Investigate Multiplication

"The rich, open investigations we've developed allow children to engage in mathematizing in a variety of ways. We honor children's initial attempts at structuring and modeling their world mathematically, while at the same time supporting and challenging them to ensure that important big ideas and strategies are being developed progressively." -Catherine Twomey Fosnot Learn how to establish a vibrant, collaborative math workshop for students in grades 3 through 5 and how Catherine Fosnotand her colleagues introduce early multiplication strategies and show students how to work with the ratio table and the distributive property. Through 2 foundational books- Investigating Multiplication and Division: Overview and The Big Dinner: Multiplication with the Ratio Table-and nine online video clips, Cathy and her colleagues provide the strategies, lesson plans, and tools you'll need to transform your classroom into a community of young mathematicians. I n the Overview book Cathy provides the professional understandings needed to establish a vibrant math workshop. After chronicling the motivations and ideals that inspire her work, Cathy describes how to help students construct the big ideas, strategies, and models that shape the landscape of learning. Ensuing sections describe the architecture of an investigation and explain how the predictability of this framework fosters independence and collaboration. In addition to describing the management systems that make these investigations rigorous and responsive, Cathy suggests ways to sequence instruction and highlight how units can be used to enhance your existing curriculum. Like the other units in the Contexts for Learning Mathematicsseries,