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Rounding Up

Rounding Up

Auteur(s): MLC - Mike Wallus
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 Welcome to Rounding Up, the professional learning podcast brought to you by The Math Learning Center. Two things have always been true in education: Ongoing professional learning is essential, and teachers are extremely busy people. Rounding Up is a podcast designed to provide meaningful, bite-sized professional learning for busy educators and instructional leaders. I'm Mike Wallus, vice president for educator support at The Math Learning Center and host of the show. In each episode, we'll explore topics important to teachers, instructional leaders, and anyone interested in elementary mathematics education. Topics such as posing purposeful questions, effectively recording student thinking, cultivating students' math identity, and designing asset-based instruction from multilingual learners. Don't miss out! Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. Each episode will also be published on the Bridges Educator Site. We hope you'll give Rounding Up a try, and that the ideas we discuss have a positive impact on your teaching and your students' learning.2022 The Math Learning Center | www.mathlearningcenter.org Mathématique Science
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  • Season 4 | Episode 1 - Dr. Christopher Danielson, Which One Doesn’t Belong Routine

    Season 4 | Episode 1 - Dr. Christopher Danielson, Which One Doesn’t Belong Routine
    Sep 4 2025
    Christopher Danielson, Which One Doesn’t Belong? Routine: Fostering Flexible Reasoning ROUNDING UP: SEASON 4 | EPISODE 1 The idea of comparing items and looking for similarities and differences has been explored by many math educators. Christopher Danielson has taken this idea to new heights. Inspired by the Sesame Street song “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others),” Christopher wrote the book Which One Doesn't Belong? In this episode, we'll ask Christopher about the routine of the same name and the features that make it such a powerful learning experience for students. BIOGRAPHY Christopher Danielson started teaching in 1994 in the Saint Paul (MN) Public Schools. He earned his PhD in mathematics education from Michigan State University in 2005 and taught at the college level for 10 years after that. Christopher is the author of Which One Doesn’t Belong?, How Many?, and How Did You Count? Christopher also founded Math On-A-Stick, a large-scale family math playspace at the Minnesota State Fair. RESOURCES What Is “Which One Doesn’t Belong?” Talking Math With Your Kids by Christopher Danielson Math On-A-Stick 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussion by Margaret (Peg) Smith & Mary Kay Stein How Many?: A Counting Book by Christopher Danielson How Did You Count? A Picture Book by Christopher Danielson TRANSCRIPT Mike Wallus: The idea of comparing items and looking for similarities and differences has been explored by many math educators. That said, Christopher Danielson has taken this idea to new heights. Inspired by Sesame Street’s [song] “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others),” Christopher wrote the book Which One Doesn't Belong? In this episode, we'll ask Christopher about the Which one doesn't belong? routine and the features that make it such a powerful learning experience for students. Well, welcome to the podcast, Christopher. I'm excited to be talking with you today. Christopher Danielson: Thank you for the invitation. Delightful to be invited. Mike: I would love to chat a little bit about the routine Which one doesn't belong? So, I'll ask a question that I often will ask folks, which is: If I'm a listener, and I don't have prior knowledge of that routine, how would you describe it for someone? Christopher: Yeah. Sesame Street, back in the day, had a routine called Which one doesn't belong? There was a little song that went along with it. And for me, the iconic Sesame Street image is [this:] Grover is on the stairs up to the brownstone on the Sesame Street set, and there are four circles drawn in a 2-by-2 grid in chalk on the wall. And there are a few of the adults and a couple of the puppets sitting around, and they're asking Grover and singing the song, “Which One of Them Doesn't Belong?” There are four circles. Three of them are large and one is small—or maybe it's the other way around, I don't remember. So, there's one right answer, and Grover is thinking really hard—"think real hard” is part of the song. They're singing to him. He's under kind of a lot of pressure to come up with which one doesn't belong and fortunately, Grover succeeds. Grover's a hero. But what we're wanting kids to attend to there is size. There are three things that are the same size. All of them are the same shape, three that are the same size, one that has a different size. They're wanting to attend to size. Lovely. This one doesn't belong because it is a different size, just like my underwear doesn't belong in my socks drawer because it has a different function. I mean, it's not—for me there is, we could talk a little bit about this in a moment. The belonging is in that mathematical and everyday sense of objects and whether they belong. So, that's the Sesame Street version. Through a long chain of math educators, I came across a sort of tradition that had been flying along under the radar of rethinking that, with the idea being that instead of there being one property to attend to, we're going to have a rich set of shapes that have rich and interesting relationships with each other. And so Which one doesn't belong? depends on which property you're attending to. So, the first page of the book that I published, called Which One Doesn't Belong?, has four shapes on it. One is an equilateral triangle standing on a vertex. One is a square standing on a vertex. One is a rhombus, a nonsquare rhombus standing on its vertex, and it's not colored in. All the other shapes are colored in. And then there is the same nonsquare thrombus colored in, resting on a side. So, all sort of simple shapes that offer simple introductory properties, but different people are going to notice different things. Some kids will hone in on that. The one in the lower left doesn't belong because it's not colored in. Other kids will say, “Well, I'm counting the number of sides or the number of corners. And so, the triangle doesn't belong because all the others have four ...
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    19 min
  • Season 3 | Episode 17 - Understanding the Role of Language in Math Classrooms - Guest: William Zahner

