The Mathematics Lesson-Planning Handbook, Grades 6-8
Your Blueprint for Building Cohesive Lessons
- Lois A. Williams - Owner, C&I Mathematics Consulting
- Beth McCord Kobett - Stevenson University
- Ruth Harbin Miles - Mary Baldwin College, VA
Corwin Mathematics Series
Your blueprint to planning Grades 6-8 math lessons that lead to achievement for all learners
When it comes to planning mathematics lessons, do you sometimes feel burdened? Have you ever scrambled for an activity to engage your students that aligns with your state standards? Do you ever look at a recommended mathematics lesson plan and think, “This will never work for my students”?
The Mathematics Lesson-Planning Handbook: Your Blueprint for Building Cohesive Lessons, Grades 6–8 walks you step by step through the process of planning focused, research-based mathematics lessons that enhance the coherence, rigor, and purpose of state standards and address the unique learning needs of your individual students. This resource deepens the daily lesson-planning process for middle school teachers and offers practical guidance for merging routines, resources, and effective teaching techniques into an individualized and manageable set of lesson plans.
The effective planning process helps you
- Identify learning intentions and connect goals to success criteria
- Select resources and worthwhile tasks that make the best use of instructional materials
- Structure lessons differently for traditional and block middle school schedules
- Anticipate student misconceptions and evaluate understanding using a variety of formative assessment techniques
- Facilitate questioning, encourage productive struggle, and close lessons with reflection techniques
This author team of seasoned mathematics educators make lesson planning practical and doable with a useful lesson-planning template and real-life examples from Grades 6–8 classrooms. Chapter by chapter, the decision-making strategies empower teachers to plan mathematics lessons strategically, to teach with intention and confidence, and to build purposeful, rigorous, coherent lessons that lead to mathematics achievement for all learners.
Free resources
6 Tips to Prepare You for Teaching Mathematics in Middle School
You want to teach mathematics to students in the middle grades—but are you ready? Early adolescents have very unique characteristics that you need to be aware of and can capitalize on to facilitate productive lessons. Here are 6 tips from Lois Williams, author of The Mathematics Lesson-Planning Handbook, Grades 6-8, for teaching mathematics in the middle grades that capitalize on middle school students’ characteristics.
Constructing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for Mathematics
In this sample excerpt from The Mathematics Lesson-Planning Handbook, Grades 6-8, learn how to construct your own learning intentions and success criterias for your mathematics lesson plans. These intentions help students take ownership of their learning.