Putting Essential Understanding of Geometry and Measurement Into Practice in Grades 3–5

Do your students have “concept images” that limit their ideas of shapes to specific examples, oriented in particular ways? Do they confuse the size of an angle with the length of the rays in a drawing of an angle? When solving problems, do they mix up the concepts of perimeter—the distance around a shape, measured in linear units—and area—the region within the shape, measured in square units?

What tasks can you offer—what questions can you ask—to determine what they know or don’t know—and move them forward in their thinking?

This book focuses on the specialized pedagogical content knowledge that you need to teach geometry and measurement effectively in grades 3–5. The authors demonstrate how to use this multifaceted knowledge to address the big ideas and essential understandings that students must develop for success with geometry and measurement—not only in their current work, but also in higher-level mathematics and a myriad of real-world contexts.

Explore rich, research-based strategies and tasks that show how students are reasoning about and making sense of geometry and measurement. Use the opportunities that these and similar tasks provide to build on their understanding while identifying and correcting misunderstandings that may be keeping them from taking the next steps in learning.

Putting Essential Understanding of Geometry and Measurement into Practice in Grades 3–5 is the eighth title in NCTM’s highly useful and very readable Putting Essential Understanding into Practice Series, edited by Barbara J. Dougherty. Each volume in the series builds on the companion volume in the earlier Essential Understanding Series to show teachers how to implement their understanding of mathematics in the classroom.