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COMMON CORE SENSE

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[Link]
COMMON CORE SENSE
Tapping the Power of the Mathematical Practices

Christine Moynihan

4
[Link]
Stenhouse Publishers

[Link]

Copyright © 2015 by Christine Moynihan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission
from the publisher.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders and

students for permission to reproduce borrowed material. We
regret any oversights that may have occurred and will be
pleased to rectify them in subsequent reprints of the work.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moynihan, Christine, 1951-

Common core sense : tapping the power of the mathematical

practices / Christine Moynihan. © Stenhouse Publishers. No
reproduction without written permission from the publisher.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-62531-004-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN

978-1-62531-052-1 (ebook) 1. Mathematics–Study and
teaching–Standards. I. Title.

QA11.2.M686 2015

5
[Link]
510.71’2073–dc23

2014041910

Cover design, interior design, and typesetting by Alessandra

S. Turati

Manufactured in the United States of America

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

6
[Link]
To teachers everywhere who use their incredible power to
bring the beauty and elegance of mathematics to those
children lucky enough to be within their spheres of
influence

7
[Link]
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 Mathematical Practice 1: Make Sense of

Problems and Persevere in Solving Them

CHAPTER 2 Mathematical Practice 2: Reason Abstractly

and Quantitatively

CHAPTER 3 Mathematical Practice 3: Construct Viable

Arguments and Critique the Reasoning of Others

CHAPTER 4 Mathematical Practice 4: Model with

Mathematics

CHAPTER 5 Mathematical Practice 5: Use Appropriate

Tools Strategically

CHAPTER 6 Mathematical Practice 6: Attend to Precision

CHAPTER 7 Mathematical Practice 7: Look For and Make

Use of Structure

CHAPTER 8 Mathematical Practice 8: Look For and

Express Regularity in Repeated Reasoning

CHAPTER 9 Moving Forward

8
[Link]
REFERENCES

INDEX

9
[Link]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I may be identified as the author of this book, but in fact,
there are many who were involved in its writing. My
experiences, my thoughts, my words have been shaped by the
many teachers, administrators, and, most important of all, by
the children who have touched me and made imprints on my
life in immeasurable ways.

Special thanks go to the students, teachers, and administrators

of an amazing school: the Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public
School in Worcester, Massachusetts. This K–12 school of
more than 1,400 students is a place where all decisions
revolve around what is best for the children it serves. That
message is sent clearly by Executive Director Kathleen
Greenwood and is echoed by all who are part of this
extraordinary place. In addition to Kathleen, my thanks go to
Elementary Principal Amy Emma, who allowed me into her
classrooms and supported my work in every way. I was
privileged to work specifically with six teachers: Kristen
Lanier (kindergarten), Brenda Stoddard (grade 1), Nancy
Freud (grade 2), Kelly Connors (grade 3), Brooke Hanson
(grade 4), and Shannon Murphy (grade 5). I cannot thank
them enough for graciously welcoming me into their
classrooms countless times, for letting me watch them in
action, for granting me access to their students, and for
permitting me to pick their brains while giving invaluable
feedback as this book unfolded. None of this would have been
possible, however, if not for the efforts of Curriculum
Coordinator (K–5) Emily Jermine. She is masterful at her job

10
[Link]
and went far beyond its parameters to help me, and I simply
have no words to thank her enough.

It would also be hard to give adequate thanks to Debra Shein-

Gerson. Not only is Debbie an incredibly talented
mathematics curriculum specialist (and a dear friend), but she
is also the best sounding board I could have—always ready
and willing to respond and react to my thoughts and ideas,
and then talk me through the process. Additionally, I am
fortunate to have others in my circle of friends whose support
is unwavering and greatly appreciated—many thanks to
Mimi, Blake, and Laurie.

Let it be known that I have the best editor in the world! Not
only is Toby Gordon the consummate professional, but she
also imbues her work with compassion and understanding in
such a way that all who are guided by her are brought to a
better place. I am, indeed, quite lucky. Toby is also
responsible for giving me a remarkable reviewer, Kassia
Omohundro Wedekind, who gives such incredible feedback
that I am in her debt as well.

At the end of the day, it’s all about family. My eight siblings
and I grew up with unconditional love that allowed us to take
risks and grow and led us to the lives we live today, still and
forever connected. It almost goes without saying, but still
must be said, that I could not and would not be able to do the
work I do if I did not have the love of my husband and two
children—Kevin, Brian, and Caitlin are the center of my
world.

11
INTRODUCTION

WHY THIS BOOK

Since the arrival of the Common Core State Standards (2010),

states that have adopted the CCSS are working hard to
“unpack” them. In much of my recent consulting, I have been
called by many districts to “do” that, with the underlying
assumption that this unpacking can be “done” in a one- or
perhaps two-day professional development training session.
Even with this support, however, teachers report that at times
they feel overwhelmed and uncertain. Although teachers want
to understand and implement the standards, making sense of
them requires time and sustained support.

The purpose of this book is to make the eight Standards for

Mathematical Practice more accessible to elementary
teachers. My hope is for teachers to make sense of the
Mathematical Practices and tap into their inherent power.
Although most teachers are finding that the very structure of

12
the Standards for Mathematical Content is detailed, focused,
and specific enough to make them relatively easy to
understand, greater effort needs to be placed on understanding
the Standards for Mathematical Practice. To set the stage for
this exploration into the Mathematical Practices, I want to
highlight why they are important and how they might lead
you to make some shifts in your practice, thereby activating
their potential.

Before I do, however, stop for a minute and stand up right

where you are. Cross your arms over the front of your body.
Now reverse the way in which you have crossed your arms.
It’s better if you can do this with someone else present, so
that that person can check to ensure that you have,
indeed, done it in the opposite way. If no one else is around,
stand in front of a mirror. When you are sure that you have
reversed the way in which you’ve crossed your arms, take
note of what it took to do it and how it feels. When I do this
with groups of teachers, I hear that it is “hard,” that they have
to stop, think, and analyze how they do it at first and then list
the steps in their minds, that it feels “awkward,”
“uncomfortable,” and “challenging,” and that “it takes time
and planning” to accomplish the task. You probably know
where I am heading with this: whenever we are asked to
change something that we have done one way for a long time,
it is hard and challenging and it does take time and planning
and it will feel awkward at first. It is also critical to remember
that change does not take place just because we say it will; it
takes time, support, redirection, recommitment, and
perseverance. I have used this quote for years, and although
no one seems to be sure of its origin, I love it and share it with
you as a way to guide your commitment to incorporating the

13
operating principles of the Standards for Mathematical
Practice into your daily teaching:

Change is a process, not an event.

So cut yourself some slack and realize that deep changes to

your practice will evolve over time, accept that the road will
not always be easy, and believe that your push for change will
be worth the effort in the long run.

The more I work to understand the Mathematical Practices,

the more I see that they transcend the teaching and learning of
mathematics. Although they are housed in the CCSS for
Mathematics, the Mathematical Practices apply to all content
areas. They embody all that is connected to thinking—deep
and substantive thinking. They foster the kind of thinking that
is reflected in the work of Benjamin Bloom (1956) and his
associates Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl (Anderson
et al. 2001) and ask us to immerse our students in higher-
order thinking skills that involve explaining one’s thinking,
applying new learning, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
Further, the Mathematical Practices answer the seven “world
of work survival skills” that Tony Wagner (2008) identified
after speaking with more than 600 business leaders and
asking them what they needed in their workers now and in the
future. So although the Mathematical Practices are named
“mathematical,” they really are much more than that. If our
students can solve problems; think both quantitatively and
abstractly; build arguments that make sense; develop the
capacity to listen to and learn from others’ thinking;
represent, model, and solve real-world problems;
and know when, why, and how to access tools and resources;
if our students are efficient and accurate, and can

14
communicate their thinking well enough so that others can
follow; if they can identify and use patterns, regularities, and
structures to find solutions to problems and then generalize
their findings, and remain open to ideas and persevere while
maintaining wonder and curiosity, then we have done our job
and done it well by answering our major educational
mandate: to prepare students for life beyond the school
building, for life in the twenty-first century as productive and
responsible workers, consumers, citizens, and caretakers of
the future.

Mathematical Practices Overview

Mathematical Practice 1: Make sense of problems and

persevere in solving them.

Mathematical Practice 2: Reason abstractly and

quantitatively.

Mathematical Practice 3: Construct viable arguments and

critique the reasoning of others.

Mathematical Practice 4: Model with mathematics.

Mathematical Practice 5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

Mathematical Practice 6: Attend to precision.

Mathematical Practice 7: Look for and make use of structure.

Mathematical Practice 8: Look for and express regularity in

repeated reasoning.

15
Although most teachers have seen the list of Mathematical
Practices, many report that they have not had much of an
opportunity to explore them deeply. I think the following
framework can help teachers gain a stronger foothold in their
knowledge and understanding of the MPs and will provide a
glimpse of how they may look in a classroom.

THE G-O-L-D FRAMEWORK

Right from the start, I have called the Mathematical Practices

“gold”— something valuable and precious and absolutely
critical to the development of proficient mathematical
thinkers. I see each of the MPs as made up of many “nuggets”
that coalesce into something bigger, with far-reaching
ramifications. The further I got into my professional
development work with the MPs, the more I began searching
for a way to make them more comprehensible and available to
teachers in the everyday moments of the classroom. I came up
with a framework—something that could be used as an
outline at first—and then filled it with the “stuffing,” the
“nuggets,” that give it shape and substance.

I began to think about the acronym GOLD in relation to the

MPs. I believe that if teachers can break apart each of the
MPs in the following way, it may help them analyze each one
as a separate entity, think about what this may look and sound
like in classrooms, and then decide what needs to be done to
support the incorporation and implementation of the MPs into
daily practice. With the support of this book, it is my hope
that teachers will be able to make more sense of the MPs and
find the “gold” within, thereby getting to the source of the
power of mathematical proficiency.

16
The Framework

Go for the goals: What are the major purposes of the

practice?

Open your eyes and observe: What should you see students
doing as they use the practice? What should you see yourself
doing as a teacher?

Listen: What should you hear students saying as they use the
practice? What should you hear yourself saying?

Decide what you need to do as a teacher: What actions must

you put into place in order to mine the gold of the practice?

In the chapters that follow, each practice is broken into the

nuggets of the framework, and we examine how each practice
should look in the classroom, how it should sound, and what
steps can be taken to mine its gold. We’ll explore the “what”
as well as the “why” of each practice and their importance.
Additionally, student work samples, classroom vignettes, and
thoughts from teachers throughout give a fuller view of the
MPs. Chapter 9 provides some
starting places to guide your steps as you continue to work to
implement the Mathematical Practices more fully, with
greater consistency, and deeper effect.

Teachers often find that the lines between and among the
Mathematical Practices are blurred. The truth is that overlaps
exist. As you read the book, you may sometimes think that
what I am assigning to one MP sounds as if it can, should,
and does belong to another MP. That will and should happen,
as the MPs are discrete entities but do not exist in isolation.

17
Further, as you read a classroom vignette, you may think that
the scenario is giving evidence of a Mathematical Practice in
addition to the one being discussed. Again, that will and
should happen; just keep in mind that although a particular
classroom lesson will have examples of multiple MPs, it will
focus on the MP being highlighted as a dominant one in that
particular vignette. Additionally, know that I have limited the
number of “nuggets” within each part of the framework.
There are more goals for each of the MPs than listed, but in
an effort to make this as manageable as possible, I have
attempted to name the most important ones, thus allowing for
greater focus.

As we head into the first chapter, let me share a thought from

someone who cares deeply about education in today’s society.
Robert John Meehan has been an educator for more than forty
years and has made it his mission to share some of what
happens in classrooms. This quote encapsulates what I
believe is at the core of all teachers who face every day
knowing that the responsibility they have is, indeed, an
awesome one in every sense of the word and that their
potential effect on children is limitless:

If your actions in the classroom inspire children to achieve

more, question more, and dream more, you are indeed worthy
of the title “Teacher.”

Meehan says it both succinctly and beautifully, and every

committed teacher, whether aware of the quote or not, lives
this every day. They are the teachers who know that every
move they make should be purposeful, because each move
carries power—the power to shape the learning of each and
every child, the power to inspire every child to want to learn,

18
the power to help each and every student create and fulfill
dreams. It’s not easy work, and there is often muddy water to
go through, but if we move into the mud of the river, scoop
up the nuggets, wipe away the outer muck, examine them
closely, and polish each one, we can find the gold—the
power—within the Mathematical Practices and move along in
helping students actualize their potential.

19
CHAPTER 1
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 1:
MAKE SENSE OF PROBLEMS AND
PERSEVERE IN SOLVING THEM

By developing problem solving skills, we learn not only how

to tackle math problems, but also how to logically work our
way through any problems we may face. The memorizer can
only solve problems he has encountered already, but the
problem solver can solve problems she’s never seen before.
The problem solver is flexible; she can diversify. Above all,
she can create.

—RICHARD RUSCZYK, FOUNDER, ART OF PROBLEM

SOLVING COMPANY

20
OVERVIEW

What a wide-ranging view Richard Rusczyk has of problem

solving! Although many people are uncomfortable when
faced with “word problems”—problems that require more
than straight computation and are without an immediately
visible solution path—some see them in the larger context of
problem solving. Among those are the authors of the
Common Core, as well as most mathematics teachers and
leaders. They push forth the idea that problem solving is at
the very center of being a proficient mathematical thinker.
Being a problem solver means that one is able to analyze
problems, reason about them, build arguments that support
solutions, connect them to everyday life, use the right tools at
the right moment to solve them, and be precise in
communicating how they can be solved while at the same
time looking for and using patterns and structures that are
regular and repeat.

Notice anything? Of course! Being able to make sense of

problems and persevere in solving them is played out in each
of the eight Mathematical Practices. This first MP is the glue
that holds the other MPs together and creates an interweaving
of thinking skills of the highest order. Note the word thinking
here, rather than memorizing. We are well served by
committing many things to memory, but being a good
memorizer does not necessarily make one a good problem
solver. More important, however, being a good problem
solver in mathematics carries over to all areas of the
curriculum, and indeed, to life in general. When you can
attack a problem with the kinds of thinking and actions

21
suggested in the MPs and do so without giving up, you are far
more likely to succeed.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. make meaning of the problem, understand what is being

asked, and chart a general course of action;

2. develop strategies for solving problems for which little or

no direction is given, possibly drawing from similar
problems; and

3. demonstrate flexibility and perseverance when solving

problems.

Goal 1

To make meaning of the problem, understand what is being

asked, and chart a general course of action (Figure 1.1)

Importance of This Goal

Understanding a problem, and making good enough sense of

it to know what you are being asked to find so that you can
begin to solve it, seems like an obvious first step in problem
solving. Even though it may be obvious, however, it is not
always easy. As a young man in Budapest, George Polya
found that although he was not a good memorizer, he was
good at solving problems. He eventually emigrated from

22
Budapest to the United States, where he taught at Brown and
Stanford and shared with thousands of teachers through the
years a simple four-step plan for solving problems (Polya
1945). He found, as many of you most likely do, that the first
step, Understand the Problem, was and is a problem in and of
itself. Many of us watch in frustration when a student reads a
problem (quickly), pauses for perhaps three seconds, and then
says one or more of the following: “I don’t get it!” “This is
way too hard.” “I think it’s impossible.” “Is this addition or
subtraction?”

FIGURE 1.1
Goal 1

This is where MP1 is critically important. When students

stick with a problem longer than the initial three seconds, dive
back in, determine which information is relevant, discard
what is extraneous, restate the problem in their own words,
frame the question within so that it makes sense to them, and
then make some first attempts at deciding what course of
action they might follow to find the answer to the question

23
they have identified, they are on their way to being good
problem solvers.

Goal 2

To develop strategies for solving problems for which little or

no direction is given, possibly drawing from similar problems
(Figure 1.2)

Importance of This Goal

After students have determined what they need to find to

solve the problem, the issue becomes how to go about doing
that. Does this sound familiar to you? As a student, you had to
solve some “word problems” found on the last few pages of
the chapter of your math book. If the chapter had you working
on multiplying two two-digit numbers, you felt fairly
confident that all you had to do when you read the problem
was find two two-digit numbers and then multiply them.
Although it may not be quite as obvious now, students are
still often presented with problems that are somewhat routine
and formulaic. (John went to the store and bought a shirt for
$12.99 and a pair of socks for $4.99. How much change does
he get if he pays with a twenty-dollar bill?) Not too much
effort is really required to solve this. When students are
presented with a problem that is not “cookie cutter” and does
not have an easily discernible solution path (John goes into
the store with $20.00. How many different ways can he spend
it?), they often get stopped in their tracks. This is when you
are most likely to hear, “I don’t know what to do or where to
start.”

24
Instead, here is where you want students to believe in their
own power to solve the problem if they can just get in there
and muck around with it a bit. You want them to suggest the
use of a strategy, put it into play, and determine if this is
going to get them where they need to be. If not, then you want
them to be able to decide that and then pull from their
repertoire of strategies, make another plan, and follow that to
see if they arrive at the solution. I believe that specific
problem-solving strategies need to be taught explicitly, which
can include drawing a picture, making a list, using a table,
using objects, and making the problem simpler. The Problem
Solver II series offers ten strategies that can add to the
collection students are building (Hoogeboom and Goodnow
2004). Having said that, however, I make a cautionary note
that the learning of specific strategies should be seen as a
means to an end, not the goal itself, thus supporting the idea
that strategies should be viewed as “powerful tools for
mathematical thinking” (Chapin, O’Connor, and Anderson
2009, 91).

