Let's look at a lesson based on the activity you have just seen. In this video segment, you can observe Ms. Christiansen's second-grade students as they explore the Pattern Blocks activity. Ms. Rose Christiansen is an elementary teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her students first learn about the properties of different shapes while describing them. They then extend their work to finding the ways to use different pattern blocks to cover a hexagon. They begin to consider the relationships between the pattern block pieces. Also, ideas about fractional parts begin to emerge.

Read the questions below, and keep them in mind as you watch the video. You may want to watch the video a few more times before answering each question.

• What formal and informal geometric terms and phrases do the students use?
• How does the teacher facilitate communication and the development of formal vocabulary?
• How does the teacher promote students' reflection on their own ideas and understanding?

Please watch the video excerpt now (duration 8:59) at left of Ms. Christiansen's class.

  Reflect on aspects of communication that you observed in video