Making In‐the‐Moment Decisions About Using Student Thinking

Mathematics teachers are encouraged to elicit and use student thinking during lessons to help students learn mathematical concepts. To do this, a teacher needs to identify notable instances of student thinking and decide what actions to take in order to effectively build on the thinking to develop a mathematical idea. The complexity of a secondary mathematics classroom can make this process difficult, which may prevent some teachers from carrying out this practice. In this paper, a secondary mathematics teacher works with her mentor to research the practices of identifying and building on student mathematical thinking. The teacher shares what was learned about these teaching practices after trying to implement them in her lessons, as well as actions that any teacher can try as they work to utilize student thinking in their lessons.