FIGURE 1.2
Goal 2

25
 Goal 3

To demonstrate flexibility and perseverance when solving

problems (Figure 1.3)

Importance of This Goal

Is there a teacher out there who isn’t thrilled when she sees a
student stick with a problem that is challenging, one that the
student does not “get” right away, one that requires the
student to be flexible and resilient enough to try more than
one strategy? This is the student who believes, among other
things, that the problem can be solved and that she is capable
of solving it. Part of our work as teachers is to imbue that
level of self-efficacy, a belief in one’s capabilities, in all of
our students. When students believe that they are up to a task,
they are more likely to engage in it and stay engaged in trying
to complete it, rather than pushing back from the table, both
literally and figuratively, giving up on the task, and giving in
to the idea that they are less than competent problem solvers.
Supporting the growth of self-efficacy as a component of
MP1 can only lead to a positive effect on students’
development. Self-efficacy makes a difference, as “self-
efficacious students show greater perseverance during
adversity, are more optimistic, have less anxiety, and achieve
more than do students who lack self-efficacy” (Rollins 2014,
121). Building this belief within students is absolutely critical
to their success. Helping students see and believe that a little
perseverance in solving math problems can and does go a
long way is a win-win for all.

26
FIGURE 1.3
Goal 3

CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

Bicycle Business

The context of the problem is set within a poem that details a

situation in which a boy bought a bicycle, sold it, bought it
back, and then sold it again. The question arises about
whether or not the boy made out well in the deal. Try the
problem yourself and see what you think. Although this
problem certainly calls for students to make sense of the
problem and to push through and solve it—MP1—it also
addresses multiple MPs, as most problems do. As you work
the problem yourself, take some time to think about MP2:
Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, as well as MP4: Model
with Mathematics to see how these practices also come into
play.

Bicycle Business

27
A boy bought a bicycle with fun in mind;
He paid 70 dollars and considered it a find.

No sooner was it his, when a deal came his way:

A girl offered to buy it and 90 dollars would pay.

The boy quickly agreed and completed the pact:

He knew he had done well and that was a fact.

But he soon realized he was bike-less again,

So he bought the bike back but had to pay 110!

Again to his surprise, someone offered him more,

So for a price of 130, the bike was rolled out the door.

By this time the boy was now dazed and confused—

Had he come out ahead? Did he win or did he lose?

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 3

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].8 Solve two-step [possibly

more in this case] word problems.

• Student Language: Solve problems that have more than one

step.

• Focus Math Practice: MP1: Make Sense of Problems and

Persevere in Solving Them.

• I Can Statement: I can retell the problem in my own words

and find the information that is important to know.

28
• Lesson Setup:

The lesson began with three different students reading aloud

from the board: the Focus Content Standard (in student
language), the Focus Math Practice, and the I Can Statement.

Mrs. Connors, the classroom teacher, asked what it takes to

solve a problem. The students shared that the first step is to
find out “what you need to do.” Mrs. Connors followed up
with, “How do you figure that out?” and thus began an
interchange that revolved around “finding the numbers that
are important and then deciding if you have to add, subtract,
multiply, or divide.”

The discussion continued as the teacher asked, “Are all the

numbers in a problem important?” which led to students
coming to the conclusion that “just because a number is in a
problem doesn’t mean you have to use it.” Mrs. Connors
brought everyone’s attention back to the “I Can” statement
and asked the students to give an example of when both
numbers and other kinds of information are not essential to
the solving of a problem.

The teacher selected a student to read aloud the problem

prompt, after which she asked all of the students to turn and
talk to a neighbor about the problem. After a few moments,
Mrs. Connors had students share which information was
important. Next, she asked for volunteers to restate the
problem in their own words.

Students were subsequently placed into pairs, as determined

by the teacher. Before being sent off to work, they were

29
reminded that they could use anything they needed to solve
the problem. They were also reminded that they needed
to record their solutions using words, numbers, and/or
pictures (at least two of the three).

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

As students set off to work, some immediately went to the

class math center and picked up some “money,” because they
knew from the outset that using it might help them solve the
problem. Most of the pairs started their work by reading the
problem aloud, either taking turns reading verses or reading in
unison, and some had each partner read the whole poem by
him- or herself.

After the initial readings, which seemed to engage the

students, it was easy to see that they were considering various
strategies. A few just wanted to pull out all the numbers and
add them all at once. When they realized that didn’t make
sense, they tried again. Some added what the boy paid out (70
and 110), figuring that he spent $180, and then adjusted with
the $130 he made at the end, concluding that he lost $50 (see
Donny’s work in Figure 1.4). When pushed by Mrs. Connors
with a guiding question about how many transactions there
were in all, Donny saw that he had missed one, and he was
able to make the adjustment from there.

Many students had some difficulty deciding what to do after

they had finished reading the problem. Some looked around
to see what other pairs were doing to see if they could mirror
them. Some were ready to give up, and they actually moved
away from their partners. Mrs. Connors was strategic in her

30
timing and asked a question to offer an entry point into the
problem: “What is the important information in the problem?”
She allowed them to think about this and respond and then
followed with, “What would this situation look like if you
acted it out?” That was enough for some of the students who
hadn’t gotten “money” earlier to get it now. Then the pairs
designated one person as the boy in the poem and acted out
the problem. You can see how Trinity and Abby then mapped
out how they came to a solution (see Figure 1.5).

FIGURE 1.4
Donny’s work on the “Bicycle Business” problem

FIGURE 1.5
Abby and Trinity’s work on the “Bicycle Business” problem

31
CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —
KELLY CONNORS, GRADE THREE

Lesson Reflection

At first the students were excited because the problem was in

a poem format. After trying to solve it, however, they became
confused. About half of them had given up and were starting
to get off task. When I gave them an entry point, asked them
to retell the problem in their own words, and then asked
which information was important to use, they were able to get
back into the problem. After some were encouraged to use
money and act out the scenarios, they got excited again and
realized it wasn’t too hard if they continued to persevere. I
also saw a lot of students use tables, number lines, and some
of the addition and subtraction methods they had developed
and used through the year.

I loved seeing them at work. By now, near the end of the year,
they finally had learned that they could come at this problem
in different ways. They didn’t all get the right answer, and

32
many made some silly mistakes, but they kept trying and
never gave up.

MP1 Reflection

Of all the MPs, I think this is the clearest, most concise, and
easiest to understand. All along, I had thought that I had a
good grasp of what this MP meant and had strategies to help
realize it in my classroom. What I did not do but have brought
to my practice as a result of it being modeled for me,
however, is to use student mistakes as a learning opportunity.
One of my students had volunteered to give her answer to a
problem but had come across a snag in her thinking. She was
frustrated and about to stop when it was modeled for me how
to capitalize upon the situation by saying, “Wow! Trinity,
thank you for making that mistake and bringing it to the
attention of the class. We all can learn so much from this.”
Trinity lit up with pleasure, and I saw the power of
highlighting students’ mistakes. She felt positive, and so did
the rest of the class. In the past I had led discussions about
how mistakes were made, but I had not held them up to the
light in this way. It was a great learning experience for
Trinity, her classmates, and me. My students have become
proud of their “good” mistakes and are more willing than ever
to dissect them and discover where and why they went wrong.
A result of this has been that they are sticking to a problem
much longer than they used to and are really trying to find
solutions.

33
COMMENTS ABOUT MP1 FROM OTHER
CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Kindergarten Teacher: At the beginning of this year, I saw

that most of my students thought that solving problems meant
giving the right answer to an addition combination. They had
been taught to memorize as the major way to solve problems.
I have come to realize the importance of explicitly teaching
different problem-solving strategies and then providing
students with various types of problems. We, as teachers,
have to model for our students how to solve problems and
how to persevere. Once students have that strong foundation,
they will begin to choose the best and most efficient ways
independently. Adults are not thrown into their careers and
jobs without practice, and our students deserve the same. As I
have begun to focus on MP1 more fully, I believe that my
students are better able to think critically, use mental math
strategies they had not used before, and rely less on
memorization and more on understanding what a problem is
asking for them to do.

Grade Two Teacher: One of the most frustrating things I see

in my classroom is the race to finish “first,” especially in
math. As many times as I told my students that faster isn’t
automatically better, it seemed to go in one ear and out the
other. Before using the MPs, I would meticulously review the
steps involved in solving problems: look for key information,
understand the question, and so on. In a whole-group lesson,
students would follow the steps wonderfully. I would feel
confident sending them off for independent practice, only to
find them blasting through the problem with little thought
behind their actions. MP1 is about slowing down this process.

34
It has helped me put in “speed bumps” to slow down and
expand students’ thought processes.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP1 FROM STUDENTS

Nathaniel, Kindergarten Student: If a problem doesn’t make

sense, you have to find a way to make it make sense.

Glenda, Grade Three Student: [to a classmate who had just

said, “I can’t do this, it’s too hard!”] Hey! You can’t say that!
You know you need to persevere!

Francesca, Grade Four Student: If you don’t persevere, you

won’t do well in school, and you’ll get stuck doing a job that
you don’t really want.

35
CHAPTER 2
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 2:
REASON ABSTRACTLY AND
QUANTITATIVELY

One can always reason with reason.

—HENRI BERGSON, FRENCH PHILOSOPHER

OVERVIEW

It sounds so simple and logical that you can make sense of

anything by applying reasoning to it. Sherlock Holmes, so
famous for using both deductive and inductive reasoning to
solve mysteries, embodied this idea. Although our students
are not being asked to solve mysteries, they are being asked to
apply logic and reasoning to gain understanding of problems
that may not yet be within their grasp. The abstract thinking
involved in solving word problems can be challenging for

36
students. How can they take a situation presented in words
and represent it quantitatively with numbers and symbols?
Conversely, how can students take a number sentence, an
equation, an expression, or a formula and move from this
quantitative form to an abstract form by creating a real-life
situation that would result in the need for such a quantitative
representation? Neither is easy—but both are important.

I remember when I was being taught to divide with fractions

and we were told, “Yours is not to reason why; just invert and
multiply.” I know the teacher was trying to help us by giving
us a way to remember how to divide with fractions, but we
had no idea why we were doing so. Think about that for a
minute now. Do you know why this works? Can you give
mathematical evidence that is backed up with logic and
reasoning about how and why this leads to the right answer
when you divide two-thirds by three-fourths? Can you set ⅔ ÷
¾ into a real-life context? Many of us were robbed of the
chance to learn at an early age how to reason both abstractly
and quantitatively. MP2 is asking us not to allow that to
happen to this generation of students.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. understand that situations expressed in word problems

(abstract) can be represented with numbers (quantitative) and
vice versa;

2. develop a strong number sense as well as gain a sense of

the quantities embedded within problem contexts, the

37
relationships between them, and how they affect the problem
situation; and

3. engage in the “contexts”: decontextualize (translate from

words to numbers), contextualize (probe for sense-making as
work progresses), and recontextualize (ensure that final
answer fits into original problem and makes sense).

Goal 1

To understand that situations expressed in word problems

(abstract) can be represented with numbers (quantitative) and
vice versa (Figure 2.1)

Importance of This Goal

Many students have had the experience of feeling

overwhelmed by even a few sentences that describe a
problem and giving up before they even try, convinced that
the problem is “too confusing.” This is when they just want to
be told what to do and then happily go about doing the
work—usually the computation needed to get the answer. I
am reminded of the old proverb, coined by Anne Isabella
Thackeray Ritchie in her novel Mrs. Dymond (1885), “If you
give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man
to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” It is certainly more
expeditious in the moment to tell students what they need to
do. Who among us isn’t tempted to do that sometimes? We
are seemingly always running against the clock. There are
also times when we want to do so because our innate need to
nurture takes over and we don’t want our students to feel less
than adequate. In the long run, however, we all recognize that

38
once students accept that somewhere in the jumble of the
words in a problem there lies a way to make sense of the
problem and build a model of it, and that they are capable of
finding it with some scaffolding and practice, they are better
served both in the moment and in the future.

FIGURE 2.1
Goal 1

Students take a major step forward in being able to reason

both abstractly and quantitatively when they understand what
they are being asked to find, say it in their own words, and
then translate those words into numbers and symbols. I
underscore the “translate” part with students because this
suggests a connecting of words to numbers and symbols, as
well as connecting actions within the problem to numbers and
symbols in a methodical manner, doing so in “chunks,” so to
speak. Of course it takes root with students as they see it
modeled by you as well as by their peers. It also helps when
students engage in dialogue as they share what they are
thinking and justify what they have done.

39
 Goal 2

To develop a strong number sense as well as gain a sense of

the quantities embedded within problem contexts, the
relationships between them, and how they affect the problem
situation (Figure 2.2)

Importance of This Goal

Who doesn’t agree with the idea that all students must
develop a strong sense of number? Of course, we all agree,
but what may differ is our understanding of what number
sense is, of what having a sense of number means. Although
there are many definitions out there, one that has been around
for a while and continues to be used comes from Francis
“Skip” Fennell and Theodore Landis, who, in a chapter in
Windows of Opportunity: Mathematics for Students with
Special Needs, say succinctly that number sense is “an
awareness and understanding about what numbers are, their
relationships, their magnitude, the relative effect of operating
on numbers, including the use of mental mathematics and
estimation” (1994, 187). They, like many others, urge
elementary teachers especially to understand that a strong
number sense equals a strong foundation for reasoning and
that this is a component essential to mathematical proficiency
through middle school, high school, and beyond. This is
supported in the series of books edited by Timothy Kanold
about using professional learning communities as a way to
bring the Common Core to life. The series’ authors maintain
that number sense can empower students in a minimum of six
ways with the ability to express interpretations about
numbers, apply relationships between numbers, recognize

40
magnitude of numbers, compute, make decisions involving
numbers, and solve problems (Kanold 2012, 33–34).

FIGURE 2.2
Goal 2

What is important to remember about this component of MP2

is that number sense is learnable, that it is within the reach of
all students. The seeds can be planted from the earliest stages
of development and fostered all the way through school.
When students are given opportunities to play around with
numbers, to compose, decompose, and recompose numbers in
multiple ways, they begin to see the relationships and
connections between and among numbers. Yes, 426 can be
represented as 4 hundreds, 2 tens, and 6 ones, but it can also
be thought of as 3 hundreds, 12 tens, and 6 ones, as well as
200 plus 200 plus 20 plus 6, and myriad other ways. Thinking
about numbers in multiple ways leads to being able to
compute in multiple ways—ways that make sense based on
the context. When students have played with numbers
enough, they develop an understanding of their relative
magnitude and can reasonably assert that at times, 100 is too

41
large a number for a problem situation, and at other times too
small.

Goal 3

To engage in the “contexts”: decontextualize (translate from

words to numbers), contextualize (probe for sense-making as
work progresses), and recontextualize (ensure that the final
answer fits into original problem and makes sense) (Figure
2.3)

Importance of This Goal

As students get into a problem, they must begin to build a

chain of reasoning that can get them to the solution. This
chain of reasoning doesn’t just jump out; it requires an initial
structuring of steps (decontextualizing), then working toward
the solution while checking progress along the way
(contextualizing), followed by making sure that the solution
one has found really fits back into the problem
(recontextualizing). What is frustrating for many students is
that sometimes it is necessary to retrace—or even
rework—steps. I agree with Cathy Seeley, who finds that this
component is a critical one: “One of the most interesting
aspects of Standard for Mathematical Practice 2 is the
emphasis on students being able to move back and forth while
solving a contextual problem between a situation and the
mathematical representation of the situation” (2014, 273). I
love that she calls this process the ability to “zoom in and
zoom out” as well as move “back and forth and in and out.”
As always, it is beneficial for you to model how engaging in

42
this can be done and then have students model for each other
as well.

FIGURE 2.3
Goal 3

Decontextualize by

• identifying relevant information within a problem context by

stripping away extraneous information;

• translating relevant information into quantitative values; and

• constructing number sentences using quantitative

relationships.

Contextualize by

• monitoring work along the way to gain a sense of progress

toward solution;

• probing to check that interim steps toward solution make

sense and align with overall context; and

43
• using properties of operations flexibly toward solution.

Recontextualize by

• checking to see if the answer makes sense quantitatively;

• verifying units of measure; and

• circling back to the problem context to ensure the answer

connects with the context.

CLASSROOM LESSON—GET TO WORK

Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

This problem revolves around the childhood favorite song of

the same name. It is a natural for a math problem, especially
when set in a classroom environment. The obvious question is
How many heads, shoulders, knees, and toes are there? A
bonus is how easily this can be differentiated: How many
heads, shoulders, knees, and toe are there in the class? How
many in your group? What is the difference between your
group and someone else’s? How many heads and toes are
there? Possibilities abound for ways to modify this problem
to meet and challenge multiple levels of readiness.

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 1

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].1 Use addition to solve

word problems. [Link].4 Add within 100 using concrete

44
models or drawings or strategies … and relate the strategy to
a written method and explain the reasoning used.

• Student Language: Use addition to solve word problems and

show my reasoning in words, pictures, and/or numbers.

• Focus Math Practice: MP2: Reason Abstractly and

Quantitatively

• I Can Statement: I can connect numbers with words and

words with numbers.

• Lesson Setup:

The lesson began with Mrs. Stoddard, the classroom teacher,

leading a discussion about the use of math in our everyday
lives. Students shared several ways in which they use math
both in and out of school.

Mrs. Stoddard then had the students stand in a circle and led
the class in singing and acting out “Heads, Shoulders, Knees,
and Toes.” She followed by asking the students if they could
see any math in that activity. Several responded
that they could count how many heads were in the class, some
said that the number of toes could be found, and so forth.

The lesson continued with three students reading aloud from

the board the Focus Content Standard(s) in Student Language,
the Focus Math Practice, and the I Can Statement.

Mrs. Stoddard then asked if there were any tools that might be
helpful in finding the number of the situations they had
suggested. Students suggested ten frames, counters, and base

45
ten blocks, among others. Mrs. Stoddard spoke about the
importance of using words, numbers, and/or pictures as ways
students could share their reasoning.

Students were placed into partner groups (as determined by

the teacher). They were asked to find the answers to the
questions as presented on the worksheet. Differentiations
were made accordingly: some students completed the task for
two students per group, some for a group of three, and some
for a group of four.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

Once they set off to work in their smaller groups, the students
seemed excited about digging in to solve the problem. Mrs.
Stoddard had set up workstations for the groups in advance
and provided an array of tools for them to use. It was
interesting to watch who gravitated toward counters,
whiteboards for drawing, ten frames, base ten blocks, a
hundreds board, and so on. It was also interesting to watch
and listen as they decided as a group which tool might be the
best one to use.

