Thinking about the Mathmatics

The first three components of making an effective lesson plan all relate directly to the mathematics you as a teacher want to highlight in a lesson. The hardest part for me, in regards to forming productive lessons that include math talk is coming up with the questions that will be asked. If you don’t research the misconceptions commonly associated with the math concepts you are trying to teach, how can you expect to come up with questions that challenge the students to address the errors they may have in their thinking? As the book said on page 175, “student’s comments in math class are largely a result of their current understanding…” We shouldn’t expect students to know their misconceptions or that they misconception will always be revealed without digging for it. The questions are also what guide the conversation and if not though through the questions might quickly take the class away from the objective of the lesson and may actually cause more harm and confusion than good. The level of the question also dictates the depth of the conversation. If purposefully thought provoking questions are not determined before the lesson the teacher might find him/herself asking very basic knowledge level questions. I love how the author gave some strategies and resources that teachers can use to identify concepts that might be problematic for students. Before reading the chapter I don’t think I would have known where to start looking for misconceptions let alone how to address them in the form of a question.