Skip to content
Embrace the Challenge

Embrace the Challenge

The Blog of a K-8 Math Specialist

Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Speaking
  • Browse by Category
    • “Low Prep, High Leverage” Games Collection
    • assessment
    • child study & clinical interviews
    • equity
    • geometric thinking
    • listening
    • problem-based learning
    • productive discussions
    • #tmwyk (Talking Math With Your Kids)
    • writing and essays

Tag: grade 3

curriculum…

“What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers

8 Dec 20223 Feb 2023
Number Boxes is one of my favorite games to play. The set up looks similar to an Open Middle problem, with empty boxes that you will place digits into. Open…
assessment…

Restless Teachers

13 Oct 202213 Oct 2022
My favorite educators are restless. They have that itch. Nothing is ever completely satisfying. If you chat with them after a lesson, they'll tell you three things they would change.…
formative assessment…

Secret Squares and Stop Signs

28 Jun 2022
I wrote a deeply sad post today. As I went to publish it, I hesitated. Yesterday was my last day of school, and instead of ending with sadness, I'd like…
curriculum…

The Learning that Led to Today

19 Apr 202219 Apr 2022
"You aren't these kids' first teacher, and you won't be the last."-Jennifer N. When I was an early career teacher, teaching 4th grade, I wanted to teach my students everything.…
#tmwyk

The Ramadan Calendar

6 Apr 2022
Friday, April 1st, marked the first night of Ramadan. On Saturday, April 2nd, we began our daily fasting ritual that will last for the entire month. Beyond fasting, Ramadan is…
formative assessment…

What Will Help Plan for Tomorrow?

31 Mar 2022
What do I need to know about student thinking today before I teach tomorrow? Towards the end of a math lesson, this refrain plays in my head. ______ In third…
child study

Building Mental Representations

25 Nov 201917 Nov 2019
"Sabrina is fascinating. She will look at a problem for three minutes, not appearing to be thinking about it at all, and then come up with the correct answer," her…
education…

The Story of Fibonacci, and the Math Ethnic Studies Framework

17 Oct 201917 Oct 2019
In the late 12th century, a young Leonardo Bonacci -- better known as Fibonacci -- traveled with his merchant father from their home in Italy to Algeria (North Africa). They…
in the classroom

Listening to Early Understandings of Division: “12 ÷ 5 is either -3 or 0”

20 Aug 20195 Oct 2022
This blogpost is a part of the (2019) HUMANIZING MATHEMATICS CONVENTION: Virtual Conference on Humanizing Mathematics hosted by Sam Shah and Hema Khodai___ I love, love listening to early understandings…
games

One of Favorite Games: The Skip Count Game

30 May 20196 Jan 2020
This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Answer Is... I've played the…
games…

One of My Favorite Games: Number Boxes

29 May 20193 Feb 2023
This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include The Answer Is... and the Skip Count Game. I…
games

One of My Favorite Games: The Answer Is…

28 May 20196 Jun 2019
This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Skip Count Game. I have…
in the classroom

The Striped Snake Barbecue Puzzle: Exploring “Challenge” in 3rd Grade

4 Mar 20196 Feb 2022
Who gets to be challenged in class? How does the work we give students impact their status (or how they perceive their status) in the classroom? Meet Calvin You've probably…
assessment…

What does it mean to be “struggling” in math class? (Eduardo’s Story)

5 Feb 20195 Feb 2019
It was a sea of dots. Eduardo's work for 47 + 27 Over and over again, for both computational and story problems, third grade student Eduardo drew dots. Eduardo's work,…
child study…

Cultivating a Listener’s Mindset — with ELs

10 Jun 20186 Feb 2022
In a post last January, I wrote about how the "mental load" teachers carry can impact their ability to listen to their students. ...but listening is critical. It's especially critical when…
five practices…

Leading Act 3: Using the 5 Practices & Intentional Talk To Deepen Discourse About the “Whopper Jar”

