Laurie Boswell:
Math author translates classroom experience to the textbook
By Leanne Silverman

Laurie Boswell, a math teacher and headmaster of the Riverside School in Vermont, says “if you really listen to the kids, you will become a better teacher and, I think, a better writer.” In Boswell’s case, that advice certainly holds true: her outstanding teaching garnered the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching, and the three-book middle school series, Big Ideas Math, she co-authored with Ron Larson received a 2010 Textbook Excellence Award from TAA.

“I’ve known since 5th grade that I would be a math teacher. I’ve never had a doubt,” said Boswell. After high school, she pursued her B.S. and M.Ed, then plunged into what a 30-year career in teaching. Will she ever leave the classroom? “If I didn’t have the enthusiasm or the energy, or if I feel like I’m not being effective any longer. But right now, I’m still having a great time with the students. They inspire me! I’m always getting ideas for my writing.”

Boswell often draws her classroom experiences into her writing. “There are times when I’m actually thinking about a particular student or a particular lesson,” she said. “It might have been ten years ago, but I remember the kids’ reactions and the questions that they asked.”

She uses those moments to uncover students’ assumptions and misconceptions and makes them an essential part of a special feature called “Laurie’s Notes” in the teachers’ edition of Big Ideas Math. Unlike the typical teachers’ edition, every page from the student edition has a corresponding page where Boswell “talks to the teacher about how you teach this in the classroom: What would you do with this example? How do you motivate the kids? How do you close the lesson?” The “Laurie’s Notes” feature of the series has received rave reviews, said Boswell, “because it’s essentially professional development for teachers.”

Another innovation of the series also ties back to Boswell’s teaching experience: each lesson is designed to be taught over the course of two days. The first day focuses on “an activity or an investigation that helps the student make sense of the concept” before moving into the formal lesson on the second day. “Instead of teaching into a void, the lesson combines a hands-on investigation with the mathematics itself, all built right into the book,” she said.

Boswell has written with Ron Larson for 20 years; together with Lee Stiff and Tim Kanold, they are a formidable textbook-writing team. Their many co-authored texts include Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry: An Integrated Approach, Middle School Math, and Passport to Mathematics. But when it came time to work on Big Ideas Math, their publisher went through a merger, and the project no longer seemed like the best fit for the publisher’s list.

Larson believed so strongly in the books that he started his own publishing company, Big Ideas Learning, and asked Boswell to work on the series with him. “I couldn’t say no, so we struck out and did it ourselves,” chuckled Boswell. Initially, the pair released an edition of Big Ideas Math tailored to Florida’s standards. “They were extremely successful,” said Boswell, “so then we did a national edition.” The books have done so well, in fact, that Harcourt Holt ultimately contracted with Big Ideas Learning to market and sell the series for the next four years.

State support of national education standards—“the third rail of education” as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put it—is growing, but the lack of a single national standard still proves challenging for textbook authors. As Boswell explained, “Every state has its own framework. The challenge is that while a particular math standard might be a 5th-grade topic in Kansas, it might be a 6th-grade topic in the neighboring state of Nebraska.”

She continued, “You have to make sure that your book covers the greatest numbers of standards without becoming redundant.” Traditionally, math teachers cover all four operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) each year at the middle school level: “You do it all in 6th grade, and then you do it again in 7th grade because some kids didn’t get it and you have this repetition of standards.”

With Big Ideas Math, Boswell and Larson chose to base their books on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Focal Points, which outlines the central ideas in every grade level from kindergarten through 8th grade. “What we need to do is focus on one topic. Teach it once and teach it well, then use that content in subsequent years instead of re-teaching every year.” Besides, laughed Boswell, “who wants to do long division three years in a row?”

Between teaching, running a school, pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and spending time with friends, her husband, and her two children, Boswell has a very full schedule. She advised would-be authors that writing texts “takes a tremendous amount of time” and sometimes “it is hard to find balance. You really have to protect and pay attention to all aspects of your life. Including getting enough physical exercise!” That, and “it all revolves around deadlines.”

Leanne Silverman hung her shingle as a freelance writer and editor in Denver, CO after leaving a 12-year career in academic publishing.