Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5

Instructional Practices and Lessons That Spark Student Thinking
Chadd McGlone
Hanna Haydar
Hilary R. Tanck
Corwin Mathematics Series
Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5
March 2027 | 200 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9798348834074
Available from March 2027

Open your students’ eyes and spark their thinking with the mathematics of the world.

Too often, students experience mathematics as a disconnected set of procedures rather than a meaningful way to understand the world. Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5 offers educators a powerful alternative. It describes rigorous, research-based instructional practices while also leveraging authentic stories from communities around the globe as the foundation of standards-based model lessons across mathematical topics and grade levels.

With contributions from some of today’s leading math education minds, including Jennifer Bay-Williams, Peter Liljedahl, Nicki Newton, Sara Delano Moore, Kimberly Rimbey, Linda Gojak, Kevin Dykema, Sue Looney, and others, each chapter pairs a research-based instructional practice with a Global Math Story (GMS)—a culturally grounded narrative inspired by communities around the world. Through classroom-ready lessons, teachers can connect mathematical concepts to authentic contexts that spark curiosity, reasoning, and engagement.

From exploring number and computation through the traditional textiles of Varanasi, India, to learning geometry through Costa Rican sea turtle nests, this resource provides practical strategies educators can implement immediately to help students make sense of mathematics through meaningful experiences.

Readers will find:

  • A chapter-by-chapter framework for implementing student-centered instructional strategies such as using multiple representations, building conceptual understanding, facilitating collaborative groups, and making mathematical thinking visible through discourse
  • Contributions from leading mathematics educators with international teaching and learning experience
  • Ready-to-use model lessons that leverage authentic global stories and discussion prompts that deepen conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning
  • Extensive online resources including a complete library of lesson slides, teacher notes, and standards alignment for every lesson

By integrating storytelling with standards-aligned mathematics instruction, this resource helps K–5 educators foster engagement, strengthen critical thinking, and create learning environments where every student can see themselves as a capable and confident mathematical thinker.

Foreword

Foreword

Part One: The Framework

  • Introduction: Mathematics has Always Lived in Stories
  • Chapter 1: Mirrors, Windows, Sliding Glass Doors, and Pillars
  • Chapter 2: Mathematical Moments

Part Two: Teaching Moves

  • Chapter 3: Designing Rich Mathematical Tasks
  • Chapter 4: Building Mathematical Communities and Engagement
  • Chapter 5: Using Multiple Representations
  • Chapter 6: Building Conceptual Understanding
  • Chapter 7: Letting Students Do the Thinking
  • Chapter 8: Supporting Student Talk
  • Chapter 9: Facilitating Collaborative Groups
  • Chapter 10: Supporting Productive Struggle
  • Chapter 11: Making Student Thinking Visible
  • Chapter 12: Teaching Mathematics Across Disciplines

Part Three: Crafting Your Own Stories

  • Chapter 13: Creating Your Own Classroom Stories
  • Conclusion

Open your students’ eyes and spark their thinking with the mathematics of the world.

Too often, students experience mathematics as a disconnected set of procedures rather than a meaningful way to understand the world. Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5 offers educators a powerful alternative. It describes rigorous, research-based instructional practices while also leveraging authentic stories from communities around the globe as the foundation of standards-based model lessons across mathematical topics and grade levels.

With contributions from some of today’s leading math education minds, including Jennifer Bay-Williams, Peter Liljedahl, Nicki Newton, Sara Delano Moore, Kimberly Rimbey, Linda Gojak, Kevin Dykema, Sue Looney, and others, each chapter pairs a research-based instructional practice with a Global Math Story (GMS)—a culturally grounded narrative inspired by communities around the world. Through classroom-ready lessons, teachers can connect mathematical concepts to authentic contexts that spark curiosity, reasoning, and engagement.

From exploring number and computation through the traditional textiles of Varanasi, India, to learning geometry through Costa Rican sea turtle nests, this resource provides practical strategies educators can implement immediately to help students make sense of mathematics through meaningful experiences.

