MathWise Decimals: Skill Set Enrichment and Practice

Skill Set Instruction, Practice and Enrichment

• Fresh, out-of-the-box instruction style that is fun, wacky & effective

• Focuses on single skill sets

• Develops solid number sense

• Challenge problems throughout

Master the fundamentals of fractions, grow in mathematical thinking skills, gain proficiency with number sense, and understand how and why math works the way it does. MathWise Decimals will help teach and explain basic, as well as progressively advanced, decimals skills. The fun, comic-style format appeals to a wide range of students. Speech bubbles are used throughout to give hints and explanations while students are solving math problems.

MathWise Decimals teaches place value, decimal models, decimal-fraction-percent conversions, expanded notation, decimal ordering, and decimal addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The author employs an innovative and visual approach to place value, the “Rainbow Chart,” which he has used successfully in the classroom for many years. The study of fractions, decimals, and percents form the backbone of math instruction before algebra. Students who have used the MathWise materials for all three topics have shown significant growth in number sense and a deeper-level understanding of math in general.

This series of books is designed to be unique and to catch kids’ attention in special ways:

Tips and Tricks

Students have found tips and tricks to be not only helpful and memorable, but also interesting and motivating.

Speech Bubbles with Teacher Insights

Speech bubbles are used to provide guidance, point out insights, or give helpful hints as students are solving math problems. Students learn best by doing, and the instruction given in the speech bubbles is designed to (1) sharpen students’ powers of observation, (2) increase number sense, and (3) instruct in digestible chunks.

Simplicity of Instruction

Concepts are explained clearly and simply. Every page (excluding review pages or quizzes) has a specific focus. Most pages have generous amounts of white space to keep students focused. Movement is from the simple to the increasingly complex.

Step-By-Step Procedures

Students learn well when given explicit, step-by-step instruction. When several steps are involved, they are numbered. This makes learning much more logical and memorable.

Depth and Complexity

Throughout the book there are challenge problems to stretch students’ thinking.

Logical-Sequential Instruction

Math problems are presented in a logical sequence, so that previous problems contribute to students’ abilities to solve future problems. The order in which math problems are presented plays an important role in promoting number sense.

Answer Key is available separately.