6: Mathematics Teaching and Classroom Practice

Ms. Michaels began her third-grade mathematics lesson by posing a problem for all her students to solve. The problem drew on an idea students raised the previous day regarding the equal sign. Ms. Michaels continued to pose a series of problems intending to build and extend students’ ideas. She sequenced the problems carefully; each one built mathematically on the previous one. Ms. Michaels reminded the students about what they had discussed the previous day and tried to get them re-engaged with the same mathematical ideas. As the lesson went on, she asked students general questions about how they would solve the problems and why. Students shared their ideas, usually with the whole class, while Ms. Michaels focused them on the important mathematical ideas.