Lessons that highlight representation are likely to incorporate the use of manipulative models, pictures, or drawings, along with the use of number symbols, number sentences, and written and spoken language. They center around a significant and interesting mathematical problem or investigation. In the process of thinking about the task, students may start by using one form of representation to aid their thinking and then shift to another form. These various representations help students look at the task from a variety of viewpoints to find patterns, see relationships, and make generalizations. Representations are also important tools for communicating mathematical ideas to others.

Use the information you learned in this session to plan a lesson for one of your own classes. Remember, you will need to choose a task that requires students to use various forms of representation to complete it. You may want to consider a task that incorporates the use of graphs or equations to represent data as one form of representation.

After you have created your lesson plan, use the Classroom Checklist (an Adobe PDF document) to evaluate it.

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