I love this quote from Cathy Seeley, shared today on twitter from an NCSM talk.

“Protecting students from (the right kind of) struggling is one of the worst ways we treat students inequitably.”

I so agree! All of our students need opportunities to work through struggles.  If we ask questions, listen carefully to students’ ideas, and have them discuss their thinking with each other, we can provide prompts that help them access their prior knowledge and make sense of unfamiliar problems.

As an example, I am sharing some pages  from Penguins on Parade.   The teacher, Ms. Green, helps her primary students learn to work through struggles with unfamiliar tasks.  First she asks her students to think about an imaginary parade of penguins.

In a few pages, Jayden has a suggestion.  Ms. Green asks her students to try to work with partners and figure out how to count in an unfamiliar way.

Trevor reluctantly works with Zoe, trying to use the ten frames to count the penguins by tens starting from 8.  As Zoe adds tens they count by ones and she records each subtotal in a list.  Then we see them talking about whether they are counting by tens.

Once they share their work with the class, another student sees their pattern and figures out that 48 will be next.  The students work together to check and see that 48 is correct.  Then they continue to try to use the pattern and discuss why it works.

The discussion continues.  These primary students are learning to reason about mathematics, providing a model for students and teachers.  They are learning to work through accessible (the right kind of) struggles without their teacher giving them too much protection!