The Building Blocks of Early Mathematics: Learning Trajectories for Young Children, by Julie Sarama and Dr. Douglas Clements

This session is part of the Follett Growing Readers Series

What are the mathematical and educational building blocks of early mathematics? What role should these building blocks play in early education, and why?

Julie Sarama and Douglas H. Clements will discuss these questions, including information on three recent publications that they helped write: (a) the report of President Bush’s National Math Advisory Panel, (2) NCTM's new Curriculum Focal Points for early childhood, and (3) a recent report on early childhood mathematics from the National Research Council. One effective instructional approach featured in all three reports involves bases instruction on learning trajectories. This approach will be illustrated by a set of NSF- and IES (U.S. Dept. of Education)-funded projects that produced and evaluated research-based, developmentally appropriate mathematics activities for PreK-2 children.

Building Blocks’ basic approach is finding the mathematics in, and developing mathematics from, children's every day activity. To do so, the program incorporates both old and new technologies, from blocks and puzzles to multimedia computer programs. Activities help children construct mathematical building blocks.

In this session Julie Samara and Douglas H. Clements will illustrate the learning trajectories, or paths of learning and teaching, in the Building Blocks project that formed the core of this successful approach to early mathematics.

Attend this session and you will be entered to win a CUSTOM Door prize from Follett Early Learning!

When you attend the Growing Readers Series webinars, you will automatically have a chance to win a collection of books and/or other resources customized to your specifications with the personalized expert guidance of the literacy specialists at Follett Early Learning. All sessions are 1.5 hours long, and include a brief announcement from our sponsor. 2:oo PM – 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Can’t participate in our webinars at the appointed time? Never fear! All of the webinars are recorded. To view the recordings, simply register now and you will receive an email with a link to the recording when it is ready to be viewed. You can still download the certificate by watching the recording to the end when the certificate link is announced and displayed on the screen. *Please be advised that you will only be eligible for the great door prizes if you participate in the live session. See the schedule of upcoming webinars.