We build on the idea of “approximations of practice” to describe our sequence of activities that starts with a mathematics learning experience and leads teachers through activities that lead teachers ever closer to classroom practice.
Learning Math: Teachers engage in a curriculum experience and learn to make arguments themselves, and facilitators model good teaching moves.
Identifying and Generating Moves: Teachers identify moves by acting out “scripts” of classroom dialogue or generate moves in a shared document.
Teaching Games: Teachers try out and practice a small set of moves in structured role-play games in a safe environment.
Visualization Planning: In pairs, teachers envision how a lesson will go, talk aloud about that, while a partner actively listens and annotates a basic lesson plan. Potential student responses and teaching moves are emphasized.
Classroom teaching: All these stages lead to the classroom door.