BEYOND RIGHT OR WRONG: SUPPORTING TEACHERS IN STRENGTHS-BASED APPROACHES TO EXAMINING STUDENT WORK

Recognizing the strengths of students through their written work takes time, practice, and intentionality. In this article, we detail a set of questions that can be used to purposefully engage with student written work in a strengths-based way. Derived from the exploration of experienced mathematics educators’ mathematical knowledge for teaching quadratic functions, the questions place value on student thinking while providing the opportunity for teachers to enhance and extend their own mathematical knowledge for teaching. Mathematics leaders can use these questions to facilitate meaningful learning experiences for teachers, professional learning communities, and large group professional development activities.