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

Focused Instruction on Quick Images

student’s strategy, Michael tries to elicit from the student a detailed description

of her strategy. This seems to be a strategy that a number of students are already

using, so Michael highlights it and then helps students build on this strategy.

Later, after the students work on the second image (see Figure 5–3) and decide there

are 15 dots, Michael asks, “When you see this, is there any way that you fit these

two together to help you find the total?” By asking this question, he is pointing stu-

dents toward a way to look at the images that might lead to a strong strategy (i.e.,

looking at how to fit the dots from one ten frame into another ten frame).

For the third image (see Figure 5–4), Michael says, “Remember the last one we did,

we talked about bringing the cards together? When you see those 2 cards, what is a

way you can show someone that it would be 15?”

Figure 5–3.

Figure 5–4.