Some groups were very straightforward in their approach.

One group of four collectively counted out four counters for
their heads and kept them separate from the next collection
they made for their eight shoulders. They next counted out
forty counters. Each student counted out ten for his or her
own toes and placed them in a group, and then they counted
out the last group for their eight knees. They then proceeded
to meld the groups together, adding as they merged each
group. See Alby’s work (Figure 2.4) as a representation of

46
their reasoning. When Mrs. Stoddard asked them why they
solved it that way, group members responded with answers
such as, “We knew we could be exact this way and not make
a mistake.”

FIGURE 2.4
Alby’s work on the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
problem

Vivian’s group had each member draw on their whiteboards

either the heads, shoulders, knees, or toes. They then added
heads and shoulders. (“We just knew that 4 plus 8 is 12 and
then we added 8 to 12, and then 40 to 20 and got our
answer.”). (See Figure 2.5.) Briana’s group used the ten
frames. They shared with Mrs. Stoddard that they started with
the toes and “filled in four complete frames first. Then we
knew that the eight shoulders and eight knees together make
sixteen, and that is one whole ten frame and six on another.
Then there are the four heads, so if we added them in order,
we got sixty in all.” (See Figure 2.6.)

47
CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —
BRENDA STODDARD, GRADE ONE

Lesson Reflection

We had fun doing this lesson right from the start. It was easy
to engage the students immediately through singing and
acting out something familiar to them. We are always telling
our children that math is all around them, and this was a good
way to prove that. As is always my practice, I had prepared
for the group work in advance in such a way that many tools
would be available to them. I had also been strategic in the
creation of the groups so that the students were more likely to
collaborate with one another.

As I walked around and interacted with the groups, I was able

to see that even though I had expected that many groups
would solve the problem in the same way, that was not the
case. I saw students take the time to stop and reason out the
problem and keep checking back to see if their
representations matched. As a result of this checking, several
mistakes were found and then corrected. I particularly liked
how the ways they showed both their quantitative and abstract
reasoning were varied.

FIGURE 2.5
Vivian’s group’s work on the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and
Toes” problem

48
FIGURE 2.6
Briana’s group’s work on the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and
Toes” problem

MP2 Reflection

At the beginning of the year, I really didn’t know much of

anything about the Mathematical Practices. I did know that
they existed and were part of the Common Core, but I was
unsure of anything further than that. I have begun to have a
better understanding but am still unsure of how I will ever get
my head around all of this. One thing that has helped is that I

49
can see how integrating the MPs into my practice will result
in a better way of learning and thinking about math. I can
now see them as a guide to helping students become better
mathematicians. I see MP2 as especially useful in supporting
students as they look for the practical applications of math, of
how to make connections between words and numbers in
problem situations, to use those relationships to make
meaning. I want to continue to deepen my understanding of
this particular MP, as well as all of the others, and then apply
that to my daily teaching. I would like the inclusion of the
MPs to be second nature to me, and I realize that this will take
time and practice.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP2 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Grade Three Teacher: This Mathematical Practice is one I

need to dig into more. I have an overall idea of what it
is—reasoning through both an abstract lens and a quantitative
one—but I definitely need to get to a deeper level of what
exactly it means and how I can provide enough opportunities
for my students to do it. This one is going to take some time.

Grade Five Teacher: This MP sounds relatively simple—just

four words— but it’s not as easy to understand as it looks.
When I first read this one, I immediately thought this was
something I already did, and maybe I do to some degree. I
don’t think, however, that I have stressed enough to my
students the importance of stepping back and seeing the big
picture as they are working on a problem. I pretty much had

50
them check after they finished to see if the way they solved it
and their answer made sense. I think I have to spend more
time helping
my kids see why they should be doing this at points
throughout their work and not just at the end.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP2 FROM STUDENTS

Julio, Grade One Student: I know I need to make sure that

my drawing shows how I got the answer because it shows my
thinking. I sometimes put the total on the top and the parts on
the bottom and make sure they go with the problem.

Ayla, Grade Four Student: This Math Practice is about going

back and forth from the problem to your work and seeing if
what you are doing makes sense. It isn’t always easy.

Victoria, Grade Five Student: Paying attention to what the

problem is saying and how I show—represent—my work and
how they connect is what’s important. This is challenging,
and sometimes I have to make many adjustments.

51
CHAPTER 3
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 3:
CONSTRUCT VIABLE
ARGUMENTS AND CRITIQUE THE
REASONING OF OTHERS

Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way.

Otherwise all you have is an opinion.

—MARILYN VOS SAVANT

OVERVIEW

The foundation of this MP lies within one of the five Process

Standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics: communication. It is widely accepted that when
you explain something to someone else, you must think about
it in a deeper, more detailed way. By communicating
something, even something as simple as giving someone

52
directions to somewhere familiar to you (in the pre-GPS
days), you must stop and consider your options, make a visual
map for yourself first, chart out the steps, be explicit in your
choice of words, consider modifications as you go along, and
then review your directions to see if they are correct,
cohesive, complete, and make sense to both you and the
person to whom you are giving them.

NCTM maintains that communication is one of the most

critical components of mathematical proficiency and views it
as a key element in students grappling with and then coming
to understand mathematical ideas and principles; when
students communicate their thinking, “ideas become objects
of reflection, refinement, discussion, and amendment” (2000,
60), serving to make them stronger. Further, NCTM
maintains that when our students “are challenged to think and
reason about mathematics and to communicate the results of
their thinking to others orally or in writing, they learn to be
clear and convincing” (2000, 60), which moves the
communication from an opinion to a valid argument.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. believe that mathematics can be explained in a logical,

mathematically sound manner—that there is no “magic” in
mathematics;

2. accept that viable explanations of mathematical thinking

must be organized, reasonable, justifiable, and laden with
proof; and

53
3. accept that receiving feedback on their mathematical
arguments from both teachers and students can deepen
understanding and improve thinking and that understanding
the reasoning of others can do the same.

Goal 1

To believe that mathematics can be explained in a logical,

mathematically sound manner—that there is no “magic” in
mathematics (Figure 3.1)

Importance of This Goal

We have all had students who proudly proclaim, “I found a

trick,” or “My dad showed me a trick to do this faster.” These
phrases are like fingernails on a chalkboard and almost make
me shudder, for simply put, there are no tricks in
mathematics, and there is no magic in mathematics (other
than the way it can create beauty and wonder). Try this with
either students or adults:

What is 3 times 10?

What is 6 times 10?

How about 8 times 10?

The correct answers are usually given quickly and with

conviction and confidence. Then ask, “How do you know?”

54
and the response will most likely be a variation of, “The trick
is that you just add a zero.” First of all, it is not a trick. A zero
is put in the ones place and the other digit shifts to the tens
place for a valid reason. Second, you are not adding zero, for
zero added to a number results in the original number (this
example, as you can see, also applies to MP6 in terms of
being precise with language). An explanation such as
this—just add a zero if you are multiplying by 10, two zeroes
if you are multiplying by 100, and so on—robs students of the
chance to see the connection between the action and
multiplying by powers of 10. Noticing the pattern of the
number ending in zero may be a starting point for students,
but their exploration and explanation should not end here.
When I hear students say, “Multiplying 3 by 10 means that
there are 3 tens instead of 3 ones, and the 3 moves to the tens
place; the 3 is more powerful now because it has increased by
a power of 10,” I can see the mathematical foundation being
laid for them to take it to the next level and apply that logic to
multiplying by 100 and on from there.

FIGURE 3.1
Goal 1

55
 Goal 2

To accept that viable explanations of mathematical thinking

must be organized, reasonable, justifiable, and laden with
proof (Figure 3.2)

Importance of This Goal

Many times students believe that simply listing the steps they
used to solve a problem is a way to explain and justify their
thinking. In reality, however, telling and showing ≠ proving
and justifying. Something is lost when students arrive at a
correct solution, yet can tell only what they did to get there
and not why they did what they did. At the heart of
mathematics and all sciences is the posing of ideas and then
either proving or disproving them on the basis of laws,
principles, definitions, properties, theorems, and so on, so that
other people can follow the chain of reasoning. The authors of
the Common Core were strategic in using the adjective viable
in the naming of this MP. From the French vie—life— viable
means “capable of living.” A mathematical argument is
capable of living only if it is based on truths that connect and
lead one to an understanding that is provable. “Much of the
work of mathematicians involves arguing to prove hypotheses
true or false. The kind of arguments mathematicians make
consist of reasoned steps that lead logically to a conclusion in
a mathematically valid way” (Seeley 2014, 280). Moving
students away from a simple recitation of their steps toward
providing a trail of their reasoning that creates a path others
can follow is the focus of this component of MP3.

56
FIGURE 3.2
Goal 2

Goal 3

To accept that receiving feedback on their mathematical

arguments from both teachers and students can deepen
understanding and improve thinking and that understanding
the reasoning of others can do the same (Figure 3.3)

Importance of This Goal

I am sure that you have watched students as they set about

solving problems that involve more than one simple step.
Most read and often reread the problem, and some even read
it aloud as they let the basics of the problem swirl around
them. They may go and get some manipulatives and use them
to act out the actions of the problem, or they may draw a
picture and then get an answer that seems correct. You can
surmise that many of them have constructed some sort of an
internal justification along the way for what they did and why
they did it. Some may even sub-vocalize their reasoning,

57
talking aloud quietly, mostly to themselves. The ante is
raised, however, when they are asked to externalize their
reasoning and explain, support, and justify it to others. There
are two basic levels to this externalization: presenting their
thinking to a teacher and presenting it to peers. It has been my
experience that students often find it easier to convince a
teacher that their reasoning works, because the teacher knows
the correct answer, knows many of the pathways of reasoning
that can be used to get to the answer, and is adept at filling in
gaps in students’ explanations. It is more difficult for most
students to convince peers of their reasoning.

The classroom environment and the norms with which it has

been built play a significant role in the success of this
component of MP3. The expectation that explanations of
one’s thinking are the norm and that questioning is done in a
respectful way that engages all students and the teacher as
well goes a long way toward achieving the kind of interactive
mathematical discussions that yield positive results. When
students perceive the classroom community as safe, they are
more likely to share their reasoning and strategies, even if
they are not completely formed. Many are accustomed to
having the teacher ask, “Why did you do this?” and do not
feel threatened, viewing it as an opportunity to expand and
substantiate their thinking. When this extends to peers, it is
more likely that the classroom will be filled with true
discussions, real conversations through which students “can
clarify their own thinking and learn from others” (Chapin,
O’Connor, and Anderson 2009, 5).

FIGURE 3.3
Goal 3

58
CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

The Inheritance

This problem has many variations and can be modified to fit

various grade levels. This particular problem comes from the
grade-five booklet called Awesome Math Problems for
Creative Thinking (Greenes et al. 2000). It is definitely one
you might like to try on your own before you see how
students work to solve it. As you do, you will see how the
problem calls MP2 into play, as it requires both abstract and
quantitative reasoning. As you work through the problem and
take some time to think about how you would organize your
solution path so that others could follow it, provide evidence
that supports your claims, and ready yourself to defend your
thinking, you will see how MP3 is put to good use as well.
Have fun with this one!

Mrs. McGullicuddy left half of her estate to her son Sam.

She left half of the remaining half to her cousin Fred.

59
She left half of the remaining half to her nephew Horace.

She left the remaining $25,000 for the care of her cat Chester.

What was the total amount of Mrs. McGullicuddy’s estate?

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 5

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].2 Solve word problems

involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the
same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by
using visual fraction models or equations to represent the
problem.

• Student Language: Solve word problem with fractions by

using visual models and/or equations.

• Focus Math Practice: MP3: Construct Viable Arguments

and Critique the Reasoning of Others

•
I Can Statement: I can explain how and why my thinking
makes sense.

• Lesson Setup:

The lesson began with three students reading aloud from the
board: the Focus Content Standard in Student Language, the
Focus Math Practice, and the I Can Statement.

60
Ms. Taylor started by asking what students knew about wills
and testaments. A lively discussion ensued as students shared
what they knew about why wills are made and what they
might include. Ms. Taylor asked if any of the students had
heard about people leaving money in their wills for their pets,
and indeed, a few of them had. She told the students they
would be solving a problem about a woman who had left
money to several relatives as well as her cat, and that they
would have to determine the total amount of her estate.

Ms. Taylor told the students that they would be responsible

for assembling a trail of their reasoning in a way that
supported their answers. She drew their attention back to the I
Can statement and expanded on it, telling them that their
explanations had to be convincing, credible, and viable, and
that they would be sharing them with the class at the end of
the lesson. When further prompted, the students said that they
knew their explanations had to have words, numbers, and
perhaps diagrams as well. They set off to work, excited to
begin.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

It was clear that the students found this to be an intriguing

problem, as there was a great deal of “buzzing” going on
immediately. It was also interesting to note how some of the
students instantly started to work on the problem with a
partner, whereas some went off on their own to work
individually. They all read and reread the problem
aloud—several times—before they chose a strategy. The
result was a variety of solution paths that were shared when
Ms. Taylor pulled the students together later in the lesson.

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Judah explained, “Basically, I made a diagram of the whole
thing. I split it in half for Sam first, and then I split the other
half in half for Fred, and then the remaining quarter of it, I cut
in half with one side for Horace and the other side for
Chester. I knew that Chester got $25,000 and that’s obviously
the same as Horace. Together, those equal a quarter of the
whole thing—$50,000—and Fred also got a quarter, so he got
$50,000 by himself. That means the two quarters together are
$25,000 plus $25,000 plus
$50,000, which equals 100,000. Obviously, this is the same
for the other half of the whole, which means Sam got
$100,000, and that means she left $200,000 in all.” (See
Figure 3.4 for Judah’s work.)

Even though Judah did not write fractions in his written work,
he used them to frame his thinking and then to justify his
reasoning. Leon, on the other hand, went right to fractional
notation to show how he solved the problem. He was able to
show how he unpacked the problem both backward and
forward, so to speak, by explaining that “Sam got ½ of the
total, which also happens to equal , Fred got ¼ and that
equals , and Horace got ⅛ and they all add to ⅞. Chester
got $25,000 and that is ⅛ and now I can go backward to say
that Horace got $25,000, and so on.” (See Figure 3.5 for
Leon’s work.) Take a look at Shira’s work (Figure 3.6) and
notice how she methodically explained her reasoning, giving
evidence to support how she got from one step to the next in
her thinking.

62
CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —
JESSICA TAYLOR, GRADE FIVE

Lesson Reflection

I was thrilled to see how all of the students went to work on

this problem right away. I was surprised that no one hesitated
at the start and that they really did want to solve it. We have
been working on that all year, and it was great to see.

I also loved that the kids solved the problem in so many

different ways. Some worked backward right away and had
no problem describing their thinking. It was nice to hear
Jeremy when he said in such a matter-of-fact way, “Since you
know the amount of money she gave in the end, you work
backward from $25,000. Instead of dividing by 2, in the way
the problem describes it, you multiply by 2 and then just keep
doing it.” I was blown away by his self-confidence in giving
his argument.

I was also blown away when Judah was comparing his

thinking with another student’s and said that he really didn’t
use fractions “specifically.” Shira, normally so shy, spoke
right up and said that “Judah actually did use fractions” and
that she knew that just by the way he divided his diagram and
explained his thinking in words. I have been working hard
this year to have the kids really listen to one another’s
explanations and find how they are both similar and different,
and it seems as if some of this effort is paying off for them!

FIGURE 3.4
Judah’s work on “The Inheritance” problem

63
FIGURE 3.5
Leon’s work on “The Inheritance” problem

FIGURE 3.6
Shira’s work on “The Inheritance” problem

64
 MP3 Reflection

I know that all of the Mathematical Practices are important,

but I happen to think this is one of the most important. I see
the ability to explain and defend your thinking as an essential
life skill. I know that when I was in school, if I ever got asked
about why I had solved a problem a certain way (which
almost never happened, by the way), I assumed that it meant
that I had the wrong answer, and I immediately questioned
myself. My typical response was that I must have made a
mistake and would try again. I think that this is the hardest
part of this MP for me as a teacher. I constantly look for the
right balance in my voice and my body language when I ask
my students about how and why they solved a problem. I
don’t want them to feel threatened when asked to defend their
thinking. I want them to see it as a positive step in their
learning and that it is okay if they find an error in their
thinking as they describe it to someone else. Actually, I want
them to see that as a wonderful thing!

As I said in my reflection on “The Inheritance” lesson, I have

also been working hard at having my students really and truly

65
listen to each other. By the time they get to fifth grade, I think
they should be able to find similarities and differences
between how they and someone else solved a problem. This
remains a top priority for me.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP3 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Kindergarten Teacher: I have loved watching this MP unfold

in my kindergarten classroom. With so many ELL students in
my class this year, language-building strategies have been
blended into all areas of the curriculum, which is beneficial to
all of my students. Watching my ELL students “turn and talk”
and having them really do it, and hearing them defend their
“arguments,” is amazing. Though they sometimes mix up
terms, they are learning how to defend themselves
mathematically, and that’s something I will continue to foster.

Grade Two Teacher: Helping students master this standard is

key to making sure students really understand the problems
they are solving. I think I have spent the
most time on this standard, and it has taken most of the year
for students to truly feel comfortable explaining and
defending their strategies and challenging the thinking of
others. By nature, students want to do what everyone else is
doing. It takes a lot of math confidence to say, “I solved this
problem by using base ten blocks” when other students are
using mental math. By the end of the year, I was thrilled to
see students solving problems in a variety of ways and
discussing strategies.

66
COMMENTS ABOUT MP3 FROM STUDENTS

Ethan, Grade Two Student: It is important to explain your

thinking, because when you go step-by-step, you might find a
mistake. You can also help someone else so they don’t fall
behind.

Kevone, Grade Three Student: We do this Math Practice at

Math Meeting when we go into partners and discuss our
answers. We can help people answer tough questions.

Nathan, Grade Five Student: This is not always easy to do.