3 Oct 201727 Oct 2022
The books 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions (Smith and Stein, 2011) and Intentional Talk (Kazemi and Hintz, 2014) have helped me transform how I facilitate discussions. I try my best…
in the classroom

Coherence, Round 2: The Power of Connecting Instructional Routines

20 Sep 201720 Sep 2017
For a million reasons, I love, love instructional routines*. They engage students, active thinking and discourse, and, with the structures in place, students are given the freedom to focus on…
in the classroom

Inaba’s Place Value Puzzles: Making Connections and Asking “What If”

21 Feb 201713 Feb 2019
Last week, my sixth graders helped me make connections between a puzzle I used in third grade and their current work with place value, specifically multiplying and dividing by powers of…

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Embrace the Challenge on WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • Using Slow Reveals to Illuminate Tiny but Powerful Details in Graphs 2 Jan 2023
  • Facilitating Number Boxes, Part 2 – Supporting Reasoning with Representations (Learning With Students) 15 Dec 2022
  • I Don’t Speak Russian, But… 13 Dec 2022
  • “What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers 8 Dec 2022
  • Would You Believe Me? #tmwyk 26 Nov 2022
  • How do we measure change in data? 25 Nov 2022
  • Turtle Time Trials & Leveraging Creativity To Deepen Mathematical Understanding 13 Nov 2022
  • Seventeen Pumpkins 2 Nov 2022
  • Five Little Pumpkins: Kindergarten Conjectures 31 Oct 2022
  • Restless Teachers 13 Oct 2022

Archives

Upcoming Conference Presentations & Workshops

February 26, 2023
Build Math Minds’ Virtual Math Summit 
(online, free registration!)
“Using Clinical Interviews in the Math Classroom: Learning from Students”

March 25, 2023
RIMTA Conference (East Providence, Rhode Island)
“Slow Reveal Graphs: An Instructional Routine to Promote Sensemaking About Data”

March 30, 2023
ATMIM Conference
(Worcester, MA)
“Games that Promote Equity and Mathematical Brilliance in the Upper Elementary Classroom” (with Louisa Connaughton)

RECENT SPEAKING

December 1 – 2, 2022
NCTM Regional
(Baltimore, MD)
“Rethinking Pre-Assessments: Gathering Data with Equity in Mind”
“Games that Promote Equity and Mathematical Brilliance in the Upper Elementary Classroom” (with Louisa Connaughton)

November 5, 2022
WMMP Fall Institute (South Hadley, MA)
“Slow Reveal Graphs: An Instructional Routine to Promote Sensemaking about Data”

September 2022
NCTM Annual Meeting (Los Angeles, CA)
“Rethinking Pre-Assessments: Gathering Data with Equity in Mind”

READ MORE…

Tags

#tmwyk 5 practices for equity based instruction access assign competence blog centering students ideas child study claire clinical interview counting desmos discourse division education equity five practices formative assessment fractions games geometry grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4 grade 5 grade 6 grade 7 grade 8 identity illustrative mathematics instructional routines intervention investigations Investigations (Inv3) kindergarten listening making connections mtbos multiplication my first school notice and wonder number talks pedagogy presume competence problem-based instruction problem-based learning productive discussions race remote learning response slow reveal graphs student thinking student work subtraction tech tools visual prompt visual representations what if wonderings writing

Follow Me on Twitter

  • Twitter

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Tags

#tmwyk access centering students ideas child study clinical interview desmos division education equity five practices formative assessment fractions games geometry grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4 grade 5 grade 6 grade 7 identity illustrative mathematics intervention Investigations (Inv3) kindergarten listening making connections mtbos notice and wonder problem-based instruction problem-based learning productive discussions race remote learning slow reveal graphs student thinking student work tech tools writing
Website Built with WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • Embrace the Challenge
    • Join 227 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Embrace the Challenge
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar