My kids can : making math accessible to all learners, K–5

calculating 78or(38)(48). I introduced the picture by explaining
that I saw the trays that morning at a bakery around the corner from school. I
asked students if they could tell me how many cookies the baker made.
Students were very excited to find out. The responses of all six students were
the same:

3  8  24

4  8  32

24  32  56

I had expected that at least one of the students would offer 7 8 as an answer, but
since that was not the case, I shared how I solved the situation using 7 8:
“Interesting, I solved the problem by doing 7 8 and I got the same answer as you.
How come? Could you show with the snap cubes what I did and what you did and
why both ways work? You can work in pairs if you want.” I wanted the students to

MAKINGMATHEMATICSEXPLICIT

Figure 1–1.