Clip 1/17: Rate of Change: Pre-Lesson Part 1A

Overview

In their pre-lesson conversation, Antoinette Villarin and colleague Cecilio Dimas discuss the purpose of her lesson and how Antoinette intends to build her students’ capacity to “attend to precision” and “look for and make use of structure” (Standards for Mathematical Practice 6 and 7).

Teacher Commentary

I remember studying math in college in a student-centered way, and that's how we would learn — we would completely take ownership of it, get into small groups at the library, and we'd have a whiteboard, and we'd try to make sense of it. I wanted to instill that same feeling in my kids.

I think there are times where I catch myself resorting back sometimes, just because of pace or because of what needs to get done in a year.

Then I just have to remind myself of the kinds of questions I should be asking, even if I'm doing something because my district has a particular curriculum — considering the way I ask questions or the way that I structure my student group learning, that increases my students’ agency and authority in math. I think I'm still developing it and still hoping to get better, but it just wasn't like that at the beginning of my career.