"BTC just got easier to do in your classroom! We have said for years and years that students need to be doing the thinking and talking in the math classroom. This book gives you the tools to actually do it! Whether you've read the original Building Thinking Classrooms book or not, this book gives you MORE...more tasks, more insights, more ideas. If you want to get kids thinking, add this book to your collection."
--Christina Tondevold, Founder of Build Math Minds
2025 Build Math Minds Summer Book Study for Elementary Math Educators
Starting July 14th, 2025:
- Week 1 - Attributes of Good Thinking Task and How, When, & Where to Give Them
- Week 2 - Tips for Increasing Student Thinking & Engagement
- Week 3 - Research-Driven Ways to Build Student Skills
- Week 4 - Thinking Classroom Tasks & How to Make Your Own
"Having students sit in their desks worked well in the post-industrial model of education when the goals of education were conformity and compliance, and school served as a vehicle for preparing factory workers. But if the goal is to think, we are going to have to do things differently. What BTC showed us was that to achieve 21st century goals we needed to get away from the 19th century classroom - we needed new practices." --Peter & Maegan
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Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classroom Grades K-5 by Peter Liljedahl and Maegan Giroux is the follow up to Building Thinking Classrooms that every elementary teacher who is implementing BTC needs to have.
During the book study we will NOT be investigating the tasks in the book because they are fabulous and there isn't much to investigate. When school starts back up, just open up the book and start implementing the tasks using the information you gain through the book study.
The tasks are the majority of Part 2 and 3 in the book. During the 4 weeks of the book study we will be mainly looking at Part 1 and Part 4 of the book.
From the back of the book:
"...this book is so much more than simply a collection of good thinking tasks. It delves deeper into the implementation of the 14 practices from the BTC framework by updating the practices with the newest research and focusing on the practice through the lens of rich math tasks that address specific mathematical learning outcomes or standards."