ERIC Number: EJ1099983
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-May
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1073-5836
EISSN: N/A
Supporting Sense Making with Mathematical Bet Lines
Dick, Lara; White, Tracy Foote; Trocki, Aaron; Sztajn, Paola; Heck, Daniel; Herrema, Kate
Teaching Children Mathematics, v22 n9 p538-545 May 2016
In the mathematics classroom, making sense of story problems can be a challenge for all students. Strategies that promote student discourse offer teachers one way to support their students' sense-making processes. In this article, the authors present a mathematical discourse strategy that was introduced to elementary school teachers during Project All Included in Mathematics (AIM), a forty-hour, yearlong professional development (PD) program focused on promoting discourse as a viable approach to support all students in developing meaning for mathematics content. The strategy is called "Mathematical Bet Lines" and was adapted from the Bet Lines with English language learners (ELLs) as a literacy strategy to develop students' ability to make predictions on the basis of their comprehension of the context (Soto-Hinman and Hetzel 2009). The Mathematical Bet Lines strategy was designed to promote classroom discourse and support sense making when teachers are launching a lesson about mathematics story problems. In this article, the authors discuss how teachers implemented the strategy in their own classrooms to help students make sense of story problems. They show how such strategies, designed to promote sense making and mathematical discourse, are beneficial to not only ELLs but also all students in the classroom. (A bibliography is included.)
Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Word Problems (Mathematics), Teaching Methods, Elementary School Mathematics, Mathematics Teachers, Faculty Development, Classroom Communication, Discussion (Teaching Technique), Problem Solving, English Language Learners, Prediction
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-9840; Fax: 703-476-2570; e-mail: NCTM@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/teaching-children-mathematics/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: DRL1021177