The teacher's role in setting the classroom environment for the Representation Standard is similar to the other process standards. Selecting rich mathematical tasks that utilize a variety of representations is the first step. As students work to complete the task, they communicate with one another to select appropriate representations that will help them see relationships. The teacher poses questions that help students move from non-conventional to conventional representations and interpret the mathematical ideas that develop from those representations.

An additional consideration in working with various representations in the middle grades is the role of technology. Students who are developing tables and seeing patterns can apply that knowledge to a spreadsheet. As students transfer their work from their own table to a spreadsheet, they begin to think about expressions that will enable them to utilize the technology to extend their tables and generalize patterns. The use of graphing calculators also enables students to explore how changing one variable in a problem affects the outcome. Dynamic geometry software gives students opportunities to explore geometric properties with graphic representations on the computer. Technology offers multiple opportunities for students to represent and develop mathematical concepts in the middle grades.

  Summing up