K5 Mathematical Reasoning and Communication with Dr. Yeap Ban Har

Overview:

Mathematics can, and should, make sense to all learners. When math makes sense, engagement, achievement, and test scores climb. If you would like to learn some of the most effective, research-based and classroom-proven strategies to develop your students’ reasoning and communication skills – all while building new levels of engagement, confidence, and satisfaction in your classroom – this workshop is for you.

When we teach our students to reason – to make useful and logical inferences from a body of information – the mathematics we teach them makes sense.  Their learning deepens and their recall increases. But more importantly, engagement and perseverance soar as they begin to truly enjoy the mathematics we teach them. Mathematics is no longer a seemingly endless and insurmountable list of rules and procedures.

Reasoning shares an integral and inseparable connection with mathematical communication. To experience success in mathematics, our students must be able to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. They should be able to analyze situations, form plausible arguments and be able to communicate their ideas and conclusions to their classmates. Conversely, students should have the communication skills to understand, analyze and respond to the arguments and conclusions formed by their peers.

This workshop will provide participants with the tools and strategies to develop these overarching competencies in their students. Two major focuses will include developing reasoning and communication skills through “Anchor Tasks” and “Math Journals.”

Learning Objectives:

• Pose questions to your students that facilitate rich classroom discourse and logical progressions
• Plan lessons and create tasks that nurture reasoning skills and are accessible to all of your students
• Teach procedures and algorithms through reasoning and problem-solving rather than rote memorization
• Develop fact fluency through reasoning and whole number computation strategies
• Use visual representations to analyze and understand the difficult word problems that students struggle with
• Much more. . .

You’ll leave this workshop feeling empowered and enlightened; armed with practical, effective strategies that you can confidently implement in your classroom the very next day.

ABOUT DR. YEAP BAN HAR

The media has called Dr. Yeap Ban Har “Singapore Math’s Michael Jordan” and “Royalty when it comes to Singapore Math.” He is considered to be one of the most accomplished trainers and speakers in the world on the subjects of K12 Mathematics, and the Singapore approach to teaching mathematics. Dr. Yeap Ban Har taught at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for more than ten years. There he taught a range of teacher education courses and was involved in several funded research programs in mathematics education. For the last eight years, he has held two concurrent positions as the Director of Curriculum and Professional Development at the Pathlight School in Singapore, and the principal of Marshall Cavendish Institute, a global teacher professional development division of Marshall Cavendish Publishers. He has since left his position at Marshall Cavendish Institute to take up a more active role at the Anglo Singapore International School, a Singapore school with three campuses in Thailand. He has authored dozens of textbooks, various titles in mathematics education and scholarly articles. His latest project is the new program, “think! Mathematics” by Shing Lee Publishers, an exciting new elementary Singapore Mathematics program co-authored with the owners of 3R Industries, Drs. Amy and Bill Tozzo.