Teaching Math
Grades 6-8
This course shows teachers how to develop effective ways to use the five National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards to teach mathematics to all students at the 6-8 level.
Session 1: The Process Standards
This session introduces the five process standards and illustrates ways to put these
standards together. You will learn to plan classes that will help students see mathematics
as an integrated whole that is useful for solving problems.
Session 2: Communication
This session illustrates methods for facilitating classroom conversations to optimize
mathematical discourse and help students learn to read and write about mathematics.
Session 3: Problem Solving
This session concentrates on ways to choose problems to introduce new mathematical
concepts and to help students learn to pose and solve problems and self-monitor their problem solving processes.
Session 4: Reasoning and Proof
This session shows teachers how to help students reason about a problem and then extend
what they already know so they can make a conjecture and provide a convincing
argument as to why that conjecture is or is not true.
Session 5: Representation
This session examines particular mathematical problems and shows how different
representations of a situation can highlight different characteristics of the problem.
Session 6: Connections
This session focuses on problems that connect mathematical disciplines as well
as problems from disciplines outside mathematics.
How to take this course Teacher Talk
