By Shari Kingston
The examples of activities and conversations explored in this chapter have helped me to see how presenting a purposefully planned mathematical situation can promote mathematizing in students. If I was to “popcorn” some ideas about chapter 2 here is my not-so-short, short list: context, big ideas, strategies, models, constraints, community, dialogue, and messy.
When I read how the teachers in this chapter facilitated the conversation around a mathematical situation it caused me to reflect on my own classroom management practice from a different lens. Traditionally, classroom management conversations tended to focus on how to minimize poor behaviour and maximize compliance. That is not what I am talking about here.
Fosnot states that teachers “facilitate conversation around mathematical ideas and strategies for the community to consider” (p28) and that we “walk the line between supporting individuals and planning for the community” (p30). How do I manage this?
There are resources of great contextual questions or, I can create my own. I can intentionally choose numbers and build in constraints to elicit the thinking that I am trying to support. Then, I will present the idea to the community for consideration and I can guarantee it will get messy!
But it may not be messy in a good way. I struggle with my community of learners wanting to consider the mathematical idea that I am sharing. So for me, this is my next step. Reflecting on how I can facilitate the learning and math workshop process so that students are engaged in the activity and are willing to tackle challenging tasks that will push their thinking forward. Lots of questions, not so many answers, this will be messy for sure, but in a good way!
Featured image by Alice Achterhof on Unsplash
It's Not a Book Study - It's So Much More! 
It’s not new that purposefully planned mathematical concepts need to be well planned out. But not only well planned in terms of pencil to paper work but in the discussions before, during, and after the math lesson. Fosnot places importance on teachers facilitating meaningful conversations around the Big Ideas and shared strategies.
When I reflect on my teaching in the past few years I can say that small group instruction has allowed me to facilitate more meaningful discussions at various levels that the “community” are currently working at. However, just like discussed in chapter 1- knowing the various stages that our students will go through in order to understand the math is key when planning next steps. Without setting goals based on students most immediate need can be very detrimental to the student. With the amount of content students need to acquire, teachers sometimes push students to the next step before they have enough time to fully explore and comprehend the concept before.
Therefore, strategically well planned math conversations can inform the teacher a lot about a students understanding of the concept being taught.
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My comment goes back to the beginning of the broad cast when Cathy talks about most people seeing many of the other subjects as creative but not math. In addition, as teachers, we are comfortable to allow the students creativity and messiness in those subjects but not in math. We allow first drafts in writing, we allow students to explore with paint in art, we allow them to experiment in science etc. but teachers struggle to allow that exploration, creativity or messiness in math. I ask myself WHY? Is it because teachers are not as comfortable with the math concepts, or do we want the direct linear path to happen and this may be due to the amount of content students need to acquire (like Leesa said.) .
Over the past number of years, allowing the students to be creative, I can not believe I taught math concepts in such isolation and the disservice I did to so many students.
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I think you have written about the heart of what so many of us are involved in, and why we are participating in #notabookstudy! We realized we want to make a change, we certainly understand why, and we are casting around for ideas, guidance, support and inspiration to make our newfound understanding a reality for the students we teach. I really liked Treena’s comment above, about the role of messiness and creativity math vs in other fields of study. Putting these two ideas together – I think you are in the right place! Education or pedagogy can also be seen as both an art and a science. Yes it is good to be thoughtful about the impact of our own learning on the students… but I think as you work through things with them in mind, your path may be less messy than you think!
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