The goal in this article is to support teachers in better understanding what it means to model with mathematics by focusing on three key decision-making processes: Simplification, Relationship Mapping, and Situation Analysis. The authors use the Theme Park task to help teachers develop a vision of how students engage in these three decision-making…

Acknowledging the critical role of mathematics coaches in enhancing teacher capacity, positively influencing teacher beliefs, and increasing teacher investment in professional development, NCTM's "Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All" (2014) calls on coaches to "take action." However, coaches seek…

NCTM's "Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All" (2014), outlines eight teaching practices for effective teaching and learning mathematics. One of them, facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse, states, "Effective teaching of mathematics facilitates discourse among students to build shared understanding of…

A lack of fractional understanding is a well-documented obstacle to student achievement in upper elementary and middle school math (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES] 1999; Lamon 1999; National Research Council [NRC] 2001). Lamon (1999) notes that one major conceptual hurdle that students must overcome is the idea that fractions are…

Increasing availability of digital devices in elementary school classrooms presents exciting new opportunities for teachers to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. Although many of the math applications available for these devices focus on drill and practice of mathematical procedures, screencasting apps can help support effective…

Teachers use the word assessment to describe any method of gathering information about student learning. Whether it be formative assessment (intended to guide instructional decisions) or summative assessment (a reflection on the entirety of student learning from prior instruction), teachers are constantly working to identify what their students…

One of the many challenges teachers face is trying to differentiate instruction so all students have equal opportunities to participate, learn, and engage. To provide guidelines for differentiated instruction in mathematics, staff from the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin created a pedagogical framework for teaching called…

Since 2001, the authors have been working with groups of teachers to investigate students' early algebraic thinking--learning representations, connections, and generalizations in the elementary school grades. They began paying attention to students' explicit remarks about regularities in the number system or what students imply by their…