Supporting Students’ Flexible Thinking by Connecting Mathematics to the Real World in the Early Grades

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Holiday Inn Portland, Pendleton Room, Lower level

During this session, we will unpack how authentic learning activities with real world and/or social and political contexts can support early elementary learners' development of flexible thinking around mathematical content and real world issues. Using the windows and mirrors framework (Bishop, 1990; Rezvi et al., 2020), we will provide 1) sample tasks, 2) examples of student work from the task to illustrate students' thinking, and 3) teacher reflection on the planning and implementation of the tasks with a focus on how the tasks supported students' flexible thinking. Then, we will 4) facilitate an audience discussion about how one might take these or similar tasks into one’s own contexts to support students’ creative engagement with real world issues through mathematics.

When/Where:
,
Holiday Inn Portland, Pendleton Room, Lower level

Format:
Session

Strand:
Engagement

Grade Level:
PK-2

Scroll down to view handouts.

Presented by

Simon Han

Graduate Research Assistant

Molly Robinson

Graduate Research Assistant

Portland State University

Interested in Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice across K-16 and in supporting students to both make sense of their world and influence change with mathematics.

Heather Shaw

Teacher

Beaverton School District

Ms. Shaw has worked in partnership with PSU for the last two years and during the 2022-2023 school year co-taught daily with the other presenters in her 1st grade classroom. They collaborated using the District math curriculum as well as designing units and lessons around social justice and real world issues, with a focus on increasing relevance, mental math, and flexible thinking.

Amanda Sugimoto

Associate Dean

Portland State University

Eva Thanheiser

Professor of Mathematics Education

Please Make a Selection

Professor of Mathematics Education. Interested in Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice and Anti-Bias Mathematics Education across the K-16 spectrum.

Handouts

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