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Jenna Laib

Jenna Laib

The Blog of a K-8 Math Specialist

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Tag: clinical interview

assessment…

Seeing the World through One Kindergartner’s Eyes

18 May 2023
Sometimes I see Hassan, a kindergartner at my school, at the local mosque where my daughter attends Sunday School. I always wave brightly: "salamu alaykoum! Good to see you, Hassan!"…
Uncategorized

How We Listen: Astrid’s Thinking about 5 x 6

27 Mar 202327 Mar 2023
"Clinical interviews are an opportunity to listen closely," I caught myself telling a colleague recently. But... is that enough? How we frame the act of listening changes our entire experience.…
assessment…

Listening to Understand: Visualizing Adrian’s Thinking about Comparing Fractions

26 Feb 202326 Feb 2023
Marilyn Burns recently blogged about a 38 second video clip that I probably spent 380 seconds watching. (click on the image below to read the post -- but then come…
assessment…

I Don’t Speak Russian, But…

13 Dec 2022
My mother-in-law speaks three languages fluently -- and none of them are English. Her speech dances between Arabic and French and Algerian, and I do my best mental gymnastics to…
assessment…

Clinical Interviews in the Virtual Space (Using Flipgrid)

2 Apr 20212 Apr 2021
One of my favorite things to do as a math specialist is clinical interviews. During a clinical interview, I sit down with a student -- one-on-one -- and ask questions…
child study

Building Mental Representations

25 Nov 201917 Nov 2019
"Sabrina is fascinating. She will look at a problem for three minutes, not appearing to be thinking about it at all, and then come up with the correct answer," her…
assessment…

Students Surprise Us: Interviews with Juliet

20 Jun 201919 Jun 2019
Have you ever had a student just gloriously prove all your assumptions wrong? Things move so quickly in a school. In order to grapple with the pace of our days,…
assessment…

What does it mean to be “struggling” in math class? (Eduardo’s Story)

5 Feb 20195 Feb 2019
It was a sea of dots. Eduardo's work for 47 + 27 Over and over again, for both computational and story problems, third grade student Eduardo drew dots. Eduardo's work,…
assessment…

Presuming Competence: Using Clinical Interviews to Support Classroom Instruction

13 Nov 201827 Nov 2018
"She's not on an IEP, but she's struggling in class. What should I do?" I don't know the student -- Alejandra, or Ali, for short -- very well, so I arranged…
child study…

Counting with Celine / Response to Michael Pershan’s Essay, part 1

13 Jan 201723 Feb 2017
I read Michael Pershan’s essay, "Missing Factors: On Learning What You Don't Know," twice. He described a familiar experience: when students seem stuck with operational fluency, in spite of our…

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Upcoming Conference Presentations & Workshops

December 2025 & January 2026
EDC (Waltham, MA)
“Data Routines: Slow Reveal Graphs”

January 15, 2026
Math Coach Virtual Learning Network (virtual)

February 4, 2026
TERC’s Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics (free virtual webinar)
“Using Insights about Student Thinking to Shape Classroom Experiences”

SEE OTHER RECENT & UPCOMING EXPERIENCES…

Recent Posts

  • Culture & Identity in the Math Classroom 22 Nov 2025
  • Inputs and Outputs 20 Oct 2025
  • Anderson’s Endless Zeroes 12 Apr 2025
  • How Many Nivelsnorts: Assessing Silly Story Problems 7 Nov 2024
  • Tomás and the Jellybeans: Increasing Access 5 Nov 2024
  • Why Do I Love This Student Work: Examining Context & Bias 22 Oct 2024
  • “Yes! And!” 10 Oct 2024
  • For Our Math Education Community 29 Sep 2024
  • The Love Graph 17 Jul 2024
  • Estimating Products and Co-Planning in Grade 4 30 Jun 2024

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Tags

#tmwyk access centering students ideas child study clinical interview desmos division education equity five practices formative assessment fractions games geometry grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4 grade 5 grade 6 grade 7 grade 8 illustrative mathematics intervention investigations Investigations (Inv3) kindergarten listening making connections mtbos multiplication problem-based instruction problem-based learning productive discussions race remote learning slow reveal graphs student thinking student work writing
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