Introducing MATHbook: New Name, Same High-Quality Content

The newest edition of MATHbook has arrived!

Three textbooks with covers that say Carnegie Learning MATHbook student edition for different courses As former math teachers on the Carnegie Learning instructional design team, we can’t wait to show you the enhancements we’ve made to the text component of our blended solution—now titled MATHbook—to help you be successful in the classroom.

Content development is evolutionary work. We’re always listening to customer feedback and striving to improve our solutions to meet the incredibly high standard we hold ourselves to. So, know with confidence that the improvements you’ll see in MATHbook are not simply for the sake of novelty, but rather, we intentionally made each design decision with your needs in mind.

Here are just some of the exciting new features that you’ll love.

1. Stronger Asset-Based Approach

We believe that all students are “math people.” They just have diverse strengths and levels of understanding.

Unlike a deficit-based approach that focuses on what students are lacking, our asset-based approach recognizes that each student brings a diverse range of knowledge to class that they can leverage as they learn. As a result, they will benefit most from reviewing just what they need as they need it to learn new material (accelerating learning), rather than spending a lot of time on unnecessary remediation that can set them back even further.

New features in MATHbook help facilitate just-in-time, relevant review that honors where students are.

The new and improved Teacher’s Implementation Guide includes:

“Getting Ready” sections (see image)
- You’ll be able to narrow in on which skills students need for each module with lists of required skills, key terms, practice questions, and more.
“Questions to Support Discourse” (also in image)
- We classified these questions to help you facilitate mathematical conversations. They are designed to help students think critically about mathematical concepts and learn from discussions with their peers.
Multiple check-in points throughout each lesson
- We provide point-of-use recommendations for how to chunk each activity into smaller pieces, providing opportunities to students to share and summarize their learning along the way.
- You can use these formative assessment opportunities to address the skills that students need in real-time.

2. Designed for All Teachers

We know that you often receive textbooks that contain a lot of material, much of which ending up going unused. We’ve been there, and we understand how overwhelming it can be.

The primary aim of our redesign was to help teachers become experts in using our materials as quickly and easily as possible. New features help you intuitively understand both the why and the what of the textbook content, organization, and approach. New resources support both teachers who are implementing our materials for the first time and those who are ready for a deeper dive.

Check out these design features that support you as you lesson prep and teach:

Module and topic overviews (see image)
- Easily digestible overviews help teachers keep sight of the big picture of each module, topic, and lesson. When teachers know how current lessons relate to prior learning and future concepts, they are able to help students make meaningful connections as they learn.
Sample topic plan
- The topic overviews give you a vision of how to pull MATHbook and MATHia together for a truly blended solution.
Front-and-center instructional model (see image below)
- You’ll always have a clear picture of how each lesson fits in the ‘Engage, Develop, Teach’ instructional model. This framework for teachers mirrors the Engage, Develop, Demonstrate model for students.
Pacing suggestions (see image below)
- Each lesson includes suggestions for how much time to spend, whether it’s 30 sessions for a module or 45 minutes to complete a lesson.

3. Fosters Agency for Students and Teachers

We’re committed to providing you flexibility with transparency. MATHbook equips you with the same high-quality instructional materials as before, but now you’ll get an even clearer understanding of why we’re giving you these pedagogical and content choices. The power is in your hands to make informed decisions about how you want to shape your classroom using our materials.

Similarly, we want to support you in fostering your students’ agency as self-directed, engaged learners who are able to tackle high-level mathematical tasks.

Features that empower both you and your students to make MATHbook work for you include:

“A Meeting of the Minds” (see image)
- This intro lesson sets you and your students up for a successful course. Guide your students in their social-emotional learning, goal-setting, and metacognition. In the front matter of the student edition and Teacher’s Implementation Guide, this lesson encourages students to own their learning as it guides them to understand how they learn, to discover the resource’s many features, and to set goals for the year.
- This intro lesson also encourages students to become active consumers of the text. With explicit permission to use the consumable text as intended, students are more likely to own, write in, and engage with the book—an act they are probably not used to! In other words, it guides them to fully exercise their agency over their learning.
Navigational elements
- Students and teachers stay in the know regarding exactly where they are in the learning process. You’ll see navigational elements at the module, topic, and lesson levels throughout the student and teacher materials. This design implicitly encourages students to develop their self-management skills and take ownership of their learning.
Social-emotional learning prompts
- The development of these instructional materials, the intended implementation, and professional development support have always strived to incorporate tenets that support social and academic success. Interleaved notes on the facilitation pages of the lesson pages provide you with point-of-use reminders throughout the course.

Whether you’re using our math materials with your students this year for the first time or the tenth time, we know you’ll find features in the newest edition that will help you work your magic and help your students see themselves the way you do: as math people, through and through.

Explore Our Middle School Math Solution

Explore Our High School Math Solution

Authors

Sandy Bartle Finocchi
Chief Mathematics Officer
Carnegie Learning, Inc.

Sandy is the Chief Mathematics Officer at Carnegie Learning, where she leads the instructional design of all mathematics materials. On a mission to align teaching to learning, she ensures that the best of academic research and classroom practices are top of mind when developing resources for students and teachers. Her instructional design team authored the Carnegie Learning Middle and High School Math Solutions, which both achieved a near-perfect rating from EdReports.

Sandy joined Carnegie Learning in August 2000 after spending 14 years as a high school mathematics teacher, department chair, and coach. In various roles with the company, she has worked side-by-side with teachers in classrooms across the county as they have shifted their practice towards student-centered learning and accountability.

Through keynote addresses delivered to hundreds of educators each year, Sandy combines her classroom expertise and content knowledge to inspire them to rethink their approach to learning as they seek to maximize student growth. You will often hear her challenge audiences with questions like, "What do students believe you think is most important?” and "If students could buy tickets for your classroom, would they?"

Most importantly, Sandy recognizes and celebrates teachers' hard work every day. She believes that all students can become confident math learners and that passion drives everything she does.

Sandy is a natural storyteller and can relate almost anything in math education to lessons she learned as a kid helping her father deliver milk.

Sandy lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her wife, Maureen.

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Amy Jones Lewis
Vice President of Instructional Design, Math (K-12)
Carnegie Learning, Inc.

Amy Jones Lewis brings her classroom expertise and passion for high-quality math instruction together as Carnegie Learning’s Vice President of Instructional Design, Math (K-12). In this role, she oversees the content development of Carnegie Learning’s instructional resources to meet the needs of students and teachers. Prior to this, she was the math specialist for Intermediate Unit 1, receiving more than $2M in grant funds to provide intensive professional development to K-8 teachers in southwestern PA. As a national consultant, Amy has contributed to projects at WestEd, Discovery Education, and other local organizations. She is the former Director of Educational Services at Carnegie Learning, where she worked with teachers and coaches across the country to successfully implement the Carnegie Learning blended math solutions. She began her career teaching high school mathematics in Malawi, Africa, and Baltimore City, MD, and has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University.

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Sarah Galasso
Director of Instructional Design, Math (6-12)
Carnegie Learning, Inc.
sarahgmath

Sarah Galasso began her career teaching secondary mathematics in Anaheim, CA. Sarah’s passion for math education and supporting diverse learners led her to the University of CA, Irvine, where she worked to provide professional development for southern California school districts as they developed K–12 standards-aligned math curricula. She also partnered with Student Achievement Partners writing a series of blog posts on the Standards for Mathematical Practice for AchievetheCore.org. As the Director of Instructional Design, Math (6-12), Sarah applies her knowledge to help produce high quality instructional resources and tools to support student growth.

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