Sometimes, I have to think very hard how to explain my
thinking. I already know in my head what I have done, but it’s
kinda tricky to put that into words all the time so that
someone who isn’t in my head with me can see how I am
thinking.

67
CHAPTER 4
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 4:
MODEL WITH MATHEMATICS

The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the
questions.

—SAMUEL KARLIN, AMERICAN MATHEMATICIAN

OVERVIEW

Although this MP certainly includes the use of objects,

drawings, diagrams, concrete manipulatives, and more, it also
moves beyond those parameters. An esteemed mathematics
professor, Samuel Karlin, provided the short, pithy statement
above that both encapsulates and embellishes the role of
models. If questions are generated, and if they are sharp and
precise, then modeling results in the application of these
questions to make sense of the data and solve problems.

68
Mathematical Practice 4 is tightly interwoven with MPs 1, 2,
3, and 5. It activates both MP1 and 2, provides a foundation
for MP3, and gives a kick to MP5. Modeling is used directly
in solving problems, aids in thinking both abstractly and
quantitatively, provides the core of a valid argument, and is a
tool in and of itself. At the elementary level, this could look
like students understanding what they are being asked to find
in a problem, deciding how to represent the abstracted
situation with tools such as counters or cubes, modeling it
notationally with numbers and symbols, checking along the
way to see if revisions to the model are needed, and then
determining if the solution fits, and if it does not, revising the
model again. Although elementary students may not actualize
the highest level of mathematical modeling, the steps they are
capable of making undergird their later development in this
area.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. understand that the “pure” mathematics they are learning

can and should be used to solve problems in their everyday
world both within and beyond the classroom walls;

2. use their mathematical knowledge to represent a more

complex problem situation in a simpler way and then
generalize back to the original problem;

3. access and use tools that can help them create models to
analyze, represent, and map data, find relationships, and draw
conclusions: among these are concrete objects, pictures,

69
diagrams, charts, graphs, tables, expressions, equations, and
formulas.

Goal 1

To understand that the “pure” mathematics they are learning

can and should be used to solve problems in their everyday
world both within and beyond the classroom walls (Figure
4.1)

Importance of This Goal

One way for students to see the value of the mathematics they
are learning is to have them work with situations in their
everyday lives that can be “mathematized.” There are
multiple sources for such problems (classroom textbooks,
resource books, online sites, and so on), and many offer
intriguing problems that move beyond a simple, formulaic
solution. It is important, however, to ensure that these
problems are relevant to your students; they need to see how
some of what they have already learned can be applied to
solving a problem they may actually face in the world beyond
the classroom.

For this to happen, students must have experience with

problems that are messy and do not fall into easy, pat
pathways to a solution. For them to find these more complex
solution pathways, students must have, in addition to
procedural fluency, conceptual understanding so that they can
identify models—”mental constructions” (Schoenfeld
1994)—that will allow them to begin to grapple with these
types of problems. To manipulate these models, however,

70
students must have experiences in which they have had to
meld conceptual understanding with procedural knowledge,
so they will avoid what John Tapper calls a student facing a
“dichotomy between knowing the steps and understanding the
steps” as something akin to “having a list of directions to get
where you are going versus having a map of the entire area”
(2012, 14).

FIGURE 4.1
Goal 1

Goal 2

To use their mathematical knowledge to represent a more

complex problem situation in a simpler way and then
generalize back to the original problem (Figure 4.2)

Importance of This Goal

Too often, students step back from a problem almost

immediately because it seems “too hard” at first glance. This
applies to all students, from the elementary students with

71
whom I mostly work to the middle and high schoolers whom
I tutor, as well as to those “below” and “above” grade level. I
find that a fairly uncomplicated strategy—make it simpler—is
not apparent enough in their problem-solving repertoire to be
used as often as it could and should be. Students need to be
taught explicitly a variety of ways to make a problem simpler.
They need to see how, through modeling and practice, using
smaller numbers and “friendly” numbers (whole numbers,
multiples of ten, and so on) can allow them to solve the
problem first with these simpler numbers and then apply the
same strategies with the numbers in the original problem.
They need modeling and practice in making a problem
simpler by applying what they know to find out what they do
not know. (For instance, they might not know the length of
the entire trip, but they do know it was four times as far as the
first leg of twenty-three miles, so by doubling twenty-three
twice …) They need modeling and practice with identifying
restrictions as aids in both making estimates and finding
solutions. (The total can’t be more than 100 percent because
…) They need modeling and practice in seeing generalization
as a way to make learning more accessible in that it gives
them the chance to layer new learning onto prior knowledge.
This may allow students to agree with Tapper, who says,
“Generalization, it can be argued, is the goal of all learning. It
means that students can use what they learn in class in a
variety of new, unfamiliar circumstances. It is proof that
students have incorporated new concepts and can use them—
rather than learning them for the purpose of producing them
for the teacher” (2012, 155).

FIGURE 4.2
Goal 2

72
 Goal 3

To access and use tools that can help them create models to
analyze, represent, and map data, find relationships, and draw
conclusions: among these are concrete objects, pictures,
diagrams, charts, graphs, tables, expressions, equations, and
formulas (Figure 4.3)

Importance of This Goal

This component has obvious connections to MP5, Use

Appropriate Tools Strategically. In this component, however,
the focus is on using tools to create models that can lead to
solving existing problems and to generating new questions
that can lead to new problems. It is also through the use of
these tools to construct models that students can be put into
the position of determining if their models truly align with the
problem, make sense in the context of the problem, and lead
to a reasonable solution.

An additional benefit of this component is that students can

see for themselves that a problem can be solved in multiple

73
ways through the use of various models that use a variety of
tools. Further, the sharing of models via the tools used can
allow students to organize their thinking and lend credibility
to their arguments (as in MP3). This sharing can promote
constructive mathematical disagreements, as endorsed by
Angela Barlow and Michael McCrory with the potential to
“provide students with the impetus to think deeply about
mathematics in an effort to make sense of a situation” as well
as “to organize their thoughts, formulate arguments, consider
other students’ positions, and communicate their positions to
their classmates” (2011, 531).

FIGURE 4.3
Goal 3

CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

Show Me the Value: Base Ten

You may want to think about how you would present a

problem of this sort to your students. The basic premise is for
students to build with base ten blocks some sort of a structure

74
that they see in their lives. There are, of course, limits and
parameters that can be set so that the task can realistically be
completed within one, perhaps two, classroom lessons. After
students have built the structure, they are first asked to
estimate its value and record their “ballpark” estimated
answer. They then may have to write a description of it,
determine its numerical value, and then, depending upon
further variations, compare the value of their structures to
others in the classroom. You may want to build a structure of
your own in advance of reading the following sections and
anticipate how your students might go about solving the
problem.

As is the case with most problems, this one integrates

multiple Mathematical Practices into the work it takes to
solve it. It requires students to meld abstract and quantitative
reasoning (MP2) with using a mathematical tool (MP5), along
with a level of requisite precision (MP6). Additionally and
perhaps more central to the task, each student will be drawing
from the real world, creating a model of it, and then analyzing
that model and drawing conclusions—components of MP4.

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 2

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].1 Understand that the

three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of
hundreds, tens, and ones; [Link].3 Read and write numbers to
1000 using base ten numerals, number names, and expanded
form; [Link].4 Compare two three-digit numbers based on
meanings of the hundreds, tens, and ones digits; [Link].7 Add

75
and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings
and strategies based on place value, properties of operations

• Student Language: Find and compare the value of concrete

representations by using place-value models.

• Focus Math Practice: MP4: Model with Mathematics

• I Can Statement: I can represent and solve problems using

objects, pictures, numbers, and words.

• Lesson Setup:

Mrs. Freud, the classroom teacher, called on three students to

read aloud from the board the Focus Content Standard in
Student Language, the Focus Math Practice, and the I Can
Statement. She then kicked off the lesson by asking, “When
do we use math in our everyday lives?” and followed up with
a brief discussion of how and why math is of value to all. The
students talked about how they use math at home, at the store,
in their sports, and so on.

Mrs. Freud continued with the setup by asking the students,

“Can you think of a ‘structure,’ something you see or use, and
then think about how you could show—represent—it with
base ten blocks?” She explained that they would each make
their own structure and had to use some units (1s), some longs
or rods (10s), and some flats (100s). Mrs. Freud did suggest
that they not build “up” too much, to prevent the “crumbling”
of buildings. The students were instructed that they had to
describe their structure with words and pictures. They were
also told to make an estimate of the “base ten value” of their
construction, write it in colored marker or pencil, and “ring” it

76
to identify it as the “ballpark”/estimated answer. All students
were told they would each then determine the actual value
and record how they found it, showing their thinking.

Students were directed to their group settings, with some

groups of two, some of three, and one of four. Mrs. Freud
further differentiated the task by having some students find a
structure with a value that was greater than theirs and one that
was less, find the difference between theirs and the other
structures, and then explain how they determined the
differences.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

The students couldn’t wait to start this task. They knew that
they had to get to it, since Mrs. Freud had told them they
would have eight to ten minutes to do their building. There
were collections of base ten blocks at each of the group
settings,
so they dug right in and started to build. Mrs. Freud checked
in on students as they worked: “Tell me about your structure
so far. What does your mental image of it look like? How are
you planning to build it? What might be an estimate/ballpark
of the value? What would be a value that would be way too
high/low for what you’ve built so far?”

The engagement in this task was clearly evident in the way

the students attended to their building. They could be heard
describing aloud to a classmate what they were building and
how they planned to do it. This helped when it came time for
each to write a description. The level of details in the written
descriptions varied, with some more extensive than others.

77
Estimating the value of the structures was relatively easy for
some students. Amaiyah looked at her “mousetrap” (see
Figure 4.4 for Amaiyah’s work) and said, “I know it is more
than 100, but I think it is less than 200, so I’m guessing in the
middle.” She wrote her estimate, put a ring around it, and left
it alone, as did Aaron (see Figure 4.5 for Aaron’s work). Mia,
on the other hand, changed her estimate a few times because
“it isn’t right.” (See Figure 4.6 for Mia’s work.) Although
some of the students made ballpark estimates of “friendly”
numbers (multiples of ten, for example), more precise
numbers were recorded for the estimate. Many students had a
hard time with the idea of an estimate, thinking that it was
more important to be “exact,” they told Mrs. Freud.

As students worked to find the exact value of the structures, it

was clear that some were quite organized in their approach.
Aaron separated the blocks, wrote what they were, recorded
the value of each type, and then added the partial sums from
the largest to the smallest to find the total. Amaiyah had a
similar approach but showed the partial values on the number
line to find her total. Many students were not as organized in
their counting and benefited from Mrs. Freud’s guiding
questions: “How many flats do you have? What would be a
good next step now? What tool could help you find the total?”

FIGURE 4.4
Amaiyah’s work on the “Show Me the Value” problem

78
CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS
NANCY FREUD, GRADE TWO

Lesson Reflection

When we first did this lesson, the students were just

becoming familiar with the MPs and had not yet learned
three-digit addition and subtraction. Building the structures
was not a problem, but finding the value was challenging for
many of them. They did not have an organized approach to
counting their base ten blocks, and some of them were
recounting blocks that had already been counted. Even so,
everyone was able to come up with a total value (some
correct, some not). The biggest roadblock was finding the
difference between their structure and a partner’s, since they
had learned only two-digit subtraction at this point. I was
interested to see how they would tackle this. As expected,
some persevered, some guessed, and some just gave up.

FIGURE 4.5
Aaron’s work on the “Show Me the Value” problem

79
FIGURE 4.6
Mia’s work on the “Show Me the Value” problem

I decided to do the lesson again later in the year. By this time,

the students were much more aware of the MPs. Further, they
had worked more with three-digit addition and subtraction.
There was quite a difference both in how they found the total
value and in how they found the differences between
structures. Aaron, for example, had just compared the actual
base ten blocks and counted the remaining difference between
the two. The second time around, Aaron used an open number
line (see Figure 4.7). Davia, who had experienced difficulty
with this the first time the lesson was done, was much more
confident in her approach and did a great job explaining her
thinking (see Figure 4.8 for Davia’s work).

80
FIGURE 4.7
Aaron’s follow-up work

FIGURE 4.8
Davia’s follow-up work

I expected to see correct calculations, but what I didn’t expect

to see was how the MPs had completely changed their
approach to solving this problem. Overall, the atmosphere in
the room was productive. Yes, they had fun building the
structures, but they were more interested in getting to the
“meat” of the problem. When counting the value of their

81
structure, they dismantled it, grouped the hundreds, tens, and
ones, and counted in an organized fashion (MP5). They
worked with their partners in a respectful way, explaining
their thinking and discussing strategies (MP3). When asked,
they could explain their strategy in a meaningful way. I was
most struck by one group of boys: Matthew was having
trouble calculating the value of his structure. Ethan offered to
help and showed Matthew how to count it. Colin, checking
for precision (MP6), recounted the structure and got a value
that was different from Ethan’s. Rather than argue over who
was correct, which would have happened at the beginning of
the year, the three of them calmly counted and recounted until
they all got the same value (MP1). They had used models to
further their thinking and to find relationships (MP4). My
students had become mathematical thinkers who were
interested in more than just getting “an answer.”

MP4 Reflection

This particular Mathematical Practice sounds and looks

somewhat easy at first, but it is not. The more I work with this
one, the more I realize that it is harder than it looks. Before I
started really working with the MPs in general, I knew almost
nothing about any of them. They were all basically a bunch of
jargon to me. I had no idea how they fit in with the Common
Core, nor did I have any idea about how I was going to
translate all this technical math language and make it
accessible to second graders.

Model with Mathematics initially seemed pretty

straightforward to me. It was when I began to dissect it and
try to get at what it is all about that I started to grasp a better

82
idea of it. I understand that it moves beyond just using
manipulatives and drawings, diagrams, and tables to explain
how you have solved a problem. I understand that it is
connected to using and applying
mathematical thinking and mathematical tools to make
connections, to make predictions about real situations.
Because I consider myself a reflective practitioner, I am
always thinking of ways to improve my instruction. I will
continue to grapple with how to bring this MP as well as all
the others to my second graders.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP4 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Grade One Teacher: At this level of development, I think this

Mathematical Practice is all about, or mostly about, having
students work at making sense of and dealing with “real-
world” problems and using a variety of tools to solve them.
That term—real-world—makes me stop and think. For my
level, I am interpreting this as not doing problems about
unicorns and talking pumpkins, but letting my students see
how problems about how many people can sit at a table, how
long it takes to get to the store, and how many lunch boxes
will fit in the bucket are the kinds of things they need to be
exposed to and have opportunities to think about in real ways.
This MP is a definite work in progress for me.

Grade Four Teacher: Making sense of math in the world and

using math “things” to do it: this is what I now think MP4 is
about at my level. I used to think that it was only about using

83
manipulatives to solve problems—to “model” what was done
with the base ten blocks or cubes, and so on that were
involved in finding the answer. I am beginning to see that this
MP has more to it and that it grows more sophisticated as the
students grow. I have to admit the term mathematical
modeling intimidates me. I was a good memorizer and did
okay in math through school, but I do not consider myself a
strong mathematical thinker. I do know that if I hope to
support my students in developing this MP and all the others
as well, I am going to have “model” how to use mathematical
models, so I’ve got some work to do.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP4 FROM STUDENTS

Joel, Kindergarten Student: We use our fingers all the time to

model like I did for this problem. I am showing three kids
who were at the table on this hand and then the two kids who
came over on my other hand, and then I can put them
together.

Tamika, Grade Two Student: This is all about using things to

help you figure out things about things that are in our world.

Jaylisse, Grade Four Student: There are a lot of things you

can use to work on real problems. The base ten blocks can be
used to work with place value and can help by giving you a
visual model of what you are doing.

84
CHAPTER 5
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 5:
USE APPROPRIATE TOOLS
STRATEGICALLY

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic

that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

—CONFUCIUS

OVERVIEW

Each of the four words of this Mathematical Practice is

important to consider. Let’s start with tools. In a general
sense, a tool is something that is used to do a job, complete a
task, or reach a goal. For a tool to be useful, however, it must
be the right tool—the appropriate one—for the task at hand. It
almost goes without saying that for a tool to be helpful, it
must be brought into play, operated, used. More important, it

85
must be used in a deliberate, intentional, purposeful
way—strategically. Confucius had it right. If I may
paraphrase, for any worker to be successful in his work, he
must “sharpen” his tools and then use them well,
thoughtfully, and consistently—with “diligence.”

So what does this mean in terms of supporting students in

choosing and using the right tools in the right way at the right
time? First, it means having all sorts of mathematical tools
available and accessible, from pencils and rulers to
calculators and computer applications, to aid in both mental
and written mathematics. Further, it means that students must
know how to use these tools correctly: someone needs to
model and/or teach the students explicitly how and when to
use them. Additionally, it means that students must have
opportunities to see others make decisions and to make their
own decisions about which tool might be a good one to use
and the right time to use it.

I’ve found a “backpack of tools”—a collection of tools at

students’ disposal—to be very useful. As a classroom teacher,
I started the school year by bringing an empty backpack into
the classroom and putting it on one of my students. (Some
years I would swap the backpack for an empty toolbox.) I
would tell them that even though this particular backpack was
empty, I knew that they were coming into this year with many
tools already in their mathematical backpacks in terms of
knowledge and skills. I told them they would be adding to
their backpacks throughout the year, including new tools to
help them become stronger mathematical thinkers. As the
year progressed, we would add both physical and symbolic
representations of new tools (base ten blocks, a ten frame, a
diagram showing a new mental math strategy, and so on) that

86
would help in mathematical thinking and problem solving,
adding to their ever-growing repertoires.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. develop familiarity with and understand the purpose of

tools in problem solving while recognizing both their power
and their limitations;

2. make sound decisions about when (and when not) to use

tools and then select the tools that best fit problem situations;
and

3. use classroom tools and external resources to deepen

mathematical thinking, forge connections, and as
springboards to mathematical “pondering.”