Readers will find:

  • A chapter-by-chapter framework for implementing student-centered instructional strategies such as using multiple representations, building conceptual understanding, facilitating collaborative groups, and making mathematical thinking visible through discourse
  • Contributions from leading mathematics educators with international teaching and learning experience
  • Ready-to-use model lessons that leverage authentic global stories and discussion prompts that deepen conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning
  • Extensive online resources including a complete library of lesson slides, teacher notes, and standards alignment for every lesson

By integrating storytelling with standards-aligned mathematics instruction, this resource helps K–5 educators foster engagement, strengthen critical thinking, and create learning environments where every student can see themselves as a capable and confident mathematical thinker.

Foreword

Foreword

Part One: The Framework

  • Introduction: Mathematics has Always Lived in Stories
  • Chapter 1: Mirrors, Windows, Sliding Glass Doors, and Pillars
  • Chapter 2: Mathematical Moments

Part Two: Teaching Moves

  • Chapter 3: Designing Rich Mathematical Tasks
  • Chapter 4: Building Mathematical Communities and Engagement
  • Chapter 5: Using Multiple Representations
  • Chapter 6: Building Conceptual Understanding
  • Chapter 7: Letting Students Do the Thinking
  • Chapter 8: Supporting Student Talk
  • Chapter 9: Facilitating Collaborative Groups
  • Chapter 10: Supporting Productive Struggle
  • Chapter 11: Making Student Thinking Visible
  • Chapter 12: Teaching Mathematics Across Disciplines

Part Three: Crafting Your Own Stories

  • Chapter 13: Creating Your Own Classroom Stories
  • Conclusion
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Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5

Instructional Practices and Lessons That Spark Student Thinking

Chadd McGlone , Hanna Haydar , Hilary R. Tanck
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March 2027 | 200 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 20/05/2025 9798348834074 $39.95

Open your students’ eyes and spark their thinking with the mathematics of the world.

Too often, students experience mathematics as a disconnected set of procedures rather than a meaningful way to understand the world. Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories, Grades K–5 offers educators a powerful alternative. It describes rigorous, research-based instructional practices while also leveraging authentic stories from communities around the globe as the foundation of standards-based model lessons across mathematical topics and grade levels.

With contributions from some of today’s leading math education minds, including Jennifer Bay-Williams, Peter Liljedahl, Nicki Newton, Sara Delano Moore, Kimberly Rimbey, Linda Gojak, Kevin Dykema, Sue Looney, and others, each chapter pairs a research-based instructional practice with a Global Math Story (GMS)—a culturally grounded narrative inspired by communities around the world. Through classroom-ready lessons, teachers can connect mathematical concepts to authentic contexts that spark curiosity, reasoning, and engagement.

From exploring number and computation through the traditional textiles of Varanasi, India, to learning geometry through Costa Rican sea turtle nests, this resource provides practical strategies educators can implement immediately to help students make sense of mathematics through meaningful experiences.

Readers will find:

  • A chapter-by-chapter framework for implementing student-centered instructional strategies such as using multiple representations, building conceptual understanding, facilitating collaborative groups, and making mathematical thinking visible through discourse
  • Contributions from leading mathematics educators with international teaching and learning experience
  • Ready-to-use model lessons that leverage authentic global stories and discussion prompts that deepen conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning
  • Extensive online resources including a complete library of lesson slides, teacher notes, and standards alignment for every lesson

By integrating storytelling with standards-aligned mathematics instruction, this resource helps K–5 educators foster engagement, strengthen critical thinking, and create learning environments where every student can see themselves as a capable and confident mathematical thinker.