    Season 3 | Episode 17 - Understanding the Role of Language in Math Classrooms - Guest: William Zahner
    May 8 2025
    William Zahner, Understanding the Role of Language in Math Classrooms ROUNDING UP: SEASON 3 | EPISODE 17 How can educators understand the relationship between language and the mathematical concepts and skills students engage with in their classrooms? And how might educators think about the mathematical demands and the language demands of tasks when planning their instruction? In this episode, we discuss these questions with Bill Zahner, director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education at San Diego State University. BIOGRAPHY Bill Zahner is a professor in the mathematics department at San Diego State University and the director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. Zahner's research is focused on improving mathematics learning for all students, especially multilingual students who are classified as English Learners and students from historically marginalized communities that are underrepresented in STEM fields. RESOURCES Teaching Math to Multilingual Learners, Grades K–8 by Kathryn B. Chval, Erin Smith, Lina Trigos-Carrillo, and Rachel J. Pinnow National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK– 12 English Learners Success Forum SDSU-ELSF Video Cases for Professional Development The Math Learning Center materials Bridges in Mathematics curriculum Bridges in Mathematics Teachers Guides [BES login required] TRANSCRIPT Mike Wallus: How can educators understand the way that language interacts with the mathematical concepts and skills their students are learning? And how can educators focus on the mathematics of a task without losing sight of its language demands as their planning for instruction? We'll examine these topics with our guest, Bill Zahner, director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education at San Diego State University. Welcome to the podcast, Bill. Thank you for joining us today. Bill Zahner: Oh, thanks. I'm glad to be here. Mike: So, I'd like to start by asking you to address a few ideas that often surface in conversations around multilingual learners and mathematics. The first is the notion that math is universal, and it's detached from language. What, if anything, is wrong with this idea and what impact might an idea like that have on the ways that we try to support multilingual learners? Bill: Yeah, thanks for that. That's a great question because I think we have a common-sense and strongly held idea that math is math no matter where you are and who you are. And of course, the example that's always given is something like 2 plus 2 equals 4, no matter who you are or where you are. And that is true, I guess [in] the sense that 2 plus 2 is 4, unless you're in base 3 or something. But that is not necessarily what mathematics in its fullness is. And when we think about what mathematics broadly is, mathematics is a way of thinking and a way of reasoning and a way of using various tools to make sense of the world or to engage with those tools [in] their own right. And oftentimes, that is deeply embedded with language. Probably the most straightforward example is anytime I ask someone to justify or explain what they're thinking in mathematics. I'm immediately bringing in language into that case. And we all know the old funny examples where a kid is asked to show their thinking and they draw a diagram of themselves with a thought bubble on a math problem. And that's a really good case where I think a teacher can say, “OK, clearly that was not what I had in mind when I said, ‘Show your thinking.’” And instead, the demand or the request was for a student to show their reasoning or their thought process, typically in words or in a combination of words and pictures and equations. And so, there's where I see this idea that math is detached from language is something of a myth; that there's actually a lot of [language in] mathematics. And the interesting part of mathematics is often deeply entwined with language. So, that's my first response and thought about that. And if you look at our Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, especially those standards for mathematical practice, you see all sorts of connections to communication and to language interspersed throughout those standards. So, “create viable arguments,” that's a language practice. And even “attend to precision,” which most of us tend to think of as, “round appropriately.” But when you actually read the standard itself, it's really about mathematical communication and definitions and using those definitions with precision. So again, that's an example, bringing it right back into the school mathematics domain where language and mathematics are somewhat inseparable from my perspective here. Mike: That's really helpful. So, the second idea that I often hear is, “The best way to support multilingual learners is by focusing on facts or procedures,” and that language comes later, for lack of a ...
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    24 min
  • Season 3 | Episode 16 - Assessment as a Shared Journey: Cultivating Partnerships with Families and Caregivers - Guest: Tisha Jones

