NPR – Katrina Schwartz
“A lot of what’s going on today in Marna Wolak’s fifth-grade math class is pretty familiar. She’s got her students gathered on the rug for a number talk, something she does often, trying to get them thinking about fractions. But a lot of it is unfamiliar, too. The topic is new — dividing whole numbers by fractions. Also, today there are five more adults in the room, including two other teachers from Sanchez Elementary School here in San Francisco. It’s clear students are a little shy because of the visitors, but still, they’re humming along with the lesson. The fractions problem deals with origami stars. Wolak tells her kids they have six pieces of paper, but it only takes one-fifth of a piece to make one origami star. So, how many stars can they make with six papers? As they get to work, the observing teachers scribble detailed notes about the strategies kids are trying, where they might be going off track, and later, how they do discussing their thinking in a small group.”(more)