Table Of Contents:

  • Foreword
  • Part One: The Framework
  • PATHSHALA: A JOURNEY THROUGH AN ANCIENT CITY
  • CHAPTER 6: BUILDING CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING
  • CHAPTER 10: SUPPORTING PRODUCTIVE STRUGGLE
  • CHAPTER 4: BUILDING MATHEMATICAL COMMUNITY AND ENGAGEMENT
  • CHAPTER 5: USING MULTIPLE REPRESENTATIONS
  • THE GREATEST GRID
  • PATHSHALA: A JOURNEY THROUGH AN ANCIENT CITY
  • CHAPTER 1: BUILDING LESSONS WITH MIRRORS, WINDOWS, SLIDING GLASS DOORS, AND PILLARS
  • CHAPTER 13: WRITING YOUR OWN GLOBAL MATH STORY
  • CHAPTER 9: FACILITATING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
  • CHAPTER 12: TEACHING MATHEMATICS ACROSS DISCIPLINES
  • PAINTING A PLANT
  • CHAPTER 7: CREATING AND MAINTAINING FLOW
  • A TURTLE’S PACE
  • CHAPTER 11: MAKING STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICAL THINKING VISIBLE
  • THE GREAT WALL
  • THIS ONE WILL GET YOUR GOAT
  • Introduction: Mathematics has Always Lived in Stories
  • Chapter 1: Mirrors, Windows, Sliding Glass Doors, and Pillars
  • Chapter 2: Mathematical Moments
  • Part Two: Teaching Moves
  • Chapter 3: Designing Rich Mathematical Tasks
  • Chapter 4: Building Mathematical Communities and Engagement
  • Chapter 5: Using Multiple Representations
  • Chapter 6: Building Conceptual Understanding
  • Chapter 7: Letting Students Do the Thinking
  • Chapter 8: Supporting Student Talk
  • Chapter 9: Facilitating Collaborative Groups
  • Chapter 10: Supporting Productive Struggle
  • Chapter 11: Making Student Thinking Visible
  • Chapter 12: Teaching Mathematics Across Disciplines
  • Part Three: Crafting Your Own Stories
  • Chapter 13: Creating Your Own Classroom Stories
  • Conclusion

Recent Product Reviews:

"Mathematics is already present within us and all around us! That was one of many powerful messages in this book. Engaging in mathematics through global math stories helps us build relationships with mathematics and cultural practices across the world. This book is an incredible resource that will open us all up to seeing the world and mathematics differently."
Dr. Amanda Jansen, Professor of Teacher Education, University of Delaware, Author of Rough Draft Math: Revising to Learn
"Global Math Stories is an incredible and inspiring resource. It invites us to see what blossoms in classrooms when mathematics is rooted in place. Bringing geography, history, cultural practices together with mathematical inquiry, this book opens up rich opportunities for mathematical learning."
Elham Kazemi, Professor of Mathematics Education at University of Washington
"Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories offer thoughtfully crafted learning spaces for teachers to (re)imagine ways to guide their students in noticing, elevating, and making sense of the mathematics already present in their worlds. Grounded in stories that bring authenticity and purpose to mathematical learning, these texts offer a pedagogical stance that invites students to think deeply, make connections, and engage in meaningful problem-solving rather than simply follow prescribed steps. At its heart is a vision of mathematics teaching that recognizes and honors the diverse ways of reasoning students bring, rooted in their lived experiences, and invites them to learn to trust, build upon, sustain, and leverage their ways of knowing throughout their lifelong journey as mathematical learners."
Cecilia M. Espinosa, Professor at Lehman College's Department of Early Childhood/Childhood
"Teaching Mathematics Through Global Stories K-5 offers an imaginative, practical framework that helps educators create mirrors, windows, sliding glass doors, and pillars through which children can experience mathematics as meaningful and connected. Its compelling stories invite students into the lives, places, and traditions of people around the world, transforming mathematics from an abstract exercise into a deeply human endeavor. Throughout the book, the 'Pause and Examine Current Practices' questions challenge educators to reflect honestly on whose voices are heard, how students’ thinking is supported, and where instructional routines can become more inclusive and responsive. This inspiring, immediately useful resource helps teachers cultivate mathematical curiosity, global understanding, and a genuine sense of belonging in every learner."
Robert Berry, Dean at Indiana University School of Education

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