curriculum – Jenna Laib

Making Corrections

29 Sep 202629 Sep 2026

I sat down next to first grader Grace as she worked on a few subtraction problems. She was holding her pencil carefully -- duck grip -- with eyes tightly focused…

But It Looked So Good: Checking on Student Thinking

21 Apr 202626 May 2026

When I asked students to think-pair-share, they dutifully respected the independent think time before launching into a buzzy conversation with a partner. When I asked them to indicate their thinking…

Planning From Student Work: What -> So What? -> Now What?

16 Mar 20264 Sep 2026

In February, I gave a webinar for TERC's Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics. I was honored to be invited to speak -- it's an impressive lineup! -- and Karen…

Estimating Products and Co-Planning in Grade 4

How do we get students to make sense -- make genuine sense -- of numerical operations? In a Grade 4 Classroom One of the fourth grade teachers invited me into…

A Tale of Two Division Contexts

17 Apr 202417 Apr 2024

A few minutes after publishing my last blog post, "A Third Grade Dilemma: Dividing by Zero," I received an e-mail about it from my father. (We are the cutest family.…

Purposeful Number Choices: Fraction Subtraction

Today, I introduced Number Boxes (blog #1, blog #2, blog #3) to a fifth grade class. (Read blog #1 for the rules to the game.) The teacher was looking to…

The Case of the Impossible Triangles

3 Apr 20233 Apr 2023

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Caitlin's third grade class was that every student was, with bowed head, focused on writing in their math notebooks -- even…

Preserving Equality — Algebraic Thinking Across Grade Levels

13 Feb 202313 Feb 2023

Equality is a fundamental concept of mathematics. The way that we can play around with values -- adjusting numbers slightly -- but maintain equality is fascinating, and differs between operations.…

“What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers

8 Dec 20223 Feb 2023

Number Boxes is one of my favorite games to play. The set up looks similar to an Open Middle problem, with empty boxes that you will place digits into. Open…

How do we measure change in data?

This blog post was originally published on SlowRevealGraphs.com How do we measure change over time? The y-axis can be so deceptive. Change the scale a little, and a small change looks…

Turtle Time Trials & Leveraging Creativity To Deepen Mathematical Understanding

13 Nov 202212 Nov 2022

What if...? In a lot of tasks that we give students, there's an intended answer. Okay, sure, yes, I guess you could interpret the problem in this divergent way, but…

Restless Teachers

13 Oct 202213 Oct 2022

My favorite educators are restless. They have that itch. Nothing is ever completely satisfying. If you chat with them after a lesson, they'll tell you three things they would change.…

Changing How I “Mathematize Children’s Literature”

26 Apr 202227 Apr 2022

I enjoy teaching math through children's literature. Typically, I'll read the book aloud to a class, stopping briefly when inspired to ask a question or a student raises their hand.…

The Learning that Led to Today

19 Apr 202219 Apr 2022

"You aren't these kids' first teacher, and you won't be the last."-Jennifer N. When I was an early career teacher, teaching 4th grade, I wanted to teach my students everything.…

Making Space to Listen and Observe

My school recently adopted TERC's Investigations in Number, Time, and Space. The cornerstone of this curriculum is listening to, centering, amplifying, and leveraging student ideas. Many of the embedded assessments…

Reducing Bias with Desmos Dashboard

17 Aug 202123 Oct 2024

When I am teaching in person, I circulate around the room. When I first started teaching, I would circulate in similar patterns, winding my way through the desks and rows…

Windows and Mirrors: Fair Shares for Eid al-Adha

2 Aug 20212 Aug 2021

A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world. Hadith attributed to Prophet Mohammed (ra) Eid al-Adha Eid al-Adha was a little over two weeks ago. It…

Reflections on the Problem-Based Learning (Symmetry Mini-Unit)

10 Jan 20206 Feb 2022

This is the last post in the series on experimenting with problem-based learning in Claire's fourth grade class. The other posts in the series are: Getting Started with Problem Based…

Problem Based Lesson #3: Learning From One Another in Grade 4

9 Jan 202026 Jun 2020

This is a post in a series about problem based instruction in fourth grade -- centering on a series of lessons classroom teacher Claire* and I taught about symmetry. This…

Problem Based Lesson #1: Launching Symmetry in Grade 4

7 Jan 202026 Jun 2020

This is a post in a series about problem based instruction in fourth grade -- centering on a series of lessons classroom teacher Claire* and I taught about symmetry. Part…