Teacher Training. In all the posts he continued to teach and pursue research in primary mathematics. His current work is with local education authorities in the UK and Canada, delivering professional development courses on assessing children’s difficulties in numeracy and designing and evaluating teaching interventions.

Garry Stanger has had a wide-ranging involvement in primary, secondary and tertiary education in Australia. He has held positions of Head Teacher, Deputy Principal and Principal, and has been a Mathematics Consultant with the New South Wales Department of Education. He has also taught in schools in the USA. He has worked with Robert Wright on the Mathematics Recovery project since its inception in 1992 and has been involved in the development of the Count Me In Too early numeracy project. His last project before finally retiring was working with Jenny Bednall, Head of Junior School, Trinity South and the thirty teachers at the Trinity College schools in South Australia.