in the classroom – Page 5 – Jenna Laib

five practices…

Leading Act 3: Using the 5 Practices & Intentional Talk To Deepen Discourse About the “Whopper Jar”

3 Oct 201727 Oct 2022

The books 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions (Smith and Stein, 2011) and Intentional Talk (Kazemi and Hintz, 2014) have helped me transform how I facilitate discussions. I try my best…

in the classroom

Coherence, Round 2: The Power of Connecting Instructional Routines

20 Sep 201720 Sep 2017

For a million reasons, I love, love instructional routines*. They engage students, active thinking and discourse, and, with the structures in place, students are given the freedom to focus on…

formative assessment…

“Which is Greener?”: Connecting Fractions, Percents, and Ratios in Sixth Grade

16 Jun 201719 Sep 2017

Math should tell a story -- through the structure of units, and the structure of a year. There is no singular correct narrative; instead, I find joy in weaving different…

in the classroom

Making Connections during Number Talks

All hands shoot up in 1M, a first grade classroom. The students strain their arms, employing arched eyebrows and pursed lips to entreat me to call on them. Of course, once I…

in the classroom

Inaba’s Place Value Puzzles: Making Connections and Asking “What If”

21 Feb 201713 Feb 2019

Last week, my sixth graders helped me make connections between a puzzle I used in third grade and their current work with place value, specifically multiplying and dividing by powers of…

formative assessment…

The Intersection of Fraction Talks & Clothesline Math: Formative Assessment and the Five Practices

8 Feb 201722 Jun 2021

My sixth graders are weary of pre-assessments. No matter how many times we discuss the goal of a pre-assessment – for me to learn more about their current strategies and…

in the classroom

There Are Only Two Ways: Making Conjectures in Second Grade

27 Jan 201723 Feb 2017

Today, I led a quick "finger math" warm up in a second grade classroom. In honor of reaching "half way day" -- the half way point in the school year! --…