in the classroom Where’s the Action: Kindergartners Representing Stories in Math Class 28 May 202428 May 2024 Over the years, I've come to call word problems 'story problems,' even though the story can be pretty weak. "There are 5 balloons. Three are blue, and the rest are…
curriculum… 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.…
in the classroom “It Has All the Numbers on the Clock”: Context and Connections 2 Oct 2023 I'm fascinated by how student ideas are shaped by context: what are the big ideas in our current unit? How did we launch the activity? We make connections -- constantly!…
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!"…
in the classroom Peas and Carrots… and Beans 9 Feb 20238 Feb 2023 Last year, our first grade team had the opportunity to work with Investigations authors from TERC -- the inimitable Karen Economopolous, with Megan Murray in absentia. To prepare for our…
formative assessment… What Will Help Plan for Tomorrow? 31 Mar 2022 What do I need to know about student thinking today before I teach tomorrow? Towards the end of a math lesson, this refrain plays in my head. ______ In third…
games… “Oops, I Forgot”: Small, Beautiful Moments 2 Jan 20228 Oct 2022 I sat with fourth grade teacher Ms. Goldman in the back of her classroom as students cleaned up materials from the class. There were 15 minutes left in the school…
in the classroom More Peas, More Carrots: Student Agency in Representations While Problem Solving 16 Dec 2021 Today, the first graders revisited "Peas and Carrots." They had spent several days exploring part-part-whole thinking in the context of games like "how many are hiding?" and "counters in a…
in the classroom The Half-Triangle: Attending to Precision and Building On Others’ Ideas 12 Dec 202111 Dec 2021 From Investigations: Grade 4, Unit 4, Investigation 2, Lesson 2 "This shape fits my rule," said 4th grade teacher Ms. Cohen, moving the green right triangle to the left side…
in the classroom “Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say”: Peas and Carrots Edition 10 Dec 2021 Yesterday was an exciting day in first grade: the launch of peas & carrots! This is the first "how many of each?" problem in first grade. Students wrestle with two…
in the classroom… Digging in the Closet: The Return of the Museum of Rarely Used Math Manipulatives (MoRUMM) 18 Nov 202112 Dec 2021 My officemate and I have an embarrassment of riches -- in the form of math materials. In the first district where I taught, manipulatives were hard to come by. My…
Jenna Laib 