Angela Broaddus is an experienced mathematics educator, researcher, and author with more than three decades of teaching across middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Her work has been driven by a deep commitment to helping students move beyond memorized procedures toward meaningful, lasting mathematical understanding. After observing that many students could perform calculations yet struggled to retain or apply their knowledge, Angela dedicated her career to exploring how conceptual connections in mathematics are formed and sustained.
Her research began with a focus on middle school students’ understanding of slope and expanded into a broader investigation of how mathematical thinking develops from early childhood through high school. Over the past ten years,
Mathematics does not have to feel like a puzzle with missing pieces. For decades, students have been taught to memorize procedures without ever understanding why they work. This book changes that.
Dr. Angela Broaddus provides a clear, research‑backed roadmap for teaching math the way children actually learn. Through concrete objects, visual models, number lines, and thoughtful explanations, she shows how every concept from counting to fractions to integers can be built on a foundation of genuine understanding…
I have tried three different math curricula with my kids, and nothing stuck until I read this book. Dr. Broaddus explains why regrouping works instead of just telling you to carry the one. The drawings and block models made sense to my eight-year-old right away. I finally feel like I know what I am doing when I teach math.
The thing I loved most was how the book shows multiple ways to explain the same concept. When one student didn't get fractions with circles, I tried the strip model from chapter four, and something clicked. It is not a bunch of theory. You can actually use these ideas the next day. My students are complaining less about math.
I have tried three different math curricula with my kids, and nothing stuck until I read this book. Dr. Broaddus explains why regrouping works instead of just telling you to carry the one. The drawings and block models made sense to my eight-year-old right away. I finally feel like I know what I am doing when I teach math.
The thing I loved most was how the book shows multiple ways to explain the same concept. When one student didn't get fractions with circles, I tried the strip model from chapter four, and something clicked. It is not a bunch of theory. You can actually use these ideas the next day. My students are complaining less about math.