Goal 1

To develop familiarity with and understand the purpose of

tools in problem solving while recognizing both their power
and their limitations (Figure 5.1)

Importance of This Goal

It may seem obvious, but if students are not familiar with a

tool, they are most likely going to have difficulty using it
appropriately and strategically. Many of us often introduce
students to various tools by demonstrating their use in whole-

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class and/or small-group lessons. It is important that while
doing this, you think aloud as you use the tools, show how
you are manipulating them, and explicitly explain your
actions. Even more important, however, is for students to
move beyond being spectators and get their hands “dirty,”
touching, feeling, and manipulating the tools for themselves.

FIGURE 5.1
Goal 1

We tend to think of tools, especially in the younger grades,

primarily as concrete manipulatives, such as counters, tiles,
base ten blocks, calculators, rulers, and so on. These serve
younger children well, but they also are useful in upper
grades. Students need to be exposed to many types of tools, in
addition to concrete ones. Pictorial and symbolic
representations that include tables, diagrams, and graphic
organizers such as Venn diagrams, flowcharts, and word-
association banks are wonderful tools to help organize all
types of thinking. They offer entry into many mathematical
problems. Exposing students to a variety of tools and letting
them use them to explore can open the doors to problem

88
solving even wider. Because students learn differently and a
problem can often be solved with more than one tool, having
a variety of tools that students are familiar with “may make
the difference with regard to whether a problem is accessible”
(Dacey, Lynch, and Salemi 2013, 117).

When students see firsthand how mathematical tools can help

them—when they see how a ten frame can help them count,
how a number line can help them compute, how tangrams can
help them visualize and play around spatially—they
understand how the tools increase their power to think
mathematically. The flip side is that students also need to see
that tools are limited in what they can help them do. For
instance, square-inch tiles have many uses, but they are not
much help in finding the volume of a cylinder. This leads into
the next goal of this MP.

Goal 2

To make sound decisions about when (and when not) to use

tools and then select the tools that best fit problem situations
(Figure 5.2)

Importance of This Goal

Just because a tool can do certain things and we enjoy using it

does not mean that it is the right one for a particular job. Yes,
a calculator can provide an exact answer to a computation,
but the problem may call only for an estimate, and mental
math is better suited to that. Yes, we have fun using the
retractable measuring tape, but is it the right tool for finding
the area of a pattern block drawing? Students need ample

89
opportunities to make decisions about a variety of ways to use
tools. First, however, they need to determine if a concrete or
pictorial tool is needed or not; they sometimes need to be
reminded that their mental math strategies are powerful
enough to do the job! If the problem calls for something other
than mental math, however, they then need to decide which
tool or tools could be used to solve that problem. Further,
students need to experience changing their minds about their
choice if the selected tool is not helpful and another tool
would be a better option.

FIGURE 5.2
Goal 2

Asking students questions about how they decided to use a

specific tool is a good place to start. Then as they are using a
tool, it makes sense to ask them how they think it is working;
they should be able to justify why the tool they chose is a
good one. After they have completed the task at hand,
students should be able to evaluate how effective the tool was
in helping with the mathematics. Did it really help, and if so,
how? In Common Core Mathematics in a PLC at Work, the

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authors make a great point to this end: “If students use tools
to engage in mathematics and walk away from the experience
with little or no understanding of the mathematics, then the
use of the tools was ineffective” (Kanold 2012, 46).

Goal 3

To use classroom tools and external resources to deepen

mathematical thinking, forge connections, and as
springboards to mathematical “pondering” (Figure 5.3)

Importance of This Goal

Simply put, “An excellent mathematics program integrates

the use of mathematical tools and technology as essential
resources to help students learn and make sense of
mathematical ideas, reason mathematically, and communicate
their mathematical thinking” (NCTM 2014, 78). I couldn’t
agree more—especially with the “essential” part—and have
seen the way in which tools can and do help students dig into
the mathematics that underlies what they are doing in math.
Using concrete manipulatives such as counters, cubes, and
base ten blocks can helps students “see” what is happening as
they add or subtract. As a result, they move beyond
procedural understanding to bulk it up and weigh it down
with conceptual understanding, allowing them to make
connections between the actions of joining together and
taking away, for example. Using cubes or tiles to make a
4-by-5 array and a 5-by-4 array can help students see and
understand the commutative property of multiplication.
Geoboards and pattern blocks can help promote visualization
skills and foster the development of spatial thinking, again

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providing opportunities for students to make connections and
“see” mathematical relationships with greater clarity.
Calculators can open the door to explorations with numbers,
helping students investigate numerical patterns and make
discoveries that may have been obscured from them.
Computers, smartphones, and tablets can be used in multiple
ways that promote exploration and understanding, from
gathering data to providing multiple representations of that
data, presenting opportunities to connect with other schools
across the country and around the world as students seek
answers to questions that stem from their classroom work as
well as ones they have generated themselves.

FIGURE 5.3
Goal 3

I love the word ponder and all that it can mean. It holds
within it the promise of new thinking, of productive
imagining, of inspired connectivity. The use of tools in
mathematics can support such pondering on the parts of our
students and makes it easier for them to pose questions, to run
with their curiosity, to imagine. One of my favorite quotes is

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one that is often attributed to Albert Einstein (although there
is some skepticism about whether he actually said it).
Regardless of its origin, it connects in a substantive way to
this MP: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will
take you everywhere.” I see the appropriate use of
mathematical tools as an effective vehicle for taking our
students to previously unattainable mathematical places.

CLASSROOM LESSON—GET TO WORK

Let It Snow

The focus problem for this MP revolved around a wonderful

book by Rebecca Bond, This Place in the Snow (2004) that
tells the story of what happens when a small town awakens to
a blanket of sparkling, glittering, glistening snow. At one
point, the children, adults, and some animals are gathered
together, mesmerized as the snowplow does its work and the
mound of snow grows and grows into a beautiful mountain.
Although the story could generate many mathematical
questions, the one presented to the students was about the
number of people and animals present. Some students also
worked to find the total number of footprints in the snow.

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: K

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].5 Count to answer “how

many?” questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a
line; [Link].6 Identify whether the number of objects in one
group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of

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objects in another group; [Link].1 Represent addition with
objects.

• Student Language: Count to find out how many, to compare,

to add

• Focus Math Practice: MP5: Use appropriate tools

strategically

• I Can Statement: I can use tools to help me understand and

solve problems.

• Lesson Setup:

Mrs. Lanier began by telling the students as they gathered at

the rug that today they would be hearing a story first and then
doing some math that related to the story. She pointed to and
read the Focus Content Standard in Student Language, the
Focus Math Practice, and the I Can statement.

Mrs. Lanier read the story aloud to the students and then
asked where in the story the students saw math. The
discussion segued into the importance of counting in
everyday life, as well as how often addition is used to find the
answers to questions.

Mrs. Lanier asked the students about different ways they

might add and which tools from their “toolboxes” could help.
The general consensus was that counters and ten frames
would work well for most of them. Mrs. Lanier asked why
this was the case. Halysabell said, “You can see the answers
on the ten frames as you do the work.” Mrs. Lanier then asked
how students could know whether there is more of one thing

94
than another and how they could find the answer to that type
of question.

Mrs. Lanier placed students into partner groups and then set
them to work to find the answers to the questions on the
recording sheet. (She had also predetermined differentiations
and made them accordingly.)

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

All of the students were immediately captivated by the story.

It was January, it had just snowed, and they were laser
focused, full of predictions about what their math work would
be. When they were sent off to find the answers, they all went
with purpose and excitement.

The students knew that the various workstations set around

the room housed both tools for them to use and a copy of the
book’s illustration for them to refer to as they worked. Most
chose to use the foam ten frames; one student plugged one
peg into each hole of the frame as the other student touched
each person and animal in the illustration, demonstrating a
one-to-one correspondence.

All of the groups were successful in determining that there

were twelve people and three animals in the snow. Because
they were familiar with ten frames, the students filled them in
an organized and deliberate way. Kayla filled in the
worksheet with dark circles for each person and animal, wrote
12 and 3 in the appropriate places, and then filled in one more
circle to show the answers for one more (both correct even
though she reversed the digits in 13). (See Figure 5.4 for

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Kayla’s work.) As for the question of whether there were
more animals or people, she knew that there were more
people but could not say how many more. She provided more
information, however, when she wrote that 12 is “bigr,” and
when asked how she knew that, she replied, “I knowed it
because it’s on the number line like that.” Paula also could
not determine how many more but wrote that “3 is les 12.”
When asked what she wrote and how she knew this, she said,
“Three is less than twelve, and all you have to do is look at
my ten frames and you can see it for yourself!” (See Figure
5.5 for Paula’s work.) Jonathan used the ten frames to show
the twelve people but “just saw with my eyes that there are
three animals.” Although he knew that there were more
people than animals, the question he answered was different
from the one asked about the difference between the two, and
he used a different tool—counters— to find the total of
animals and people. (See Figure 5.6 for Jonathan’s work.)

Eyram used a variety of tools—tallies, ten frames, counters,

and fingers—in his work. He used the ten frames to show the
number of people and animals. To find the difference between
people and animals, he made tally marks for each and “circled
three of the people to go with the three animals and then
counted what was left to figure it out.” (See Figure 5.7 for
Eyram’s first page of work.) He was then ready to find the
number of footprints. He said, “We should count by twos the
tallies for the people to find all the people feet.” From there,
using his fingers, he said, “The animals have 4 feet, and 4
plus 4 plus 4 make 12.” Eyram’s next step was to use ten
frames to “just show 24 by 2 ten frames and 4 more on
another one and put 6 more from the 12 animal feet to finish
up that ten frame and then 6 more on another ten frame and
that makes 36 in all.”

96
FIGURE 5.4
Kayla’s work on the “Let It Snow” problem

FIGURE 5.5
Paula’s work on the “Let It Snow” problem

FIGURE 5.6
Jonathan’s work on the “Let It Snow” problem

97
FIGURE 5.7
Eyram’s first page of work on the “Let It Snow” problem

98
CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —
KRISSY LANIER, KINDERGARTEN

Lesson Reflection

At the beginning of the school year, most of my students were

having their first experience with school. Collectively there
was little concept of number, number patterns, or patterns in
general. It made sense for me and for them to use “tools” to
show “how many,” as this gave visual models to help with
difficult concepts. My students learned within days the power
of a five frame and quickly moved into using ten frames to
extend their concept of number. I saw some of their
developing confidence in using tools within this lesson. All of
them were successful in using ten frames to show the number
of people and animals. Many were able to use ten frames or
counters or even the number line to find one more. I really
loved the way that Eyram solved and described how he found
the total number of footprints. The overall progress of my
students in using tools to solve problems that might once have
been beyond them is undeniable.

MP5 Reflection

As I think back over this year from my perspective in June, I

see that giving my students exposure to solving
problems—interesting problems—with a variety of tools such
as dice, dominoes, fingers, ten frames, and other
manipulatives has given them a solid foundation in number.
After working a problem with any number of tools, they are
now questioning and testing the responses they make,
checking for errors, and using mental math to see if answers

99
are reasonable. They say things like, “I see a ten frame in my
head and you said to take away two, so I see two missing on
the ten frame, which means it is eight.” There is so much
meaning attached to their thinking and ideas. Another benefit
is that
they are now okay with making mistakes and show a desire to
work through problems using different tools. They are
pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, and it is great
to see them doing that!

COMMENTS ABOUT MP5 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Grade Two Teacher: I believe that students need to be taught

explicitly that many of the “things” we use to help us in math
are tools of the trade. Paper and pencil, dominoes, rulers,
counters, and base ten blocks are just a few of the tools we
can use. Once my students became comfortable with the
terminology this year, I had to help them realize that
sometimes it is more efficient to use one tool over another.
For example, can we solve forty-six minus twenty-three using
counters? Yes, we can, but does that open us up to making
mistakes by counting incorrectly because we have too many
counters? Yes, it does. A more efficient strategy might be
subtracting in parts—partial differences—or using tools that
can better represent larger numbers like base ten blocks. At
first, this was difficult for students to grasp. Many students
find a tool they like and then hold on to that tool for dear life.
They may not trust a more efficient tool to help them with

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their reasoning. Reinforcing MP2 can help students cross this
bridge and be more confident with the tools they select.

Grade Three Teacher: This seems like the easiest of the MPs
to understand. I have always believed that it is important for
students at every grade level to use tools in math. For me the
challenge is finding the time to introduce new tools to my
students that move them past using the “standard” ones of
base ten blocks, pattern blocks, and things like square-inch
tiles. I am trying to get my students to see estimation as a
tool, as well as things like diagrams, tables, and graphs. I am
also trying to get them to see and believe that a tool is only as
good as its user and that they need to use it for a purpose and
not just because it is fun to use.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP5 FROM STUDENTS

Stella, Kindergarten Student: We can use our fingers as tools

to find answers. They’re great because we can always find
them!

Andrew, Grade Two Student: You can use one tool to do a

problem and then use a different one to check your answer. I
like to use the number line to check my answers to adding and
subtracting with blocks.

Sonia, Grade Three Student: Tools are everywhere. We can

see and use them at school, at home, or at a friend’s house.
Base ten blocks are great, math games can be tools, and I
sometimes go online to find out things in math.

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CHAPTER 6
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 6:
ATTEND TO PRECISION

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant…. An elephant’s

faithful, one hundred per cent!”

—HORTON THE ELEPHANT IN HORTON HATCHES THE

EGG

OVERVIEW

It’s not always easy to say what we mean and to mean all that
we say. Even though this is another Mathematical Practice
with only a few words, the meaning is far-reaching and has
many layers. When I first read the words of this MP, I
immediately thought that attending to precision in
mathematics was mostly about getting the “right”
answers—those that are accurate, exact, correct. After I
thought about it a bit, however, I began to realize that MP6 is

102
about much more than that. Yes, of course, an element of it is
about getting the right answers, but it is important that we all
move beyond that component and help our students move
beyond it as well. We must help them see that an essential
part of thinking mathematically lies in how we communicate
and share that thinking, and that this is where precision is key.

If you remember this Dr. Seuss story about Horton, you

remember that Horton is adamant about sticking to what he
said, because it has meaning for him, and therefore, he
believed it had meaning for others. How often do we see and
hear our students challenged in communicating their thinking
to others as they search for the right words to explain what
they have done to solve a problem and struggle even more to
find the words to justify why they have done what they’ve
done? Are they really saying what they mean and meaning
what they say? What do they mean when they say, “I timesed
it”? Does that give an accurate mathematical description of
what they have done? Do they know what they mean by that,
and do others know what they mean? How about when
someone gives an answer such as, “It’s about 37” or “It’s
about 248.956”? Is either of those an “about” answer? In most
cases they are not, yet it is important to note that the level of
precision needed depends on the particular situation.

This is where it is critical for students to see that they are

moving along a continuum of being able to communicate
mathematically in such a way that they can clarify their own
thinking and allow others to understand their thought
processes. They are accruing the skills to do so, and attention
to MP6 will serve them well.

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GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. use mathematically specific language (terms, definitions,

properties) both orally and in writing to express mathematical
thinking and reasoning explicitly, with a level of clarity that
allows it to be followed by others;

2. recognize and use mathematical symbols, units of measure,

and labels in diagrams and explanations of thinking; and

3. perform calculations with accuracy and efficiency while

determining the level of precision called for in a problem
(estimate, exact, exact to the nearest whole, ten, and so on).

Goal 1

To use mathematically specific language (terms, definitions,

properties) both orally and in writing to express mathematical
thinking and reasoning explicitly, with a level of clarity that
allows it to be followed by others (Figure 6.1)

Importance of This Goal

Language allows us to communicate, to share, and to connect

with one another. We do that via common vocabulary made
up of words and terms that have meaning we have de facto
agreed upon, thus allowing us to “commune” with each other.
Although this is true for all parts of life, it has particular
implications for classroom life. As a matter of fact, research

104
does more than suggest a simple link between language and
learning, summed up quite nicely by Laura Varlas, who says,
“Academic vocabulary is one of the strongest indicators of
how well students will learn subject area content” (2012, 1).

FIGURE 6.1
Goal 1

In mathematics, we must be careful to model clear and

precise language and to expect that of our students as well.
Students use too many words and phrases (as do we) that can
and do promote misconceptions and can be barriers to deep
conceptual understanding. Although it may seem efficient in
the moment to say borrow, for example, and to let students
say that, it can be misleading—if someone borrows ten
dollars from you, you have an expectation that it will be
returned—never mind what it obscures mathematically. I love
the way Cathy Seeley thinks about this: “By being careful
with our own language and communication, we can also
avoid ‘temporary mathematics’ that may need to be later
undone” (2014, 314). I, too, feel strongly about this and
provide a few words and terms that I have identified as

105
“outlaws” and that, as such, should not be used (see the
NCSM fall 2013 newsletter for a few of them).

Goal 2

To recognize and use mathematical symbols, units of

measure, and labels in diagrams and explanations of thinking
(Figure 6.2)

Importance of This Goal

This goal is something that teachers have long held in high

regard and pay great attention to in their teaching. Some of
this attention grows from what happened to us as students.
How many of us lost a few points here and there because we
didn’t label an answer on a test? Although doing well on tests,
of course, is important to most students, it is not the main
reason it is essential to label our work. It goes back once
again to the idea of sharing our thinking with others. When
we are explicit and clear in our labeling of answers, diagrams,
and so on, we are more likely able to provide a chain of our
thinking and reasoning that others can follow.

The same thinking applies to the use of symbols. Students

must be aware of the appropriate and strategic use of
mathematical symbols and all that they communicate. A
common example of an imprecise use of symbols is when a
student working on adding 72 and 12 decomposes 12 into 10
and 2 and writes

72 + 12 = 72 + 10 = 82 + 2 = 84

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FIGURE 6.2
Goal 2

Written this way, it reads that 72 + 12 is equal to 72 + 10 and

then that equals 82 + 2. The final answer is correct, but the
notation is not.

