Clip 4/19: Day 2: Granting access to all learners’ ideas

Promoting and Requiring Active Engagement: Mia encourages and reinforces her students’ ideas in the beginning of the year, particularly around the use of tools, emphasizing how critical it is that students gain deep understanding of the purposes of the tools as opposed to being told how a tool is to be used. She scaffolds her learners in exploring ideas of exchange (e.g. tens for breakable tens), and connects her elementary students’ explorations to eventual acquisition of more sophisticated mathematical ideas. She’s strongly aware of how important it is that students’ enthusiasm to explore their tools.