I wanted Heather to feel safe taking risks. I was hoping that she could become
an active and engaged participant in our math community. However, I was trou-
bled that Heather might not have had enough prior experiences to solve problems
independently. She had not yet developed habits that would allow her to take
responsibility for her own learning and thinking: she did not yet contribute to
large-group discussions; she depended entirely on her partner during paired work;
or she came up with excuses to avoid the work entirely. She also used familiar
copingskills to make herself look like she was studious and usually appeared as if she
wasn’thaving difficulties at all. She parroted what others said or copied what her
partner wrote. When asked how she was thinking about a problem or why she
wrote what she did in her math journal, she would shrug her shoulders and say she
forgot. I knew I had to plan some targeted interventions to help Heather and a
few of my other students who were passive learners. First, I had to assess what she
had learned and what confused her.
Assessing Multiplication: Understanding Heather’s Learning Profile
Because it was early in the year, I still did not have a full picture of Heather’s math-
ematical understanding. I knew this was important information so I could plan
appropriate accommodations to help her become an active, engaged learner. The
first formal assessment of the year presented an opportunity for me to understand
her thinking and reasoning. The assessment asked students to represent 8 6
through the use of arrays, pictures or models of groups, and story contexts (Russell
et al. 2008c). During the assessment, Heather rested her head on her arm and drew
small figures on the paper. I asked what she could tell me about the numbers. She
told me that the only thing she knew how to do with numbers was to count the
dots on each number so she would know “how many the number was.” To explain
what she meant, she drew the number 6, placed 6 dots along the lines of the 6,
touched each dot, and counted by 1s to 6. She said, “I only know about those dots,
I’m not good in math, and nothing is nice for me in math.” Clearly, I needed to
find an entry point for Heather, so I began an unplanned interview.
TEACHER: What else do you know about 6?
HEATHER: There are 6 legs on a ladybug.
TEACHER: Great! If there are 6 legs on a ladybug and I had 2 ladybugs in my
hand how many legs would I see?
HEATHER:[draws the ladybugs, counts by 1s] 12.I wondered if she might be able to work with 8 6 if I coached her to use
repeated addition, so I asked “What would happen to the number of legs if we had
8 ladybugs?”
Getting “Un-Stuck”