    Season 3 | Episode 16 - Assessment as a Shared Journey: Cultivating Partnerships with Families and Caregivers - Guest: Tisha Jones
    Apr 17 2025
    Tisha Jones, Assessment as a Shared Journey: Cultivating Partnerships with Families & Caregivers ROUNDING UP: SEASON 3 | EPISODE 16 Families and caregivers play an essential role in students’ success in school and in shaping their identities as learners. Therefore, establishing strong partnerships with families and caregivers is crucial for equitable teaching and learning. This episode is designed to help educators explore the importance of collaborating with families and caregivers and learn strategies for shifting to asset-based communication. BIOGRAPHY Tisha Jones is the senior manager of assessment at The Math Learning Center. Previously, Tisha taught math to elementary and middle school students as well as undergraduate and graduate math methods courses at Georgia State University. TRANSCRIPT Mike Wallus: As educators, we know that families and caregivers play an essential role in our students’ success at school. With that in mind, what are some of the ways we can establish strong partnerships with caregivers and communicate about students' progress in asset-based ways? We'll explore these questions with MLC’s [senior] assessment manager, Tisha Jones, on this episode of Rounding Up. Welcome back to the podcast, Tisha. I think you are our first guest to appear three times. We're really excited to talk to you about assessment and families and caregivers. Tisha Jones: I am always happy to talk to you, Mike, and I really love getting to share new ideas with people on your podcast. Mike: So, we've titled this episode “Assessment as a Shared Journey with Families & Caregivers,” and I feel like that title—especially the words “shared journey”—say a lot about how you hope educators approach this part of their practice. Tisha: Absolutely. Mike: So, I want to start by being explicit about how we at The Math Learning Center think about the purpose of assessment because I think a lot of the ideas and the practices and the suggestions that you're about to offer flow out of that way that we think about the purpose. Tisha: When we think about the purpose of assessment at The Math Learning Center, what sums it up best to me is that all assessment is formative, even if it's summative, which is a belief that you'll find in our Assessment Guide. And what that means is that assessment really is to drive learning. It's for the purpose of learning. So, it's not just to capture, “What did they learn?,” but it's, “What do they need?,” “How can we support kids?,” “How can we build on what they're learning?” over and over and over again. And so, there's no point where we're like, “OK, we've assessed it and now the learning of that is in the past.” We're always trying to build on what they're doing, what they've learned so far. Mike: You know, I've also heard you talk about the importance of an asset-focused approach to assessment. So, for folks who haven't heard us talk about this in the past, what does that mean, Tisha? Tisha: So that means starting with finding the things that the kids know how to do and what they understand instead of the alternative, which is looking for what they don't know, looking for the deficits in their thinking. We're looking at, “OK, here's the evidence for all the things that they can do,” and then we're looking to think about, “OK, what are their opportunities for growth?” Mike: That sounds subtle, but it is so profound a shift in thinking about what is happening when we're assessing and what we're seeing from students. How do you think that change in perspective shifts the work of assessing, but also the work of teaching? Tisha: When I think about approaching assessment from an asset-based perspective—finding the things that kids know how to do, the things that kids understand—one, I am now on a mission to find their brilliance. I am just this brilliance detective. I'm always looking for, “What is that thing that this kid can shine at?” That's one, and a different way of thinking about it just to start with. And then I think the other thing, too, is, I feel like when you find the things that they're doing, I can think about, “OK, what do I need to know? What can I do for them next to support them in that next step of growth?” Mike: I think that sounds fairly simple, but there's something very different about thinking about building from something versus, say, looking for what's broken. Tisha: For sure. And it also helps build relationships, right? If you approach any relationship from a deficit perspective, you're always focusing on the things that are wrong. And so, if we're talking about building stronger relationships with kids, coming from an asset-based perspective helps in that area too. Mike: That's a great pivot point because if we take this notion that the purpose of assessment is to inform the ways that we support student learning, it really seems like that has a major set of implications for how ...
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    20 min
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