Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2018 - 8

Community-Building Discourse Practices in Math Workshop

Figure 2. Students in Ms. Delgado's
class used iPads to create brief video
recordings that explained their
problem-solving process during
Work Time.

* Part II: Guided Work Time (14 minutes) - Ms. Delgado called students back to the carpet at the front of the
classroom. Once students were seated, she played each video recording. Students watched each video and engaged
in brief discourse after each viewing. Ms. Delgado led this discourse by asking students who created the video
follow-up questions (e.g., Why did you ____?) or posing general questions to the whole group (e.g., Do you agree?
Their video was a little different - what do you all think?). After viewing all of the videos, Ms. Delgado reinforced
that the purpose of watching the videos was to agree, disagree, and discuss problem-solving strategies used among
peers.
Reflection: (6 minutes)
Ms. Delgado asked students to go back to their desks and think about what they learned during the Work Time learning
activities. She asked students to check their work and make any necessary revisions.

Ms. Crockett - 3rd Grade

Ms. Crockett has 25 years of teaching experience and employed math workshop for the past two years. The objective
for the lesson we observed was: Students will solve problems by analyzing and using attributes of two-dimensional
geometric figures. As shown in Table 2, this lesson aligned with grade-level Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for the
following strands: (a) mathematical process standards and (b) geometry and measurement (Texas Education Agency,
2012).
Table 2
3rd Grade Math Workshop Lesson and Alignment with Targeted Grade-Level State Standards
Mathematical
Process
Standards

The student uses mathematical processes to acquire and demonstrate mathematical understanding. The student 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.

Geometry and
Measurement

The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional geometric figures to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to:
(B) use attributes to recognize rhombuses, parallelograms, trapezoids, rectangles, and squares as examples of
quadrilaterals and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.
(C) determine the area of rectangles with whole number side lengths in problems using multiplication related
to the number of rows times the number of unit squares in each row.
(D) decompose composite figures formed by rectangles into non-overlapping rectangles to determine the area
of the original figure using the additive property of area.

| Spring/Summer 2018

Texas Mathematics Teacher

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2018