Intersecting circles of experience: The Issue of Mad Minute Tests (with Aubrey Neihaus)

Sometimes we find ourselves as intersecting circles of experience. I was engaging in a conversation with my wonderful cousin about something she was grappling with: her son, a fourth grader, was frustrated with his math class. Evan (a pseudonym) said that his teacher expected him to memorize his multiplication tables and demonstrate mastery within a …

The Problem of Angela’s Sand Dollars: Practicing the “I am curious about your thinking” statement

Usually once a month, someone posts a mathematics word problem online (FB, Twitter, email, text) and asks people how they solved it. Most often, I might scroll past it because I do a lot of math for a living and might wanna just look at a cat video for the moment. (Check out #BongoCat BTW). …

Teacher candidates learning about children’s experiences with fractions: An example of an in-the-moment RotL

At the end of every semester, I always get excited to read the reports from my teacher candidates about their whole group math lessons. For weeks, my teacher candidates work to select a content standard, pull resources to get inspiration for a groupworthy task, plan connections to children's experiences, and rehearse those plans.  And our …

Edgar’s Thinking About Even and Odd Numbers While Subitizing Dots

Howdy howdy! After a brief hiatus, I wanted to start back up a discussion about the amazingness of children’s thinking.  Tonight’s post is about subitizing, even and odd numbers, and division. I know that’s a lot in just one post, so I promise to connect them across! In a post on 27 February, I tweeted …

Using Jilk’s (2016) “It was smart when…” statement to name and notice students’ mathematical strengths

For a while now, you've read about the Rights of the Learner (RotL) (1 2 3 4) and how it can help push students' ideas/voices/thinking to the forefront.  Students who exercise their rights to learn see that ALL of their ideas are valuable and can make a contribution to the classroom.  But other than encouraging …