As a mathematician, MW Penn enjoys the elegance of the seminal ideas of number, pattern, symmetry, data analysis.... Sadly, over many decades, children have come to view mathematics solely as computation; but now adaptations of the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Common Core State Standards present an opportunity for change. Penn's stories and poems follow these standards as they present basic concepts to elementary and middle grade students. Many books include a glossary and also an activity by Adam Goldberg, Ed. D.
Penn's first children's publication, Sidney the Silly Who Only Eats 6, won the 2007 Connecticut Press Club Communication Award for children's books. An accompanying 108 page workbook, Math and Poetry Fun with Sidney the Silly and Friends, brings young children into Sidney's palace for more poetry and math.
Since then MW Penn has published over 20 books, including the best selling Pebble Math Book series from Capstone Press; the award winning 2 Lines, a story of a straight line and curves; Square Bear, a fairytale of polygons; Square Bear Meets Round Hound, a sequel to Square Bear which introduces closed curves and encourages children to embrace new ideas; Flibberty Digits and Flummery Daubs, poems on the digits of base 10 and geometry; Empress Adelaide Dances at 8, a time telling tale; The Pe`lerin of the Orb, a YA novel of malice, mysticism and mathematics which won a 2013 communications award from the National Federation of Press Women; and the new Comprehensive Mathematics Dictionary for Grades K-8, almost 300 pages of math terms in language both children and parents will comprehend and which also includes terms from the CCSS, co-authored with Monica Merritt, Ed. D.
MW Penn is also an award winning poet. Number Tree, a poem included in Caduceus from the Yale Press, won first place in the 2009 Press Club Poetry contest and the National Federation of Press Women poetry award. Highlights for Children published Ms. Molly Mop with the 7s on Top in September, 2009; it is the second of her math related poems to appear in Highlights. Number Soup, appeared in April, 2005, and Silly Seeds in July, 2011. Write a Poem, published in May of this year, was featured by Highlight's on a poster prepared for the 2014 IRA annual conference in New Orleans.
As an active member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Penn frequently presents workshop sessions at state, regional and annual NCTM conferences and has reviewed books and articles for their publications. She also chaired a session on interdisciplinary literature for the National Council of Teachers of English at their national conference.
MW Penn visits classrooms to read her work and introduce children to two different though related worlds: mathematics and poetry. She also works with mathematics education majors, lecturing on the interdisciplinary subjects of math/literature and on modeling fractions for grades 3, 4 and 5.
Dr. Edward Zigler, of the Zigler Institute for Child Development at Yale and the 'father' of the Head Start program, said of her first book, "Penn's creative use of rhyme and numbers is a model of how to help the young child begin the demanding tasks of mastering literacy and numeracy." Maria Diamantis, former President of the Associated Teachers of Mathematics New England, wrote, "The integration of poetry and mathematics is awesome, captivating, and invites children to explore problem solving and number sense!" On an international note, Duncan Robinson, CBE, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge University, said of ADDverse I, "Penn is a Pied Piper; no child can resist the music of her numbers."
Read more
Read less
