Book Description
Intended for parents and teachers of African American students, this book provides strategies for correcting the racial achievement gap in upper-grade mathematics. Advice is provided on instilling confidence in African American students and on teaching math in a less sterile and theoretical way. Also explored is how critical thinking skills are essential in understanding math. A wealth of ideas is provided on creating relevant word problems to help students better understand basic math functions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

wasted time
The book combines questionable statements (Al Kharizmi is a black mathematician),wrong statements ("mathematics is prevalent in almost all careers and professions"), and mostly trivial statements ("teachers must ...extinguish all negative verbal communications and interactions with the students"). Also you can find there derogatory generalizations aboutstudents ("youth occupy most of their free time watching television, listening to music,playing sports and games, or eating")and teachers ("Educators are producing robots as opposed to thinkers").Some advices suggested by the author are really funny,like the advice to college instructors to"have students develop songs, poems, sories, cartoons or rhymes on some math concept, pricipal,or skill"). What I couldn't find in the book is the answer for the title question.

Essential
Teaching middle school mathematics to inner city students is what I do on a daily basis. This book changed my approach and made a world of a difference in the performance of my students. It changed my perception of reality of unequal access to education in America for most poor African Americans. There is a completely different way that a student looks at the world when he or she may not have had a decent dinner the night prior to coming to school. There are a laundry list of socioeconomic issues that make it almost crucial to approach the teaching of mathematics to most African American students differently. Different motivations for learning is the key to this understanding the author's point of view. This understanding can be appliedfor success in teaching every subject. Changing a student's motivation by using things that are unique to his or her ethnic group as motivation does not constitute racism or advocate the teaching of it -it's common sense!

math book
this is a great book.We use it in our tutoring program.Everyone concerned about Black children should read it. ... Read more

Product Description
This exciting resource provides a unique look into the significant role of classroom discussions in mathematics teaching in grades 1 through 6. Five discussion strategies are introduced to help teachers strengthen students' thinking and learning and help them build connections among mathematical ideas. A valuable outline is provided to help teachers get started using talk in the classroom, plan lessons, and deal with challenges. Two case studies are also included for further insight into how teachers can use talk effectively. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Worth reading and trying strategies for your classroom
Classroom discussions: Using math talk to help students learn. Grades 1-6 is a practical resource that provides a deep look into the importance of the role that communication plays in mathematics learning and teaching. It is a useful and detailed guide for teachers who want to explore the ways on how to bring communication into their mathematics lessons and have students actively engaged in math talk that results in deeper mathematical understanding.
The book provides teachers with a variety of tools and strategies that are an essential part of a classroom where math talk is used. The book gives suggestions on how to get started and what to do when unexpected difficulties arise. The authors of the book also share ideas on components of an effective lesson planning.
To illustrate tools and strategies, vignettes of teachers' discussions with students and case studies are presented in the book. They providing teachers with a deeper insight into how to use math talk more effectively. Readers can also find a full section on the usefulness of math talk for developing students' conceptual knowledge in mathematics "as they build connections among mathematical ideas and concepts that include computation, reasoning, problem solving, terminology, symbol, definitions, and forms of representation".
Trying a new approach or strategy can be challenging for both teachers and students. That is why, as the book recommends, it is important to try one new thing at a time and also give adequate time to learn how to use new tools and strategies.
Overall, the book reads smoothly and is easy to follow. I will recommend reading this book and trying to use some of the tools and strategies discussed in the book in your classroom.
... Read more

Book Description
Under NCLB, students with severe disabilities are expected to makeprogress on state academic content standards in language arts, math, andscience. But what material should educators teach from these three content areas, and how should they teach it? With this groundbreaking textbook,future educators will finally have the answers they need. The first majorresearch-to-practice resource on this critical topic, this text goesbeyond functional and access skills and shows educators how to make thegeneral curriculum accessible to students of all ages with significantcognitive disabilities. Twenty-five of the best-known researchers in thefield. ... Read more

