Mathematics standards and practices highlight the vital role that language plays in mathematics education. However, there remains a common misconception that mathematics is somehow language-free or less linguistically demanding than other content areas. This qualitative study describes an intervention implemented in six elementary mathematics methods courses. The intervention was designed to attune prospective teachers’ noticing to the language modalities and supports in mathematics teaching and learning. The intervention began with an observation tool that prospective teachers completed in their field placement classrooms. This article classifies prospective teachers’ noticings and explicates how these noticing became a pedagogical catalyst for further learning and discussion in subsequent mathematics methods classes.
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Amanda T. Sugimoto
Madelyn W. Colonnese
A teacher implements this type of personal prose in the classroom to help students make sense of fractions and communicate ideas.
Min Wang, Candace Walkington, and Koshi Dhingra
An example of an after-school club activity gives educators some tools and suggestions to implement such an approach in their schools.
Amanda K. Riske, Catherine E. Cullicott, Amanda Mohammad Mirzaei, Amanda Jansen, and James Middleton
We introduce the Into Math Graph tool, which students use to graph how “into" mathematics they are over time. Using this tool can help teachers foster conversations with students and design experiences that focus on engagement from the student’s perspective.
Nancy Anderson
The questions that teachers ask to elicit student reasoning—often referred to as press for reasoning—help students explicate the concepts and principles that undergird their strategies. This article describes the term, addresses its benefits and challenges, and offers three routines.
Melissa A. Gallagher, Laura Ellis, and Travis Weiland
Teachers can employ four strategies that students in K–12 already know and use in literacy to better comprehend mathematical word problems.
Sarah Brand, Hyunyi Jung, Ashley Dorlack, and Samuel Gailliot
Five teacher discussion strategies and outcomes of students’ responses to each are illustrated with examples.
Susan Ahrendt, Debra Monson, and Kathleen Cramer
Examine fourth graders’ thinking about the unit, partitioning, order, and equivalence on the number line and consider ways to orchestrate mathematical discussions through the Five Practices.
Katherine Baker, Naomi A. Jessup, Victoria R. Jacobs, Susan B. Empson, and Joan Case
Productive struggle is an essential part of mathematics instruction that promotes learning with deep understanding. A video scenario is used to provide a glimpse of productive struggle in action and to showcase its characteristics for both students and teachers. Suggestions for supporting productive struggle are provided.
