Sense-Making vs Answer-Getting in Our Math Classrooms

Abstract: Students are open to making sense in a reading/writing classroom. Most people expect that reading/writing classrooms involve student interpretation and explanation of texts. In math classrooms, though, students often just want us to show us how to do it. They want teachers to do the interpreting and explaining, and we need to give that power back to them. With these materials, we explore how to translate a literacy frame for sense-making into our math classes. We’ll consider: How can we harness students’ background knowledge and observations to build a collective understanding before our first calculation? How do we promote close reading of a mathematical text? How do we engage students who move quickly, while supporting students who need more time? Our workshop is for anyone who believes math should make sense both to ourselves and to our students. All workshop materials can be found at bit.ly/COABE2018CUNY