Think about Evan's work and reflect on the following questions:

1. What part of the task was the student able to complete independently?

2. Where did the student "get stuck"?

3. How did the teacher's questions help the student generalize the pattern and analyze his work to prove that it would work for any number of rods?

4. Most students would not move directly from their reasoning to the symbolic notation. How could you use this as an opportunity to introduce students to algebraic notation?

5. How would you have students share their reasoning and approaches to solving this problem with their classmates? What would you listen for as students shared their reasoning and approaches? How could you tell if students could follow others' reasoning?

  See the Building Rafts with Rods problem in a real classroom