Book 3: “Lia y Luís: ¿Quién tiene más? / Lia & Luis: Who Has More?” by Ana Crespo
Preparation for lesson: teacher prep periods
- Identify students who needed support building a math identity: students who struggled with anxiety and engagement, and students who had not met language acquisition targets.
- Adjust my own expectations and establish an environment where student processing time is the ability I support, rather than an immediate answer to satisfy the intervention’s projected outcomes.
- Using Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s concept of “empathy for our mutual learning process” (1997), students were not singularly on the hook for an answer.
Preparation for activity: 30 minutes including story
- Students were able to discuss the story with each other, and revisit the problem, solution, and sequence of events.
- Students led each other to conclusions using the props and by referring to specific images.
- Students discussed doubts about what objects could really fit into containers with different volumes.
- Using the “nonviolent communication” method, I modeled problem-posing and finding solutions as an act that does not have to be done alone.
Extension of lesson:
- Students immediately recognized who brought the same snack, but in a different container.
- Intervention participants compared a snack bag to a takeout container, both full of pretzels.
- Students without a snack were provided one thanks to donations from room parents.
racial justice in early math 