Materials
Our focus in classrooms over the past 4
years has been on students' learning and reasoning. We
presently work with 69 students in fourth grade at East
Somerville Community School--most of whom we have been working
with since second grade.
We meet with our classes each semester
once a week over 8 weeks. Our mathematics lessons, 90 minutes
each, cover a wide range of topics. They have evolved through
discussions with the regular classroom teachers (we make sure
that our topics are closely related to the curriculum topics
classes are dealing with) and through what we have learned from
closely observing and listening to our students. You may wish
to look at some of our Class Materials; but please consider
them "ideas for classroom discussions" rather than
off-the-shelf, ready to go materials.
Generally there are 5 adults in our
classrooms: the researcher-teacher, the students' regular
teacher, 2 cameras, and one note taker. The class is
coordinated by the researcher-teacher. Roughly, classes follow
a "Japanese" style of interaction, opening with a
simple problem or demonstration and initial discussion,
followed by group work and then a comparison of the diverse
strategies used in solving the problems. A large part of the
time is dedicated to having students' explain their thinking
and their representations.
During small group and individual work,
the camera persons try to document how the students are
representing and thinking about the problem. They will often
interview students. (Don't worry, our students are accustomed
to working under such circumstances, and they often are eager
to explain their reasoning.)
