TA Chapter 1: Setting the Stage

Summary
This chapter starts with an addition word problem from the story The Hungry Little Caterpillar. This example focuses on students "putting their thinking on paper." The teacher then asks the students to explain their ideas and chooses which student examples to present to the entire class.

The text discusses the idea of "ambitious teaching." This is an idea that requires teachers to meet the needs of ALL students in their class. This can be done by establishing goals, promoting reasoning, promoting problem solving, using representations, using meaningful discourse, posing purposeful questions, building procedural fluency, supporting productive struggle, and using evidence of student thinking.

The text also mentions that students now are being taught in a different way than we were. When I was in school, I was memorizing facts, formulas, and strategies. Now students are using more creative and visual ways to solve problems.

Impact on Future Teaching 
In my future classroom, I would like to use this ambitious style of teaching. It is important that all students needs are met. It is important that teachers use multiple methods to teach the same strategies to make sure students can find at least one strategy they can relate to.

2 Questions
1. Productive struggle- What is the appropriate amount of time to let students struggle before stepping in to help them gain understanding?

2. Should students still memorize their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts for more efficient problem solving after they understand the concepts behind the skills?

Comments

  1. Dr. NugentOctober 18, 2019 at 1:45 PM

    Thanks, Darby:) Another chapter discusses productive struggle and the more experience you have, the easier it will be for you to recognize the point when it is no longer "productive". Students will memorize as they need to...forcing them to memorize, may be detrimental especially for those students who are not capable to memorize.

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