Let me throw in a caveat here: although I believe that it is

absolutely essential for students to acquire precise
vocabulary, to understand the specific meanings of words, to
assign labels as they work, and to use symbols precisely and
accurately, I maintain that it has to be done along a
continuum. This kind of precision develops over time, and we
need to give students every opportunity to see and hear it
modeled while they build and improve their skills. They need
the encouragement to communicate even though they might
not be completely precise and accurate. Although this support
comes from us as teachers, I also see peers as enormous
sources of support and agree with Elham Kazemi and Allison
Hintz, who maintain, “It can be quite powerful for a
classroom community when students share ideas that aren’t

107
quite right yet and seek the help of their classmates” (2014,
12).

Goal 3

To perform calculations with accuracy and efficiency while

determining the level of precision called for in a problem
(estimate, exact, exact to the nearest whole, ten, and so on)
(Figure 6.3)

Importance of This Goal

Accurate calculations are good and hold a place of importance

in our mathematics classrooms. I am often surprised,
however, and even dismayed when I hear from parents and
the public at large that they believe we educators have let go
of the “basics.” They maintain that this “new” approach to
math is more about making children feel good and not so
much about knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, and
divide correctly—and that we believe that as long as students’
answers are close, it’s okay.

Obviously, this is not the case. We do want students to be

able to compute accurately, and further, we want students to
do so both efficiently and proficiently. Susan Jo Russell wrote
a wonderful article about this soon after NCTM published its
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics in 2000
that identifies computational fluency as a goal for all students,
with fluency comprising three elements: efficiency,
flexibility, and accuracy (Russell 2000).

108
FIGURE 6.3
Goal 3

This is where MP6 comes into play in a big way. Do we want

students to be precise in their calculations? A resounding
“Yes!” is the answer—and we want much more. We want
students to go beyond calculating by rote to questioning the
level of precision that is needed for each problem. If you want
to know how many buses are needed for a field trip for 150
people and each bus holds 60 people, is an estimated answer
of 3 buses sufficient or do you need to have an exact answer
of 2½ or 2.5 or 2.50? When measuring for a window blind, is
a whole number okay or do you need to know to the nearest
tenth or even hundredth? This is when this component of
MP6 has real meaning.

CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

My Restaurant

Suppose someone asked you to plan a restaurant. Where

would you begin, and what would you include? Take a

109
minute and jot down some ideas about what you would need
to know to start carrying out such a task. More than likely
your list would include the size of the physical space, how
much room would be needed for the kitchen, the size of the
dining room, how many tables could fit, the size and shape of
those tables, and how many people the restaurant could hold.
You would have to consider all of those things and more
before you could start to think about the menu, the food
preparation, prices, and so on—a daunting task for many and
certainly a multidimensional one for all.

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 5

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].6 Solve real-world

problems involving multiplication of fractions and mixed
numbers; [Link].1 Convert among different-sized standard
measurement units within a given measurement system and
use these conversions in solving multistep, real-world
problems.

• Student Language: Solve real-world problems involving

multiplying with fractions and whole numbers and converting
measurement units.

•
Focus Math Practice: MP6: Attend to Precision

• I Can Statement: I can use math symbols, units of measure,

and labels to communicate my reasoning clearly.

• Lesson Setup:

110
When Miss Murphy first introduced the restaurant problem to
her students, they immediately showed a great deal of
enthusiasm. She began by asking them what they thought
would be needed to plan a new restaurant. The initial answers
centered on food: whether it would be ethnic or “just
American,” and what kinds of desserts and main courses
would be on the menu. Some students even wondered about
how to make the food safe for customers with allergies. Miss
Murphy then asked how they could plan the actual layout of
the restaurant and what that would entail. Students began
discussing how much room they had and how the space could
be arranged, as well as what kinds of tables they would use:
square, rectangular, round, and so on.

Miss Murphy drew attention to the Focus Content Standards

in Student Language, the Focus Math Practice, and the I Can
statement, all written on the board, and asked students to read
each one aloud. She then asked the students if they could see
the connection between the written goals and the task they
were facing. They did, and seemed eager to start.

Before she placed the students into groups of two, three, or

four, Miss Murphy presented guidelines and requirements that
included a recording sheet to be completed by the group
members, with the understanding that they would construct a
model on graph paper that needed to be approved by her
before they could make a large-scale drawing on poster paper.
Students were told they would also be creating and designing
a menu for their restaurants. Additionally, they were told that
this would be a two- to three-day project, with a class
“restaurant showcase” as a culmination.

111
 Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

Talk about focused and on-task students! The “buzzing” was

at times quiet and thoughtful, while at other times it was
punctured by bursts of excitement and a proliferation of
students saying, “Ooh-ooh, I’ve got a great idea!” They
settled into the “design” phase fairly quickly, and it was
evident that trial and error was a necessary first step for many
of them in terms of the mathematical
requirements. When they realized that at least one-third of the
space had to be reserved for the kitchen, some wanted to
construct it so that the total space was a multiple of three
“because that just makes it much easier.” There was a range
in total area from 990 square feet to 1,419 square feet, with
many partners agreeing on 1,386 as a “nice number to work
with.”

As the students worked on the task, it became clear to them

that they needed to be “really, really precise,” according to
Juliet and Kira, who went on to say, after much editing,
reworking, and checking back in on the requirements, “This
was really challenging at first. Our rough draft helped, but we
still had to make a lot of renovations before we could open.”
(See Figure 6.4 for Juliet and Kira’s work.) It was also clear
to all of the students that there were many tools available to
help them complete this task. They were using rulers,
yardsticks, meter sticks, calculators, and even sticky notes as
temporary labels to flesh out their rough drafts. Nathan and
Izzy talked about drawing the boxes “roughly at first but then
we had to be really accurate when we did the real measuring,
so we used rulers and also counted the squares on the graph
paper.”

112
Although all of the students were aware of their units of
measure, only some of them attached labels and units of
measure to every work product. (See Figure 6.5 for Trinidy
and Denise’s work.) It was also interesting to note how
different students focused on the level of precision needed for
a specific question. When they had to convert feet to yards,
for example, students did it differently. Trinidy and Denise
converted 249 feet into 82 yards with “r 2,” a remainder of 2,
whereas Kira and Juliet converted 292 feet into 97⅓ yards.
(See Figure 6.6 for Kira and Juliet’s work.)

CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —

SHANNON MURPHY, GRADE FIVE

Lesson Reflection

This lesson was done near the end of the school year, and I’m
glad it was. I think that by then, many of my students had a
better idea of the need for “attending to precision” and why it
is important. As I watched them start this project and heard
them talk to each other as they planned various parts of it, I
was seeing and hearing things that I probably wouldn’t have
seen and heard at the beginning of the year. They seemed to
understand better that sometimes you have to be very precise
and very accurate. Although many of them wanted to rush
through parts of it, enough of them pulled their partners back
and made them check for accuracy in measurements, check to
make sure they were meeting all the requirements I had put in
for them, and check for correct conversions and calculations.

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I don’t think they could have been as thorough at the
beginning of the year.

FIGURE 6.4
Kira and Juliet’s work on the “My Restaurant” problem

FIGURE 6.5
Trinidy and Denise’s work on the “My Restaurant” problem

FIGURE 6.6
Kira and Juliet’s restaurant design

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 MP6 Reflection

I think that even though it might sound easy at first, Attend to

Precision is a hard concept to grasp if it is not explicitly
taught. When I had conversations with my students about this
at the beginning of the year, I found that they mostly saw this
through the example of measurements. They knew that it
didn’t make sense to guess or estimate how big boards need
to be when building a house— that to build a house
successfully, you had to measure with precision. It was with
language that I had some issues. I think that I (and probably
many others) assume that our students understand the words
we use as teachers of math, but I have found that this is not
always true. I am now more aware of the importance of
checking for understanding.

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COMMENTS ABOUT MP6 FROM OTHER
CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Kindergarten Teacher: As this year has progressed, I have

been intertwining all eight practices in my teaching at
different levels and to different degrees. MP6 is one that
rolled out surprisingly well in my class. Language is generally
challenging to kindergartners, and academic vocabulary is
hard. But now here in April, my students are asking their
peers and even me to be more precise in daily discussions:
“Mrs. Lanier, I don’t understand the question. Could you be
more precise?” They have come to realize that there is
meaning attached
to every word, and their goal is to have others understand
them. Learning to be “precise” has given them an inner voice
that pushes them to think before they explain, leading them to
have deeper conceptual understanding as well as improved
communication.

Grade Four Teacher: I don’t think I am alone in thinking that

this MP looks pretty straightforward at first but has much
more to it when you dig down deeper. I am becoming more
aware of the need to ensure that my students use correct,
specific, appropriate math vocabulary. I am becoming more
aware that this has to be done both orally and in written form.
I am becoming aware that this needs to be done when they
ask questions, when they describe a strategy, and when they
defend their answers. I am becoming aware that I need to
continue to focus on this practice both as a teacher and a
learner.

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COMMENTS ABOUT MP6 FROM STUDENTS

Daisy, Kindergarten Student: It’s good to use your fingers.

It’s good to use counters, because it’s good to be precise,
because that means it’s good to be exact!

Noble, Grade One Student: It’s important to attend to

precision, because if you rush, you will get all your work
wrong, and then you will need to do it again!

Colin, Grade Two Student: Checking my work lets me be

precise and lets me find mistakes and maybe not do those
mistakes. I pay attention to my words, and it keeps me from
doing and telling the problem the wrong way.

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CHAPTER 7
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 7:
LOOK FOR AND MAKE USE OF
STRUCTURE

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of

patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is
because they are made with ideas.

—G. H. HARDY, ENGLISH MATHEMATICIAN

OVERVIEW

This quote comes from someone who loved mathematics to

its core. Hardy was passionate about number theory and
mathematical analysis—pure mathematics—and celebrated
the aesthetics of math. I like to think that Hardy would have
had a special affinity for MP7. To discern a pattern, one must
look closely at the underlying structure, and then step back to

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gain perspective, generate some ideas about the nature of the
structure—the regularities that can be seen as well as
envisioned beneath and within—apply those ideas, and then
assess to determine if the pattern holds.

What is wonderful about this MP is that it offers a way to

look at the world both within and well beyond the classroom
walls. Anyone who has worked with prekindergartners and
kindergartners knows that once students learn the word
pattern, almost everything is a pattern to them! Even though
that may not always be the case, there are patterns hiding
within patterns, alongside of patterns, underneath patterns,
shooting off from patterns. The joy of their discovery can
allow students to flow between drilling down to the core of a
pattern and uncovering its structure, and widening out to a
more global and generalized view.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

1. identify and describe numeric and geometric patterns and

use their structure to make predictions and hypotheses;

2. use perspective to consider the whole of something as well

as to identify components of the whole; and

3. apply prior knowledge and structural understanding to new

problem situations.

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 Goal 1

To identify and describe numeric and geometric patterns and

use their structure to make predictions and hypotheses (Figure
7.1)

Importance of This Goal

The structure of the pattern helps in making predictions about

what might come next and/or what might happen further out;
in this way we move from the specific to the general. To do
this, students must examine relationships between and among
the components of a problem, whether those relationships are
in terms of numbers or shapes. They must exercise both
flexibility and tenacity to unlock patterns. Something to
remember here is that although it is important for students to
have multiple opportunities to name, replicate, and extend
patterns as a basis for laying the groundwork for algebraic
reasoning, the full benefit of this will be actualized “only if
we prompt children to attend to the mathematical properties
and describe the repeating structures in mathematically
predictable ways” (McGarvey 2013, 571).

Goal 2

To use perspective to consider the whole of something as well

as to identify components of the whole (Figure 7.2)

Importance of This Goal

Often, students appear to demonstrate that they “understand”

a concept by completing a set of problems and getting the

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correct answers. Although a student may appear as if he has a
solid understanding of place value and correctly say that 234
equals 2 hundreds plus 3 tens plus 4 ones, that same student
may experience difficulty seeing that 234 can also be thought
of as 23 tens and 4 ones. It is a challenge for him to shift his
thinking from viewing individual components of a whole so
that he sees it through another lens. Karl Duncker, a Gestalt
psychologist, coined the term functional fixedness, which
essentially means a narrowed view of an object that does not
allow one to see or use that object in any way other than the
originally intended or most common one (Duncker 1945). I
am sure that many of you see this in students who can think
of only one way to look at a number, to perform an operation,
to describe a shape, or to solve a problem. They are stuck in
that one way and often construct a mental barrier that
prohibits them from considering a different perspective.
When students circumvent this functional fixedness, as I
apply it to math, it is easier for them to move more fluidly
from both whole-to-part and part-to-whole thinking and to
regard an alternative view as viable, thereby increasing the
likelihood that they will use patterns and structure to inform
and expand their mathematical thinking.

FIGURE 7.1
Goal 1

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FIGURE 7.2
Goal 2

Goal 3

To apply prior knowledge and structural understanding to

new problem situations (Figure 7.3)

Importance of This Goal

One of my greatest joys is when I see a student use something

she already knows to solve something she seemingly does not

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know. I am sure you celebrate when a student realizes how
applying her already learned skill of using doubles and halves
can couple with her ability to decompose numbers when she
has to multiply. What a thrill when this student verbalizes that
4 times 23 is the same as doubling 2 times 23, which is 46,
and that 46 plus 46 is just double 45 plus 2 more! When
students become aware of how efficient it is to use what is
already in their backpacks of knowledge, so to speak, they
experience greater success in solving more complex
problems. They come to realize that they do not always have
to start, like Maria in The Sound of Music “at the very
beginning, a very good place to start.” They activate their
thinking from files they hold already, sort through them,
make an association, and build on that connection to construct
a new pathway to new knowledge. This prior knowledge, or
background knowledge, is not only the “glue that makes
learning stick,” according to ReLeah Lent, but also “an
essential component in learning because it helps us make
sense of new ideas and experiences” (Lent 2012, 30).

FIGURE 7.3
Goal 3

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CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

Square Thinking

You may want to solve this problem yourself before reading

the next section. Take the time to complete the problem to the
degree that you would want your students to do so. As you
work, make note of which of the Mathematical Practices you
are employing. Pay particular attention to MP7 and identify
when, where, and how you specifically did (or did not) look
for and make use of structure.

One square table can seat 4 students; two square tables can
seat 6 when the tables are pushed together. Given this
arrangement:

Analyze to find how many students can sit at 3, 10, 50, and
100 tables.

Brainstorm how you can solve the problem.

Communicate how you solved this and what you discovered.

Classroom Lesson Overview—Take a Look

• Grade: 4

• Focus Content Standard: [Link].5 Generate a number or

shape pattern that follows a given rule. Identify apparent
features of the pattern that were not explicit in the rule itself.

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• Student Language: Identify and use a number pattern to
solve a problem.

•
Focus Math Practice: MP7: Look For and Make Use of
Structure

• I Can Statement: I can use patterns in numbers to find

relationships and to make predictions.

• Lesson Setup:

After students read the content standards and other

information on the board, Ms. Hanson asked, “What does
‘using structure’ mean to you?” A discussion followed of
what it might mean as well as a more specific discussion
about what it means to look for relationships between and
among numbers. One student thought that it had to do with
buildings. Another thought it had to do with making a table or
chart to use in solving a problem. Additional exchanges
centered on how the use of known relationships at a simple
level can be helpful in solving more complex problems.

Ms. Hanson then asked the students to name some of the tools
they have used in the past to solve problems. They generated
a list that included assorted counters, base ten blocks, pattern
blocks, number lines, hundreds charts, calculators, tables, and
drawings. She followed this with, “How do you choose which
tool is the right one, the appropriate one?” One of the students
shared that he often changes his mind about which tools to
use as he gets further into a problem. When Ms. Hanson
asked if anyone else had done that, many hands went up, and
the group discussed the benefits of changing one’s mind.

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Ms. Hanson told students they would be solving a problem
that she had had to think about for a while before she had
solved it—which intrigued them. She presented the problem
to them and stressed the importance of using words, numbers,
and/or pictures to give evidence for and to prove their
answers, and to justify their thinking.

Ms. Hanson placed the students into pairs, and they set off to
solve it. All students were given the basic problem, and some
were given a more challenging problem to solve after they
had completed the initial problem.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

As students started to work in pairs, it was interesting to

watch which ones immediately used square-inch tiles to
model the problem. Once a few pairs did this, however, most
of the others did the same. It was interesting to note the
similarities and differences in how the student pairs solved
the problem and how well they looked for and then used the
structural patterns to help them do so.

Several pairs laid out the tiles and recorded each result as they
went along, adding one “table/tile” each time with varying
results. Take a look at Valerie’s work (Figure 7.4). When
asked to describe what she noticed, she and her partner noted,
“It is going up by two each time because more tables mean
two more kids can sit.” After a while, the pair decided that
they could just fill in the chart by counting by twos to
determine the number of people who could be seated. See if
you can find where they made their mistake. Although this
pair saw a pattern and used it to some degree, it did not result

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in complete accuracy in terms of all parts of the problem.
They recognized and used the pattern, but a counting error
resulted in some inaccuracies in some parts.

In contrast, several groups just found the answers for 3 and 10

first, recorded their work in different ways, and then were
able to make use of the pattern they identified to solve the rest
of the problem. Regine (Figure 7.5) and her partner showed
the work for 3 and 10 with drawings and tick marks. From
there, they noticed that it was a combination of multiplication
and addition that yielded their results. They were able to step
back a bit and see the whole of the problem. Regine then
floated a hypothesis revolving around the pattern they saw
and “kept on trying and it was correct,” allowing the two of
them to use what they found for 3 and 10 to determine the
answers for 50 and 100.

Alina and her partner (Figure 7.6) saw the structure in the
problem almost immediately. They confirmed their thinking
about what they saw with 3 tables by making another drawing
depicting 10 tables. From there, they were able to identify a
rule and make a generalization, which they articulated with
clarity. When asked what would happen if they had
pentagonal tables, the two used what they had discovered
about square tables and applied it to the conditions of the new
problem (Figure 7.7) with a slight modification (instead of
multiplying by 2 as they had for a square table, they
multiplied by 3). They were so excited by their discoveries,
they kept on going.

