more efficiently. I usually do not have a set of questions ahead of time. I base my
questions on what I observe students doing through ongoing assessment.
Sometimes my questions are just asking students to explain their thinking. In
Michele’s case, for example, it was clear to me that she needed to pause and think
about whether she could say 50, 60, 70, 80 or 50, 51, 52, 53 when she had 5 groups
of 10 and 3 1s. In Sylvia’s case, I had to ask her questions that helped her connect
her experiences in the games to that of solving story problems. My focus through-
out is on understanding how the children are thinking and using this information
to provide experiences that help them become independent confident learners
who can engage in meaningful mathematics.
Assessing and Supporting Students to Make Connections