make sense of mathematics. These teachers do not take the “ten steps to success”
approach. Instead, their essays are designed to give you a window into their think-
ing, addressing questions such as:
- How do you get students who are not working independently to find a
starting place and learn to explain their thinking? - When special educators and classroom teachers collaborate, how do they
plan? What is it like when they both work with students who struggle? - How do teachers take the time to engage in ongoing assessment? What
happens with the rest of the class? - How do teachers orchestrate the sharing of strategies—isn’t it confusing for
students who are struggling? - When students are far behind, what do you help them focus on in a lesson?
The purpose of analyzing these written and videotaped episodes is not to look at
whether what the teacher is doing is right or wrong, but instead to consider the
decisions a teacher makes, why he or she might have made those decisions, and
what effect those decisions might have on the students’ learning. The complexity
of the process is always apparent. Many of these teachers have years of experience
developing the strategies you will see and read about. Some of the newer teachers
write about how they are learning to teach their struggling learners effectively.
We hope you will be able to apply or adapt their principles and actions to your
own classrooms and teaching situations. We also hope that you will see how the
principles and actions described here benefit all students, not just those who
struggle. As one of our teachers explained:
What we’ve learned from working with our students who are struggling has made us
better math teachers for allof the kids. Ideas about sequencing, about not being so
quick to explain, about really insisting that kids figure some things out for them-
selves, that models that work for some kids don’t work for others... Teaching them
[students who struggle] effectively isteaching the class effectively.INTRODUCTIONxvi