FIGURE 7.4
Valerie’s work on the “Square Thinking” problem

127
FIGURE 7.5
Regine’s work on the “Square Thinking” problem

FIGURE 7.6
Alina’s work on the “Square Thinking” problem

128
FIGURE 7.7
Alina’s work on the new problem

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CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —
BROOKE HANSON, GRADE FOUR

Lesson Reflection

As the kids worked on the problem, it was interesting for me

to see how each of the partner groups got started. Some knew
right away that using the inch tiles would help them see the
problem more easily, and some had absolutely no idea how to
start. Also, some knew that making some sort of a chart or
table as they worked could help them see a pattern within the
problem. It seemed as if this helped to unlock the problem for
many of them and let them see what was actually happening
in terms of the numbers, and from there, many could then
name a pattern or rule. That part was great! I realized,
however, that several of my students were struggling and
were looking to other students to model what they had done.

It was also great to see what some of the partner groups did
when I extended the problem and asked them to find out what
would happen if the tables used were a different shape. I was
blown away by the way some of them attacked this challenge
and solved it!

MP7 Reflection

This has been an interesting Mathematical Practice for me to

begin to wrap my brain around. I made some obvious
inferences about what it means to look for and make use of
structure, but I really could not articulate it much beyond
saying that it has something to do with looking for and
naming patterns and then using the patterns to solve

130
problems. Thinking of it in terms of the three major goals has
helped, but I know that I need to continue to fine-tune my
thinking about it. In addition, I have come to realize that if I
am challenged by grasping the nuances of this MP, then I
have to work extra hard at making sure I can model it in ways
that make it clear to my students.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP7 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Grade One Teacher: This Mathematical Practice makes a lot

of sense to me, especially here in the younger grades. I see
that making use of the structure in our number system is a
great way to help students understand the relationships and
then how to capitalize on using them. Once they see they
know the answer to 3 plus 4, they also know the answer to 4
plus 3, 7 minus 4, and 7 minus 3! And it’s even greater when
they make use of the fact that learning 4 plus 4 can easily
come by knowing both 3 plus 3 and 4 plus 4. When structure
is used, more of mathematics is more accessible to more
people.

Grade Four Teacher: This MP came alive for me this year in

particular as I realized how important it was for me to have
base ten blocks readily available in tenths and hundredths so
that my students could really make use of the structure. This
was an eye-opener, and I am beginning to see more clearly
the importance of pushing my students—all of them, not just
the ones I think are more ready for it—to actively look for

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patterns and structure and then do something with what they
find.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP7 FROM STUDENTS

Danny, Grade One Student: I use my doubles to help me with

doubles plus 1, and then I can also use them to find doubles
minus 1, and that makes it really easy.

Emmanuel, Grade Three Student: I do this when I use an easy

problem to help me understand a harder problem—it makes
the problem useful.

Denise, Grade Five Student: Just like a bridge has beams to

support it as a structure, looking for a pattern and then using
that structure is a good support to help you solve harder
problems.

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CHAPTER 8
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE 8:
LOOK FOR AND EXPRESS
REGULARITY IN REPEATED
REASONING

The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things

complicated, but to make complicated things simple.

—STANLEY GUDDER, MATHEMATICS PROFESSOR

OVERVIEW

This Mathematical Practice challenges most people, and to be

honest, it took me a great deal of time to move beyond my
first “understanding” of it. Initially, I was comfortable
chalking it up to noticing when something is repeated in terms
of work with numbers, such as when adding two numbers and
one is 9 (take one away from the other addend to make the 9 a

133
10). I was happy enough with using the regularity of that
procedure to my advantage. I also saw that I could connect
this MP, for example, to the repetition that happens when
dividing a multiple of 10 by 3 and then using that repetition to
make my work simpler and more efficient.

I now see MP8 more fully than I first did. There is no denying
that it still is about looking for and looking at the patterns that
permeate our number operations, especially those regularities
in computational algorithms that can be used to make
subsequent work with numbers easier and more efficient.
MP8 reaches out further than that, however, and extends to
work with unit rates and ratios, and to the examination of
patterns and regularities in geometry, such as when dealing
with the slope and the sum of angles in polygons, for
example.

Mathematical Practice 8 casts an even wider net when it is

seen as a vehicle for allowing us to make generalizations
based upon the information gathered from “smaller,” more
specific discoveries of regularities. This is where MP8 kicks
into high gear and gets to the “essence of mathematics.”
Harder and more complicated mathematics becomes simpler
and more accessible through the application of the knowledge
that comes by way of identifying and using regularities in
repeated reasoning.

GOALS

The three major goals of this Mathematical Practice focus on

students being able to

134
1. recognize repetitions in calculations as meaningful and
useful in finding “shortcuts”;

2. apply a broader use of patterns/regularities and use their

structure to make generalizations to solve analogous
problems; and

3. attend to where they are in a problem and check to ensure

their actions and results make sense as they move toward a
solution.

Goal 1

To recognize repetitions in calculations as meaningful and

useful in finding “shortcuts” (Figure 8.1)

Importance of This Goal

Picture this: you have been spending some time in class

having students explore an algorithm that is more
conceptually based than the procedurally based one most of
us were taught—let’s say partial differences, for example.
The next day a student comes into class all excited to show
you “a trick my dad taught me—it’s a shortcut,” convinced
that you probably don’t know about it. Sound familiar? Let
me be clear: I am thrilled that parents and children are
spending time together around math, and I am thrilled that
children are aware that there are shortcuts in computational
procedures. I am less than thrilled, however, that most of
these shortcuts are devoid of conceptual understanding and
that when asked to explain how and why the shortcuts work,
students respond with blank stares and shrugged shoulders.

135
In the past, the majority of elementary school mathematics
revolved around computation. There is general consensus
today, however, that the reality of what our students need in
terms of mathematical understanding and thinking moves far
beyond being good in arithmetic. This does not mean that
instructional time on computation is eliminated but that it is
reduced. This can be accomplished with the result of students
becoming proficient by having them notice and take
advantage of the regularities so that they, in Seeley’s words,
“generalize the procedures they’re learning so that they don’t
have to learn the same procedures over and over again.”
Seeley goes on to say, “In other words, we want to teach
students a procedure that works for all kinds of numbers, not
just for three-digit numbers this year, four-digit numbers the
next year, and so on” (2014, 337).

FIGURE 8.1
Goal 1

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 Goal 2

To apply a broader use of patterns/regularities and use their

structure to make generalizations to solve analogous problems
(Figure 8.2)

Importance of This Goal

The key to this component is that although playing with and

exploring patterns is important, it is when students identify a
regularity, name and articulate it, and then step back and see
how it can be applied to something more complex by
generalizing it that the power is felt. I agree with Lynn
McGarvey, who says, “One of the noted obstacles along the
route to algebraic thinking is the tendency to apply recursive
reasoning to patterning” (2013, 566). She maintains that
although students can build and extend a pattern and are
successful in predicting what comes next, it is often difficult
for them to go further. McGarvey pulls from research by
Thomas Carpenter and John Lannin (Carpenter et al. 2005;
Lannin 2005) to note that students “struggle to find a general
rule or relationship so they can determine the element or
value at any position in a pattern” (McGarvey 2013, 566).
This is where we have to push our students beyond just
predicting what comes next, so that they can engage in
mathematical reasoning.

When young students are asked to show different ways to

represent the twenty-fourth day of school, for example, and
they write 23 + 1 = 24, 22 + 2 = 24, 21 + 3 = 24, and so on,
they are noticing a regularity. It is when they can articulate,
however, that this works because one addend becomes

137
smaller by one and the other becomes larger by one that they
are applying the “reasoning” part of this MP. That reasoning
is extended even further when they express that this will also
work if one addend decreases by two while the other
increases by two and they go on to note other regularities that
can be applied. What I love most about this component is the
joy of discovery that students display when they “unlock”
such underlying mathematical principles and ideas.

FIGURE 8.2
Goal 2

Goal 3

To attend to where they are in a problem and check to ensure

their actions and results make sense as they move toward a
solution (Figure 8.3)

Importance of This Goal

This component of MP8 is interwoven with MP1: Make

Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them, as well as

138
with MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the
Reasoning of Others. Deep learning and understanding of
mathematical concepts take place within contexts and are
embedded in problem situations. The days when elementary
school mathematics was primarily arithmetic—what I call
naked number computation—are gone. If we want our
students to believe that mathematics is essential to their lives,
that it is relevant to their lives now and will be in the future,
that it is something that has meaning and does make sense,
then we must immerse them in problem-solving opportunities
that require them to find the meaning and the sense in what
they are doing by way of their mathematical reasoning.

Bill McCallum, one of the authors of the Common Core, is

central to Illustrative Mathematics (2014), a resource that is
vital to helping teachers understand and implement the
Common Core. Offered within this resource is Standards for
Mathematical Practice: Commentary and Elaborations for
K–5, a work still in progress, where it is noted for MP8 that
“As they work to solve a problem, mathematically proficient
students maintain oversight of the process, while attending to
details. They continually evaluate the reasonableness of their
intermediate results” (Illustrative Mathematics 2014, 10).
This is where students are asked to step back and see the big
picture as they work and determine whether their reasoning is
on target. David Sousa, in How the Brain Learns
Mathematics, maintains that we need to devote more time to
developing true mathematical reasoning in students and that
part of it is metacognition, “which is thinking about what you
are doing, why you are doing it, and making adjustments as
needed.” He further says that “Knowledge and performance
are not reliable of either reasoning or understanding. For deep
understanding, the what, the why, and the how must be well-

139
connected. Then students can attach importance to different
patterns and engage in mathematical reasoning” (2008, 123).

FIGURE 8.3
Goal 3

CLASSROOM LESSON: GET TO WORK

Go Figure

Try this one before you take a look at how the lesson went in
Shannon Murphy’s fifth-grade classroom. It is a great
problem that I have used many times, and yet I am
continually surprised by the excitement it generates.

Choose two numbers whose difference is 2.

Find their product.

Find the number between the two original numbers.

Square it.

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Subtract 1 from the square number.

Follow the above procedure several times. Show your work

and describe what you notice.

Do you think this always works? Why or why not? Build your
argument and defend your thinking.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Take a Look

• Grade: 5

• Focus Content Standard(s): [Link].3 Analyze (numerical)

patterns and relationships.

• Student Language: Analyze and explore numerical patterns.

• Focus Math Practice: MP8: Look For and Express

Regularity in Repeated Reasoning

• I Can Statement: I can identify a pattern or regularity and

use reasoning to make a rule to help solve problems.

• Lesson Setup:

The students in Ms. Murphy’s class had been asked all year to
use mathematical reasoning as they solved problems. This
was still a newer concept to them, but they generally accepted
that they would be asked to look carefully at problems to see
if they could find any “clues” that would help them find a
solution. When asked why this was important, one student
immediately answered that this would cut down on the

141
amount of work she would have to do for other problems that
might follow that could be similar to the one just solved.

Miss Murphy set the problem into motion by having students

read the Focus Content Standard in Student Language, the
Focus Math Practice, and the I Can statement, all written on
the board. Students were then asked a series of questions:
What happens when you add two even numbers? Two odd
numbers? One even and one odd? Will those results always
be the same? Why or why not? What about when you
subtract? Multiply? Divide? These questions and answers
were the foundation of a discussion about how numbers in our
number system operate according to various theories and so
on, and are governed by rules, principles, and properties.

All the students in the class worked through the example of

the problem context with the numbers 3 and 5 together.
Students wrote on individual whiteboards as the problem was
demonstrated on the large whiteboard. Miss Murphy
partnered the students and set them to work, reminding them
as they started that they were to look for a commonality, a
regularity, as they tried this with several sets of numbers that
could be used as a basis for their reasoning.

Classroom Lesson Observations—Look Some More

It was fascinating to watch the students get started on the

problem. Some of the partners decided that it made sense for
each of them to try it with different sets of numbers and then
compare their results; other pairs wanted to work on the same
set of numbers simultaneously and then compare results.
Whereas many of them worked on their whiteboards, erased

142
after they compared, and then tried again with other sets of
numbers, some did all of their work on paper, “so we can see
and remember what we did.” It was also interesting to see
how students dealt with initial uncertainty and even
confusion. Jasmine said, “This is hard, but I guess that’s
normal if you don’t know something at first.” She and her
partner kept at it and were successful in coming to an answer
and supporting their reasoning. Jacob was clearly feeling a bit
overwhelmed at first but did not let that deter him. “I felt
confused for a while, but then I started to understand a
little, then a little more, and by the end, I understood a lot
more,” he said. “The tiles and the calculator really helped my
thinking because I could see what was happening better.”

Almost all the students found that the procedure always

works with the product of the two numbers whose difference
is 2 having a difference of 1 from the square of the number
between the two original numbers. Most played it relatively
safe and tried it with smaller numbers they were comfortable
with, whereas others pushed past their comfort zones. After
Victoria and her partner had tried it with one- and two-digit
numbers, she wanted to try it with a three-digit set and was
thrilled with what she found. (See Figure 8.4 for Victoria’s
work.) Bridget and her partner were very methodical moving
from two one-digit numbers, to one one-digit and a two-digit,
and then to two two-digit numbers, one set beyond their
comfort level. (See Figure 8.5 for Bridget’s work.) Nuna and
her partner included some trials with negative numbers and
maintained it worked. Nuna successfully showed how and
why by demonstrating with tiles and showing a 2-by-4
rectangular array with eight tiles and a 3-by-3 square with
nine tiles beside it, even showing how if one tile is removed
from the square, the 2-by-4 could result (Figure 8.6). Her

143
written description (Figure 8.7) was not as complete as her
oral one. Marcus and his partner also tried a variety of
numbers, including negative numbers. What is also
interesting here is that Marcus pointed out how it will not
work when the difference between the two original numbers
is 1. (See Figures 8.8 and 8.9 for Marcus’s work.) It would be
great to push him a bit further on this to see if he could find a
regularity here as well.

CLASSROOM TEACHER REFLECTIONS —

SHANNON MURPHY, GRADE FIVE

Lesson Reflection

I have to admit that I was not sure what the answer to the
problem was at first, so I was unsure what to expect from my
students. It was definitely challenging for them, because I
don’t think they had been asked to come at an understanding
of something mathematical from this perspective. They were
given a series of steps to follow and then asked to see what
they could see. What I could see right away for some of my
students was panic; they clearly thought that they could not
even start to solve it. With a little scaffolding, however, they
pushed onward and found out it was not too far beyond them.
They then did well in expressing regularity in repeated
reasoning once they were able to find the patterns within the
work, and once they did, the door was open. I did see that
what most of them observed came through their calculations
and not from doing it out with tiles. I think they were fairly
confident in their reasoning that the arithmetic part worked,

144
but I don’t think many of them saw it as deeply connected to
the mathematics under the task of how and why a square of
tiles can no longer remain a square if one tile is removed, and
how this relates to the dimensions of the newly formed
rectangle. This is a problem I would like to revisit.

FIGURE 8.4
Victoria’s work on the “Go Figure” problem

FIGURE 8.5
Bridget’s work on the “Go Figure” problem

145
FIGURE 8.6
Nuna’s work on the “Go Figure” problem

FIGURE 8.7
Nuna’s written description

FIGURE 8.8
Marcus’s work on the “Go Figure” problem

146
FIGURE 8.9
Marcus’s written description

MP8 Reflection

There is no question that this MP is the one I feel least

comfortable with, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it is
hard even to remember the words in the title of it. Regularity
in Repeated Reasoning is not something I ever remember
being taught when I was an elementary, middle, or even high
school student. I also don’t remember learning about it in
college, so I don’t think I have actively put it out there in my

147
classroom. I think that I have to break down the words more
carefully for myself as well as for my students. If I don’t, I’m
afraid that they are just nice words without meaning.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP8 FROM OTHER

CLASSROOM TEACHERS

Grade Two Teacher: Not long ago, I basically knew nothing

about any of the MPs. Yes, I had heard of the Common Core,
but the Mathematical Practices as part of the Common Core
were not something I knew. The MPs were basically a bunch
of jargon to me at first. I had no idea how they fit, nor did I
want to think about how I was going to translate all of this
technical math language in a
way to make it accessible to my second graders. This was
especially true about MP8. I understand repeated reasoning. I
understand how looking for patterns is helpful. I did support
this a bit more specifically in our geometry unit by discussing
attributes, their similarities and differences, and how that can
lead to pattern identification. I addressed it a bit in our work
with computational methods. Overall, however, I do not feel
as if I fully taught this practice. Next year, I hope to expand
my teaching and integration of MP8.

Grade Five Teacher: Even when I am with other teachers

who are working as hard as I am in trying to integrate the
Mathematical Practices into the classroom, I don’t know
anyone who really and truly gets this MP completely yet. I
think that I have to make all of the MPs, and certainly this
one, into a natural language—meaning that it is used every

148
day. I believe that this will happen if kids are involved in the
roll-out process and if I have them work at creating and
adjusting their meanings and understandings of the MPs as
we move through the year.

COMMENTS ABOUT MP8 FROM STUDENTS

Bethuel, Kindergarten Student: This repeats all the time.

When we add one more sticker for every day in school, the
blank spaces in the ten frames get one less. It’s a pattern!

Rudy, Grade Two Student: This MP is important because if

you have a very hard problem, you can use what you know to
solve the problem. It makes the hard problem easier and
makes me not give up.

Cameron, Grade Three Student: This is about turning the

problem into something you saw before and seeing the
regular part of it. Division is repeated subtraction and times is
repeated addition, and the easier ones help with the harder
ones.

149
CHAPTER 9
MOVING FORWARD

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it,
move with it, and join the dance.

—ALAN WATTS, THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY

So just how do you go about joining this dance of change

trumpeted by the Common Core? How do you plunge in and
start or continue to make sense of the Mathematical Practices
for yourself? How do you move forward with what you know
about the MPs and integrate that into your daily practice?
How do you learn the steps of the dance and make the MPs
explicit to yourself? How do you make them explicit to your
students? Where do you begin?

