- Emphasizes assessment and the role of diagnosis within formative assessment.
- Provides guidance and resources for assessing and interviewing students.
- Incorporates students papers in which readers identify patterns of responses and compare their instructional recommendations with those of the author.
- Readers also practice identifying misconceptions and error patterns.
- Focuses on concepts and principles.
- Allows an instructor to teach computation in accordance with the NCTM Standards.
- Gives students an understanding of the meanings of operations and not just methods of computation.
- Enables students to know when particular operations are needed for solving a problem.
- Retains its emphasis on computational fluency.
- Stresses estimation and the best computing choice (mental computation, paper-and-pencil, calculator) in specific scenarios.
- Stresses estimation.
- Encourages readers to ask their students, Is it reasonable?
- Provides current strategies.
- Examines models and concrete materials, graphic organizers, self-assessment, portfolios, peer tutoring, and cooperative groups used when teaching computation.
- Incorporates reader recommendations that increase the texts user-friendly and pragmatic appeal.
Robert Ashlock began his career in 1957 as a fourth and fifth grade teacher with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. He later received a master's degree in elementary school administration from Butler University and a doctorate in elementary education from Indiana University. He became a graduate assistant and teaching associate at IlĂ!