Clip 3/18: Pre-Lesson Part 3

Because she recognizes that the challenge of writing as a means of expressing understanding will be significant for some student, Lisa Hennefarth discusses her strategies for partnering students so that her anticipation of their areas of struggle can support them effectively. Knowing where students are, especially those who speak languages other than English at home, informs her planning to support their needs. She provides resources, such as sheets with relevant vocabulary, so that students are supported during moments of challenge. Lisa plans to scan the room to monitor students’ engagement, positioning herself in different areas of the room. She will circulate in a figure-eight pattern, observing where students struggle, providing encouragement, and noting their progress on their whiteboards. In selecting examples of students’ work, Lisa aims to look for different levels of student work, beyond error analysis, to show student progress over time. She recognizes that she needs to encourage students to feel good about sharing their work in front of the class, particularly if they have not had positive experiences in prior mathematics courses. She reflects that she hopes to pull student work samples that show a common thread or an important insight that was unique. She states that she will sequence the student work samples identified so that she can facilitate building students’ mathematical understandings related to the learning goal, how a function is related to a graph. She shares that she will begin the lesson using a strategy called “which one doesn’t belong” to engage students in beginning to think about functions and graphs, to use and practice using their vocabulary, and to provide entry and access to all students. Next, she’ll show a video of a race; then she’ll present the problem and ask the students to do a three-read of the problem. Students will write a first draft of the commentary, successively pair-sharing their drafts to improve them; and finally, they’ll write a final draft of the commentary with their partner.