Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding, Grades 6-8
Common Holes and Misconceptions and What To Do About Them
- John SanGiovanni - Howard Public School System
- Jennifer Rose Novak
Corwin Mathematics Series
Being an effective math educator is one part based on the quality of the tasks we give, one part how we diagnose what we see, and one part what we do with what we find. Yet with so many students and big concepts to cover, it can be hard to slow down enough to look for those moments when students’ responses tell us what we need to know about next best steps. In this remarkable book, John SanGiovanni and Jennifer Rose Novak help us value our students’ misconceptions and incomplete understandings as much as their correct ones—because it’s the gap in their understanding today that holds the secrets to planning tomorrow’s best teaching.
The authors lay out 180 high-quality tasks aligned to the standards and big ideas of Grades 6–8 mathematics, including number systems, integers, ratio and proportion, equations and expressions, geometry, and statistics and probability. The tasks are all downloadable so you can use or modify them for instruction and assessment. Each big idea offers a starting task followed by:
- what makes it a high-quality task
- what you might anticipate before students work with the task
- four student examples of the completed task showcasing a distinct “gap”
- commentary on what precisely counts for mathematical understanding and the next instructional steps
- commentary on the misconception or incomplete understanding so you learn why the student veered off course
- three additional tasks aligned to the mathematics topic and ideas about what students might do with these additional tasks
It’s time to break our habit of rushing into re-teaching for correctness and instead get curious about the space between right and wrong answers. Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding is a book you will return to again and again to get better at selecting tasks that will uncover students’ reasoning, better at discerning the quality and clarity of students’ understanding, and better at planning teaching based on the gaps you see.
“Wow! This book is a treasure trove for middle school teachers and those who support middle level mathematics education. The tasks presented are top notch, the student work is illustrative of classrooms, and the suggestions for how to respond are incredible! Each of these three would make a great resource—to have them all blended together is outstanding.”
“Mine the Gap for Mathematical Understanding provides the framework and guidance teachers need to move beyond finding correct answers to dig deeply into the mine of student thinking, to analyze misconceptions and gaps in understanding, and to develop and implement specific strategies to support every student in deep mathematics learning. Every teacher of mathematics needs this amazing resource to learn to mine the gaps for each of their students!”
“This work does what other books only attempt to do. It combines instruction, assessment, and practice with open-ended and rich tasks that allow for teachers to not only immediately implement the ideas but also understand the content and pedagogy behind them. The tasks, which are immediately implementable and customizable, engage each and every learner. They are based on cutting-edge and research-based instructional frameworks and provide countless learning opportunities for students.”
“Mine the Gap is a great tool for teachers to use to grow their own understanding of student misconceptions and incomplete understandings and how to address them. This is an indispensable resource for all involved in supporting students’ growth in mathematics.”
“More than just a nice collection of problems, this book shares a road map for teachers looking to enhance the quality of the math tasks they use with students. Teachers will appreciate the examples of actual student work paired with tips for analysis and instruction.”
“This book helps navigate how to use student work to drive instruction with rich engaging tasks, which will help all students become better mathematicians. The authors have done an excellent job of helping teachers to carefully look at student work to identify how students solved math problems, using this evidence to identify those students who understand the targeted skill, along with the misconceptions or misunderstandings of other students, with suggestions of how to move all students forward in their thinking.”
Helpful examples of student work that illustrate common misconceptions.
Fits course objectives and outcomes.