by Keith Cochran | Jun 27, 2022 |
I recently read Digging Deeper: Making Number Talks Matter Even More by Ruth Parker and Cathy Humphreys. (This book is a follow up to their book Making Number Talks Matter.) Both books are brilliantly written and describe the authors’ process and thinking about what I...
by Arusha Hollister | Dec 10, 2018 |
Last year, my colleague Keith and I worked a few times with a group of 5th grade teachers. One of the questions they asked us to help them think about related to this 5th grade benchmark: “Fluently solve multidigit multiplication problems using a variety of strategies...
by Arusha Hollister | Mar 5, 2018 |
At a recent professional development session on multiplication and division, my colleague and I asked participants to examine some student solutions to the problem: 1564 ÷ 36. Before looking at the student work below, think about how you would solve the problem. The...
by Karen Economopoulos | Jan 22, 2018 |
“Wow, you’re so smart.” These words drew my attention to a pair of 5th grade girls in a class I was visiting, who I’ll call Cassie and Sophia. They were mid-way through a turn and talk, each sharing her strategy for solving 84 x 59. I casually moved closer, curious...
by Keith Cochran | Dec 11, 2017 |
On a recent visit to a school in a small city in the Midwest, Karen and I joined a class of 5th graders as they learned a game in Unit 3 called Roll Around the Clock. In the previous session, students used a clock to find and name fractions and equivalent fractions....
by Deborah Schifter | Oct 16, 2017 |
I often think about a lesson, captured on video some years ago. Liz, a fifth-grade teacher, gave her students two-digit multiplication problems—12 × 29 and 36 × 17— and asked them to come up with strategies other than the conventional algorithm to perform the...
