February


 * Hi everyone! Welcome to session 3 of our WIKI book study. Our goals for this section are to 1) analyze our own perceptions of what we ask students by collecting data on our actual questions through a student interview and applying new knowledge to our craft of teaching. And 2) to recognize key mathematical ideas with which your students are grappling. **
 * Each of you chose a case to focus on this month. Remember to post your answer and respond to one other person’s thoughts as well. **
 * Your student interview may be written or you can just bring your small wonder and we’ll script and analyze together questions and student thinking collaboratively. **
 * Chapter 3: Cases 12-17 **
 * As you discuss the following focus questions, refer to the definitions you wrote for multiplication and division. You may wish to revise your statements as you work. **
 * 1.) Alison- In case 15, we see children working on multiplication problems, making mistakes and sorting out their confusions. Where did these children get confused? How did they sort it out? What do their confusions and corrections show us about the nature of multiplication? **
 * 2.) Michelle- In Melinda’s case 17: **
 * a. Consider the work Su-Yin (starting around line 370). Explain her thinking. **
 * b. Consider the work of Derrick and William (line 408). Explain their thinking. **
 * c. What ideas about multiplication and division are highlighted by this case? **
 * 3.) Mrs. Marumoto and Linda- In Georgia’s case 13, we see children solving problems that most of us would consider division, but the children use addition, subtraction and multiplication. **
 * a. In particular, consider Vanessa’s work on the first 2 problems (lines 115-121). Vanessa subtracts to solve one problem and adds to solve the other. Why do you think she uses different operations for these two problems? **
 * b. Consider the work of Corey (line 134) and Matthew (line 160). What does each child’s approach indicate about his thinking about division? **
 * 4.) Mrs. Miller- In Valerie’s case 16, we see students working to model the problem 12 divided by 4. What does each student’s work show you about his or her thinking about division. **