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Detailed plans for helping elementary students experience deep mathematical learning
The 56 mathematical tasks in this guide will challenge your youngest students to do deep problem-based learning. These ready-to-implement tasks connect concepts, skills, and practices and encourage students to reason, problem-solve, discuss, explore, justify, monitor their own thinking, and connect the mathematics they know to new situations. In other words, these tasks allow students to truly do mathematics! Written with a strengths-based lens, this guide includes:
¿ Complete task-based lessons, referencing mathematics standards and practices, vocabulary, and materials
¿ Downloadable planning tools, student resource pages, and thoughtful questions, and formative assessment prompts
¿ Guidance on preparing, launching, facilitating, and reflecting on each task
¿ Notes on access and equity, focusing on students' strengths, productive struggle, and distance or alternative learning environments.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Doing-Math Tasks: What Are They, Why Are They Important, and How Do I Plan for Implementation?
Chapter 2: Laying the Groundwork for Teaching With Doing-Math Tasks
Chapter 3: Implementing a Doing-Math Task-Based Lesson
Chapter 4: Counting and Cardinality: Counting and Writing Numbers
Chapter 5: Counting and Cardinality: Counting Objects
Chapter 6: Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Patterns and Relationships
Chapter 7: Counting and Comparing
Chapter 8: Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Addition and Subtraction
Chapter 9: Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Addition and Subtraction Relationships
Chapter 10: Number and Operations in Base Ten: Place Value
Chapter 11: Number and Operations in Base Ten: Adding and Subtracting
Chapter 12: Measurement: Comparing, Ordering, Sorting, and Informal Measurement
Chapter 13: Measurement: Time
Chapter 14: Data: Represent and Interpret Data
Chapter 15: Geometry: Distinguishing Attributes and Naming and Identifying Shapes
Chapter 16: Geometry: Composing Shapes and Equal Shares
Chapter 17: Your Turn
About the author
Beth McCord Kobett serves as Professor and Dean in the School of Education at Stevenson University, where she works closely with early childhood, elementary, and middle school preservice teachers. She brings experience as a classroom teacher, mathematics specialist, and university supervisor. Beth served on the NCTM Board and served as president of Association of Maryland Mathematics Teacher Educators. Beth has authored ten mathematics education books and supports professional learning efforts nationwide. She has been honored with awards such as the MCTM Mathematics Educator of the Year and Stevenson’s Rose Dawson Award for Excellence in Teaching. Deeply committed to her students, she strives to create a supportive, strengths-based learning environment that fosters curiosity, collaboration, and meaningful growth.
Francis (Skip) Fennell is professor of education and Graduate and Professional Studies, emeritus at McDaniel College in Maryland. He is a former classroom teacher, principal, and supervisor of instruction, and past president of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the Research Council on Mathematics Learning (RCML), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). He is a recipient of the Mathematics Educator of the Year Award from the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM), the Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from NCSM: Leadership in Mathematics Education, the Excellence in Leadership and Service in Mathematics Teacher Education Award from AMTE, the James Heddens Distinguished Service Award from RCML, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from both MCTM and NCTM. Skip’s many publications including Achieving Fluency: Special Education and Mathematics (NCTM, 2011), and The Formative 5: In Action (Corwin, 2024) have been influenced by his classroom experiences and decades long focus on assessment, number sense, fractions, elementary mathematics specialists and teacher education.
Karen S. Karp is a mathematics educator who focuses on the intersection of mathematics education and special education. She is a former professor at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Louisville where she is professor emerita. Early in her career she received a Development Award from the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation to support more seamless integration between general education and special education. She is the author or co-author of numerous publications including Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades and Elementary and Middle School Mathematics. Karen was on the writing team of the NCTM/CEC Joint position statement on Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities. In 2024, she chaired the Topic Study Group on Teaching Mathematics to Students with Special Needs at the International Congress on Mathematical Education in Australia. She holds teaching/administrative certifications in elementary education, secondary mathematics, K-12 special education, and K-12 educational administration.
Delise Andrews is the 3-5 Mathematics Coordinator for Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska. During her career, she has worked in both rural and urban districts and has taught mathematics to students at every age from Kindergarten through the 8th grade, undergraduate mathematics methods and mathematics content courses for pre-service teachers, and graduate level courses for teachers of mathematics. Delise is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and is a Robert Noyce Master Teaching Fellow. Delise is an active member of the NCTM, serving as a past member and chair of the Professional Development Services Committee, member of regional conference committees, chair of the St. Louis annual conference committee, Professional Services facilitator, and Associate Editor for the Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching K-12 journal. She is a co-author of the Grades K-1 and Grades 4-5 books in the Classroom Ready Rich Math Tasks: Engaging Students in Doing Math series.
Latrenda Knighten is President (2024 - 2026) of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and a retired Mathematics Supervisor from Baton Rouge, LA. She has been an educator for more than 30 years during which she has been a classroom teacher, science specialist, mathematics coach, instructional coach, and a mathematics content provider. An active member of many professional organizations, Latrenda is a past member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Benjamin Banneker Association Board of Directors. She is also the co-author of two books: Classroom-Ready Rich Math Tasks, Grades K - 1 and Five to Thrive: Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Math, K-5.