Let’s begin with reviewing some basic tenets related to the

Mathematical Practices and how you can make sense of them
and tap into their power. After that there are a few more

150
specific suggestions about your next steps. Finally, there is a
list of resources to help you keep on dancing!

Basic Tenets of the Common Core Mathematical Practices

The Mathematical Practices

1. are meant for all students;

2. can be taught;

3. must be taught;

4. are not discrete and often overlap with and blend into each
other;

5. are not all present in every lesson;

6. take time for teachers to make sense of, to understand, and

to implement;

7. develop over time in students; and

8. reside at the core of mathematical proficiency.

Here are a few thoughts about each of these tenets:

1. The Mathematical Practices are meant as a way of

approaching and thinking about mathematics for every
student at every grade and ability level. They are not reserved
for “higher-achieving” students only, and they must be
thought of as attainable ways of thinking for all of our
students.

151
2. The MPs can be taught but only if they are made both
“explicit and learnable,” a phrase Deborah Ball used at the
National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics Annual
Meeting in 2012. I couldn’t agree with this statement more!
They are not necessarily instinctive and need to be overt and
transparent so that students are aware of what they are and
can be taught how to use them.

3. The MPs must be taught and must be taught in an

integrated way. They are not to be thought of as something
separate from mathematical content, but rather as a way to
access mathematical content. Susan Jo Russell maintains that
although we have to focus in on the MPs “with targeted,
intentional, planned instruction,” we need to be careful that
they are not “relegated to special sessions apart from core
mathematical content; they are necessarily embedded in
content” (2012, 52).

4. There will be evidence of multiple MPs within every

lesson. It would be hard to construct a viable argument
(MP3), for example, without being precise in the use of
language, mathematical symbols, diagrams, and so on (MP6).
Further, it may be difficult to see a clear line between which
of the Mathematical Practices are at work, because they
often—and should—seep into one another.

5. I have often heard that “We do all of the Mathematical

Practices in every lesson.” Although more than one MP is
typically present in every lesson, it is very rare that all eight
MPs are at play. It is far more likely that there are one or two
“focus” Mathematical Practices, ones that are more visible
and are highlighted within the lesson to a greater degree.

152
6. Teachers and administrators need to acknowledge that full
understanding of the Mathematical Practices is going to take
time. The process of making sense of the MPs is a
multifaceted, multidimensional one and evolves over time.
With this acknowledgment comes permission to start the
dance without knowing all of the steps, to try some things out,
to feel the rhythm, so to speak, and to recognize that with
practice, the quality of the dance improves.

7. Just as making sense of the MPs takes time for teachers, it

takes time to develop in students. One of the most promising
elements of the Mathematical Practices is that there are only
eight of them and that they are common to all students from
kindergarten through grade twelve. This means that when
(note that I am saying when, not if) all teachers tuck the MPs
into their daily practice, students will grow in their use of
them as they grow from kindergartners to high school seniors.
What an amazing thought!

8. This is it—this is the crux of what we are striving for in

mathematics education: mathematical proficiency for all
students. When students are adept and skilled in problem
solving and building arguments, and identifying structure and
using patterns, and all the other wonderful elements of the
Mathematical Practices, they will be mathematically
proficient and capable of thinking deeply and tapping into
their power.

Possible Steps

1. Self-Assessment:

153
• Try this activity on your own and see what you can
determine about your knowledge and understanding of the
Mathematical Practices. Get a piece of blank paper (8½ by 11
inches is fine). Fold the paper into fourths (fold into halves
one way; keep it folded and then fold that in
half the other way). Label the four boxes on the front 1–4 and
the four on the back 5–8. Now name the eight MPs and write
what you know about each of them.

• Look over what you have written and use the GOLD
framework. See if you have identified at least one
G—goal—for each MP. Check to see if you have written
about what actions you might be O— observing students
engage in, what words you might be L—listening for students
to say, and what actions you might be D—doing to foster the
growth and use of the MPs.

• Consider doing this activity with a grade-level colleague

from your school, someone on your grade-level team, a
teacher from a grade below and/or above yours, a teacher or
teachers from another school, and so on.

2. Collaborative Study:

• Construct a partnership or team of colleagues who want to

engage in further exploration of the Mathematical Practices.
You may opt for working with one partner, a triad, or a larger
group. Determine the type of collaboration you wish to
engage in together; peer coaching and professional learning
communities (PLCs) are possibilities.

Determine if peer coaching is the approach you want. It is

one way for you to collaborate where you can work with a

154
trusted colleague, agree to meet together on a regular basis,
discuss a specific MP, observe each other with a focus on the
chosen MP, give feedback, offer suggestions, and so on.

Consider professional learning communities. They are

another and more formal way for you to collaborate with
peers. With a central goal of improving student learning,
PLCs are a powerful force and a perfect fit to help make sense
of the Mathematical Practices.

•
Limit the scope of your initial work. Do not set as a goal that
you will fully make sense of, understand deeply, implement,
and integrate seamlessly all eight MPs in one year. Allow
yourself time to study, assimilate, and “practice” a few of the
MPs at a time.

3. Administrative Support:

• Approach your building and/or district mathematics

specialist, curriculum director, math coach—any and all of
them if you have them within your reach. Ask to meet with
them about your specific goal centered on the Mathematical
Practices. Ask them to think about providing extended,
targeted, and ongoing professional development on the MPs.
Invite them into your classroom to model and observe.

• Speak to your building principal about your plans. Share

your specific MP goals and think about rolling them into your
formal professional development plan. Ask for opportunities
to get into other classrooms and/or other schools with the
explicit purpose of observing the MPs in practice.

155
RECOMMENDED ONLINE RESOURCES

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does provide a place to

begin.

1. [Link]

America Achieves is another site that houses videos that

depict how the key shifts found in the Common Core can and
do come to life in classrooms. In addition to lesson videos,
you will find videos of teachers discussing their lessons as
well as links to other resources.

2. [Link]

This site is under the umbrella of the Education Development

Center (EDC). The EDC has expanded its work since its
inception and is considered a front-runner in the melding of
research and practice in education. This particular site is
focused on the connection between the MPs and the content
standards and offers multiple illustrations, all of which
revolve around student dialogues and allow the viewer to see
the MPs as they play out in classrooms.

3. [Link]

The mission of this collective body of committed educators is

to provide and share “carefully vetted resources for teachers
and teacher leaders” so that both the teaching and learning of
mathematics will be improved. It is headed by Bill
McCallum, one of the lead writers of the CCSS for
Mathematics. The resources within this site are vast, so take
some time to peruse. Although work is still continuing on the

156
illustrations of the MPs as well as on the commentary and
elaborations by grade band, the site is a powerhouse of
information.

4. [Link]/resources

This site is from the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

It provides a history of the development of the CCSS, as well
as an overview, the specific standards, frequently asked
questions and their answers, and many other important
resources.

5. [Link]

Inside Mathematics is a resource open to educators worldwide

to help them in their quest to provide the best mathematics
instruction possible. Within this resource, there are video
examples of the Mathematical Practices excerpted from a
range of grade levels.

6. [Link]/videos/

The Teaching Channel is all about “great teaching” and

“inspiring classrooms.” It offers a collection of videos that
showcase successful teaching practices across America and
across various content areas. You won’t be sorry if you check
out the videos housed here.

FINAL WORDS

Now it is up to you to join the dance. There is no doubt that

change is messy and presents challenges. There is no doubt
that making sense of the Common Core Mathematical

157
Practices will take time and effort. There is also no doubt,
however, that what lies ahead for our students is a world that
will require them to be the kinds of thinkers who use the types
of thinking encapsulated in the Mathematical Practices.
Having a good memory and being able to recall information
will not be quite as valuable. What will be needed are people
who,
according to David Brooks in a 2014 New York Times op-ed
column, “possess a voracious explanatory drive, an almost
obsessive need to follow their curiosity,” so that they engage
in “extended bouts of concentration, diving into and trying to
make sense of [these] bottomless information oceans”
(Brooks 2014). Although the Mathematical Practices do not
promote obsessive behavior, they most certainly do promote
the development and use of higher-order levels of thinking.
They are packed with the power that our students will need to
face the future and meet the challenges ahead of them.

158
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164
INDEX
Page numbers followed by an f indicate figures.

abstract reasoning. See also MP2: Reason Abstractly and

Quantitatively; reasoning

classroom lesson, 31–38, 33f, 35f, 36f, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

mathematical modeling, 57

overview, 23, 26

administrative support, 151

Anderson, Lorin, 2

arguments. See also MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and

Critique the Reasoning of Others

classroom lesson, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

mathematical tools and, 62

overview, 41

Awesome Math Problems for Creative Thinking, 48

165
background knowledge, 115–117, 116f

Ball, Deborah, 148

Barlow, Angela, 62

base ten, 64–74, 67f, 68f, 69f, 70f, 71f

Bloom, Benjamin, 2

Bond, Rebecca, 84

Brooks, David, 153

calculations

MP6: Attend to Precision, 100–102, 101f

repetitions in, 128–130, 129f

Carpenter, Thomas, 130

change, process of, 2, 147–151

collaborative study of the Mathematical Practices, 150

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in general, 1. See also

Mathematical Practices (MPs)

communication. See also MP3: Construct Viable Arguments

and Critique the Reasoning of Others; MP6: Attend to
Precision

166
mathematically specific language, 96–98, 97f, 109

overview, 41, 95–96

symbols and labels and, 98–100, 99f

complex problems, 60, 62

computational fluency

MP6: Attend to Precision, 100–102, 101f

repetitions in, 128–130, 129f

connections, 80–82, 81f

contextualization, 28–30, 29f

counting, 72

decisions

GOLD framework and, 4–5

mathematical tools and, 80–82, 81f

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them, 9f, 11f, 13f

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, 25f, 27f, 29f

167
MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the
Reasoning of Others, 43f, 45f, 47f

MP4: Model with Mathematics, 59f, 61f, 63f

MP5: Use Appropriate Tools Strategically, 79f, 81f, 83f

MP6: Attend to Precision, 97f, 99f, 101f

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure, 113f, 114f, 116f

MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated

Reasoning, 129f, 131f, 133f

decontextualization, 28–30, 29f

estimates, 60

explanations in mathematics, 42, 44. See also MP3: Construct

Viable Arguments and Critique the Reasoning of Others

feedback, 46, 47f

Fennell, Francis “Skip,” 26

flexibility, 12, 13f

generalization, 60, 62

168
geometric patterns. See patterns

goals

GOLD framework and, 4–5

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them, 8–12, 9f, 11f, 13f

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, 24–30, 25f, 27f,

29f

MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the

Reasoning of Others, 42–46, 43f, 45f, 47f

MP4: Model with Mathematics, 58–62, 59f, 61f, 63f

MP5: Use Appropriate Tools Strategically, 78–84, 79f, 81f,

83f

MP6: Attend to Precision, 96–102, 97f, 99f, 101f

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure, 111–117, 113f,

114f, 116f

MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated

Reasoning, 128–132, 129f, 131f, 133f

GOLD framework, 4–5

Hardy, G. H., 111

169
How the Brain Learns Mathematics (Sousa), 132

hypotheses, 112, 113f

Kanold, Timothy, 26, 28

Krathwohl, David, 2

labels, 98–100, 99f

Landis, Theodore, 26

language, academic, 96–98, 97f, 109

Lannin, John, 130

listening

GOLD framework and, 4–5

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them, 9f, 11f, 13f

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, 25f, 27f, 29f

MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the

Reasoning of Others, 43f, 45f, 47f

MP4: Model with Mathematics, 59f, 61f, 63f

170
MP5: Use Appropriate Tools Strategically, 79f, 81f, 83f

MP6: Attend to Precision, 97f, 99f, 101f

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure, 113f, 114f, 116f

MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated

Reasoning, 129f, 131f, 133f

manipulatives, 62

mathematical modeling. See also MP4: Model with

Mathematics

classroom lesson, 64–74, 67f, 68f, 69f, 70f, 71f

overview, 57

Mathematical Practices (MPs). See also Standards for

Mathematical Practice; individual MPs

GOLD framework and, 4–5

implementing, 4–5

online resources for, 151–153

overview, 1–3, 147–151

McCallum, Bill, 132

McCrory, Michael, 62

171
McGarvey, Lynn, 130

memorization, 7–8

modeling. See also mathematical modeling

contextual problems and, 30

mathematically specific language, 98

problem-solving skills and, 20

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them. See also Mathematical Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 15–21, 17f, 18f

goals of, 8–12, 9f, 11f, 13f

overview, 7–8

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively. See also

Mathematical Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 31–38, 33f, 35f, 36f

goals of, 24–30, 25f, 27f, 29f

MP3 classroom lesson and, 48

overview, 23

MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the

Reasoning of Others. See also Mathematical Practices (MPs)

172
classroom lesson, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

goals of, 42–46, 43f, 45f, 47f

mathematical tools and, 62

MP4 classroom lesson, 72

overview, 41

MP4: Model with Mathematics. See also Mathematical

Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 64–74, 67f, 68f, 69f, 70f, 71f

goals of, 58–62, 59f, 61f, 63f

overview, 57

MP5: Use Appropriate Tools Strategically. See also

Mathematical Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 84–93, 87f, 88f, 89f, 90f

goals of, 78–84, 79f, 81f, 83f

MP4 classroom lesson, 72

overview, 77–78

MP6: Attend to Precision. See also Mathematical Practices

(MPs)

classroom lesson, 102–109, 105f, 106f, 107f

173
goals of, 96–102, 97f, 99f, 101f

MP4 classroom lesson, 72

overview, 95–96

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure. See also

Mathematical Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 117–125, 120f, 121f, 122f, 123f

goals of, 111–117, 113f, 114f, 116f

overview, 111

MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated

Reasoning. See also Mathematical Practices (MPs)

classroom lesson, 134–144, 137f, 138f, 139f, 140f, 141f, 142f

goals of, 128–132, 129f, 131f, 133f

overview, 127

MPs (Mathematical Practices). See Mathematical Practices

(MPs)

Mrs. Dymond (Ritchie), 24

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), 41

number sense, 26–28, 27f

174
numeric patterns. See patterns

observation

classroom lesson, 134–144, 137f, 138f, 139f, 140f, 141f, 142f

GOLD framework and, 4–5

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them, 9f, 11f, 13f, 16–21, 17f

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, 25f, 27f, 29f,

32–34, 33f, 35f, 36f

MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the

Reasoning of Others, 43f, 45f, 47f, 49–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

MP4: Model with Mathematics, 59f, 61f, 63f, 64f, 64–74, 67f,
68f, 69f, 70f, 71f

MP5: Use Appropriate Tools Strategically, 79f, 81f, 83f,

86–93, 87f, 88f, 89f, 90f

MP6: Attend to Precision, 97f, 99f, 101f, 104–110, 105f, 106f,

107f

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure, 113f, 114f, 116f,
118–125, 120f, 121f, 122f, 123f

175
MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated
Reasoning, 129f, 131f, 133f, 134–144, 137f, 138f, 139f, 140f,
141f, 142f

opinions, 41. See also MP3: Construct Viable Arguments and

Critique the Reasoning of Others

patterns, 111, 112, 113f, 127, 130, 131f. See also MP7: Look
For and Make Use of Structure; MP8: Look For and Express
Regularity in Repeated Reasoning

perseverance, 12, 13f

perspective, 112, 114f, 115

Polya, George, 8

practice, 60, 62

precision, 95–96, 102–109, 105f, 106f, 107f. See also MP6:

Attend to Precision

predictions, 112, 113f

prior knowledge, 115–117, 116f

Problem Solver II, The series, 12

problem-solving skills. See also MP1: Make Sense of

Problems and Persevere in Solving Them

176
classroom lesson, 15–21, 17f, 18f, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

computational fluency and, 100–102, 101f

explanation and, 42–46, 43f, 45f, 47f

feedback regarding, 46, 47f

mathematical modeling, 57, 60, 62

mathematical tools and, 79f

overview, 7–8, 58, 60

professional learning communities, 26, 28, 150

quantitative reasoning. See also MP2: Reason Abstractly and

Quantitatively; reasoning

classroom lesson, 31–38, 33f, 35f, 36f, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

mathematical modeling, 57

overview, 23, 26

reasoning. See also MP2: Reason Abstractly and

Quantitatively; MP8: Look For and Express Regularity in
Repeated Reasoning

classroom lesson, 31–38, 33f, 35f, 36f, 48–55, 51f, 52f, 53f

177
communication and, 41

feedback regarding, 46, 47f

mathematical modeling, 57

overview, 23, 26

recontextualization, 28–30, 29f

regularity, 127, 130, 131f. See also MP8: Look For and
Express Regularity in Repeated Reasoning

repetitions, 128–130, 129f

resilience, 12, 13f

Ritchie, Anne Isabella Thackeray, 24

Rusczyk, Richard, 7

Russell, Susan Jo, 100, 148

Seeley, Cathy, 28, 30

self-efficacy, 12

Sousa, David, 132

Standards for Mathematical Practice, 1–3. See also

Mathematical Practices (MPs)

178
strategies, 10–12, 11f, 77–78

structure, 111, 118. See also MP7: Look For and Make Use of
Structure

symbols, mathematical, 98–100, 99f

Tapper, John, 60

technology, 82

ten frames, 86–91, 87f, 88f, 89f, 90f

This Place in the Snow (Bond), 84

tools, mathematical. See also MP5: Use Appropriate Tools

Strategically mathematical modeling, 62

MP4 classroom lesson, 64–74, 67f, 68f, 69f, 70f, 71f

overview, 77–78

understanding

MP1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving

Them, 8–12, 9f, 11f, 13f

MP2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively, 24–26, 25f

MP7: Look For and Make Use of Structure, 115–117, 116f

179
V

Varlas, Laura, 96, 98

vocabulary, 96–98, 97f, 109

Wagner, Tony, 2

Windows of Opportunity (Fennell and Landis), 26

word problems. See also MP1: Make Sense of Problems and

Persevere in Solving Them

classroom lesson, 15–21, 17f, 18f, 31–38, 33f, 35f, 36f

problem-solving skills and, 7

180