Book Description
The second edition of this highly successful textbook has been completely revised and now includes a new chapter on vectors. Mathematics is the basis of all science and engineering degrees, and a source of difficulty for some students. Jenny Olive helps resolve this problem by presenting the core mathematics needed by students starting science or engineering courses in user-friendly comprehensible terms. First Edition Hb (1998): 0-521-57306-8First Edition Pb (1998): 0-521-57586-9Download Description
This friendly self-help workbook covers mathematics essential to first-year undergraduate scientists and engineers. In the second edition of this highly successful textbook the author has completely revised the existing text and added a totally new chapter on vectors. Mathematics underpins all science and engineering degrees, and this may cause problems for students whose understanding of the subject is weak. In this book Jenny Olive uses her extensive experience of teaching and helping students by giving a clear and confident presentation of the core mathematics needed by students starting science or engineering courses. The book contains almost 800 exercises, with detailed solutions given in the back to allow students who get stuck to see exactly where they have gone wrong. Topics covered include trigonometry and hyperbolic functions, sequences and series (with detailed coverage of binomial series), differentiation and integration, complex numbers, and vectors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Verbose and generally not helpful.
I am a mathematics teacher, at the secondary, community college, and college (undergrad and graduate) level.This book does not address the basic needs of the struggling student, namely: what is mathematics for?Further, the book is verbose so that even the successful student will get bogged down in the sheer magnitude of the book.

A truely fantastic bookl
It has been many years since I studied any maths , and then only at a fairly basic level. This book takes me to places I never knew existed before,but to my amazement I could actually understand what was being taught.I especially found the step by step solutions to the problems most helpful.Unlike some texts that just give you the answers,and you are left wondering "how did they come up with that"? All in all a most user freindly book.

Precalculus the Quick Way with Vectors (i,j,k)
I use this as a precalculus book. I pick it over a normal precalculus for two reasons: one I only wanted to do math that only pertain to science and engineering and second because she had a chapter on vectors which I wanted to learn.
Don't be fool by the size of this book. The book is about the size of a Webster Dictionary but it really doesn't take that long to finish it. She only make you do the average about 6 to 13 problems in each section so you will breeze though the book fairly fast.

One of the best books for self study
As a finance professional, I was becoming overwhelmed with the growing complexity of financial products.Over time, my patch work math education was beginning to fray resulting in growing frustration and loss of confidence.

Jenny Olive's book is very helpful for people entering into a self study math program to bring together their fragmented college level math education and build mathematical understanding. If you were like me, the fast pace of college level courses forced you to cut corners and rush through material without the deep understanding that builds confidence.The book begins with Algebra and moves on to Trig and Calculus.The explanations are extremely lucid and the exercises are put together intelligently to move you toward greater complexity.And yes, there is no substitute for working out the problems as any good mathematician will tell you.I disagree with a previous reviewer on this score. Although, I felt (somewhat arrogantly) that I did not need to review Algebra, I found myself red faced and stuck in some of the more advanced problems.Fortunately the clear explanation and repeated problem solving gave me the insights that I was lacking.I found it helpful to work with a graphing calculator to help visualize some of the mathematics.It's also a great way to learn a graphing calculator!

I understand that Ms. Olive is adding two new chapters to her next edition, which she has kindly made available on her website for persons who own the current version. It would be nice if she would make it available in a downloadable PDF version.

I am hoping that the author will choose to follow this up with similar books on Probability and Linear Algebra.Her recommendations for further reading would also be very helpful.Great math books (and math teachers)are worth their weight in gold.Buy this book for your math library.You won't regret it.

A great review
I didn't take any Math senior year, and I took 2 years off after high school, and now I'm going to be a Computer Science major, so I really needed this book!I bought it a week ago and I'm halfway done, so now Iwon't have to take precalculus over again.The previous reviewer is right,it could include more, but if I have time, I'll just buy a Schwab outlineto cover vectors and so on.One thing about this book is that it has fewexercises, which is fine, because what person self-studying is actuallygoing to do 30 exercises . . . I would, but the few exercises getsmemoving through the material faster. ... Read more

Product Description
Daily Practice. Mixed Review. Test Prep. Supplement to Investigations in number, data, and space. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not worth it. Useless
Useless book for a grade 2 kid. it is a book for parents not for the child. One has to read and give instructions to the kid to make mathematical observations during our daily lifes. what a piece of S**T. Not even worth a $1.00 i paid plus $3.99 shipping. Don.t buy this book.

As an editor
I came across this book almost a year ago now.I didn't think much of it at the time, but as worked progressed (I am a grade school math books editor myself) I found that the UCSMP Everyday Mathematics Student Reference Book was superior to the text that I was currently working on.Its now disappointing to see my publsiher work they way they do, but reassuring to know that some people still care enough to put out a quality product. ... Read more