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Melissa Gunter
Asking students to write meaningfully about mathematics can be daunting! Help students learn to write with purpose.
Margaret Rathouz, Nesrin Cengiz-Phillips, and Angela S. Krebs
Issues of equity in mathematics classrooms existed prior to COVID-19. For many students, however, meaningful participation in mathematical discussions became nearly impossible in online settings during the pandemic. In this study, we note the diversity in and nature of participation in mathematical discourse in an online course for preservice teachers (PSTs). We investigate the influence of implementing two support strategies for discussion: (a) establishing a “rough-draft/revision” orientation to mathematical tasks; and (b) providing time and structure (tasks and prompts) in an online discussion board for PSTs to post their initial thoughts, react to peers’ solutions, and collectively revise their ideas. In this article, we highlight several benefits of these support strategies to equitable PST participation in a unit on number theory. For example, as compared with oral discussions where only a few PSTs offered their ideas, the written discussion format encouraged every PST to post their ideas. Using a rough-draft/revision stance in the prompts fostered sharing and revealed diverse mathematical approaches, perspectives, and ideas. We argue that giving students opportunities to interact with one another and the mathematics in a variety of ways promotes equitable participation.
Ethan P. Smith, Jennifer Kelly, Susan Sappington, Kareemah Warren, and Amanda Jansen
Language is a conduit for communicating and understanding mathematical ideas. This article explores how we can use judicious telling to attend to students’ written and spoken literacy in mathematics.
Kevin Voogt and Kristen Bieda
This article explores one novice mathematics teacher educator’s initial use of the Mathematical Quality in Planning Protocol, an innovative tool that was developed to assist in providing feedback on the mathematical quality of novice mathematics teachers’ lesson plans. The protocol was devised to help mathematics teacher educators bridge the gap between prospective teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and their mathematical content knowledge for teaching. Results of our analysis on an initial use of the protocol point to its potential as a tool to help mathematics teacher educators direct their feedback from being overly focused on the pedagogical aspects of the lesson (e.g., timing, planned activities) to the mathematical content prospective teachers are attempting to teach (e.g., anticipated student solutions, problem-solving strategies).
Tutita M. Casa, Cindy M. Gilson, Micah N. Bruce-Davis, E. Jean Gubbins, Stacy M. Hayden, and Elizabeth J. Canavan
Learn how to identify, adapt, and create writing prompts to capitalize on the insights you gain about each of your student’s thinking.
Madelyn W. Colonnese
A teacher implements this type of personal prose in the classroom to help students make sense of fractions and communicate ideas.
Madeline Corrigan
This manuscript describes my attitude and disposition toward mathematics at an early part in my educational career.
Each month Asked & Answered highlights selected threads from the MyNCTM community. MyNCTM is an online community where NCTM members can ask questions, start and join discussions, and interact with education experts. We encourage you to join the conversation at https://my.nctm.org.
The Asked & Answered department shares excerpts from discussion threads on the online MyNCTM community. In this issue, featured threads highlight responses to members' questions related to mathematical depth in preschool, spiral review in the upper elementary grades, ideas for differentiation in middle school, and projects for high school algebra.
