The other day I was working with the teachers at a school who are investigating how they might improve their math instruction. We began by brainstorming characteristics of the “ideal” math lesson. I gave teachers this prompt: What does an effective mathematics classroom and lesson look like and sound like to meet the needs of […]
TL;DR Mathing is the process of students understanding math concepts. Studenting is the process of students applying that understanding to a worksheet. Both need to happen. Mathing is more important than studenting. — Let me briefly share a recent 1st grade lesson I taught to explain what are mathing and studenting and why we need […]
In my last blog post, I shared my mental model for how to teach a lesson that incorporates both student-centered inquiry and direct instruction. There are eight steps in this instructional model, but it really is three main phases: introduction, inquiry, and direct instruction. This lesson structure is very similar to the 5 Practices for […]
In earlier blog posts (this one and this one) I’ve talked about two – seemingly opposing – views of math instruction: direct instruction and student-centered instruction. There is plenty of evidence that students benefit tremendously when given an opportunity to invent/investigate their own understanding prior to formal instruction by the teacher. There is also plenty of evidence that […]