Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2018 - 10

Community-Building Discourse Practices in Math Workshop
Ms. Campbell - 4th Grade

Ms. Campbell has 16 years of teaching experience and employed math workshop for the past three years. The objective for
the lesson we observed was: Students will solve problems by organizing, displaying, and interpreting data in dot plots. As
shown in Table 3, this lesson aligned with grade-level Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for the following strands: (a)
mathematical process standards and (b) data analysis (Texas Education Agency, 2012).

Table 3
4th Grade Math Workshop Lesson and Alignment with Targeted Grade-Level State Standards
The student uses mathematical processes to acquire and demonstrate mathematical understanding. The stuMathematical
Process Standards dent is expected to:

(B) use a problem-solving model that incorporates analyzing given information, formulating a plan or strategy,
determining a solution, justifying the solution, and evaluating the problem-solving process and the reasonableness of the solution.
(D) communicate mathematical ideas, reasoning, and their implications using multiple representations, including symbols, diagrams, graphs, and language as appropriate.
(E) create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.

Data Analysis

The student applies mathematical process standards to solve problems by collecting, organizing,
displaying, and interpreting data. The student is expected to:
(A) represent data on a frequency table, dot plot, or stem-and-leaf plot marked with whole numbers
and fractions.
(B) solve one- and two-step problems using data in whole number, decimal, and fraction form in a
frequency table, dot plot, or stem-and-leaf plot.

Opening: (10 minutes)
Ms. Campbell used the document camera to display the opening problem, which was a dot plot with two questions.
Students responded to the questions individually and then discussed their answers with their table groups, which
consisted of three to four students.
Mini-lesson: (32 minutes)
Ms. Campbell handed each student daily notes that included important information related to the daily lesson, and asked
them to read the first problem silently (see Figure 4). As students read independently, she reminded them to consider
their schema and think about how they would solve the problem. After two minutes, Ms. Campbell asked students to
talk within their table groups about what they know about dot plots. After a few minutes, Ms. Campbell asked several
students to share their thinking with the whole group. Next, Ms. Campbell used the document camera to review the daily
notes with students. During this time, she explained information using talk alouds and modeled mathematical processes
with writing.

Figure 4. Daily notes that
Ms. Campbell used during
the mini-lesson in math
workshop.

| Spring/Summer 2018

Texas Mathematics Teacher

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