Math is Figure-Out-Able!

Does inquiry mean leaving students to their own devices? In this episode Pam and Kim share their thoughts on the debate teaching reasoning vs. teaching procedures.

Talking Points:

• We all want what's best for students
• Sometimes educators talk past each other, using words without examples to give meaning
• Experiencing mathing is different from helping students learn to do the mental actions of mathing
• Is there a continuu...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on August 6, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, a...

How can teachers help students be more sophisticated additive reasoners? In this episode Pam and Kim discuss the major addition strategies, what properties they use, and how to model student thinking.

Talking Points:

• Addition strategies and models
• Addition strategies modeled with equations
• Proporties that the addition strategies are based on
• When manipulatives are appropriate
• Why teachers need to own the major strategies ad...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on July 30, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

If your only focus is answer getting, students may never experience and grapple with and understand multiplicative properties. In this episode Pam and Kim discuss how to use models to help students progress to more sophisticated strategies using multiplicative properties.

Talking Points:

• Modelling different strategies on area models, ratio tables, and equations
• Using models to visualize properties
• Strategies that use the ...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on July 23, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

How does proportional thinking prepare students for reasoning with variables? In this episode Pam and Kim explore the transition from proportional reasoning to functional reasoning.

Talking Points:

• Connecting proportional reasoning to linear functions
• Scaling triangles
• Proportions "within" and "between"
• Introducing tricks stifles students' opportunity to build sophisticated reasoning 
• Rich task with...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on July 16, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

Should you require student's to show their work in mathematics? Whose work? When? How much work? For what purpose? In this episode Pam and Kim discuss classroom culture and the importance of communication in mathematics, diving into these questions and more.

Talking Points:

• Whose work are you asking student to show?
• Motivations for showing work
• Don't fix the math, mentor the mathematician - Cathy Fosnot
• Communica...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on July 9, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, aut...

How can Problem Strings help build big ideas? In this episode Pam and Kim walk through a Problem String that helps students dig into area and multiplicative equivalence and help you know how to expertly facilitate.

Talking Points:

• Facilitating the string
• Teacher moves during the string
• Modeling the string
• Equal products means total area is the same
• Why we want students to have lots of experience with concepts rather than ju...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on July 2, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, aut...

How does a Problem String look in front of real students? In this episode Pam and Kim give a play by play for how a Problem String could be facilitated.

Talking Points:

• When to circulate and when to ask for choral response
• Helping students communicate thinking
• How and when to engage students in conversations
• When to anchor strategies
• When to be intentionally curious to solidify thinking

Check out our grade level Problem...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on June 25, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

What if finding equivalence between fractions, decimals, and precents wasn't just a task for students to do, but a tool making them more efficient in rational number computations? In this episode Pam and Kim talk about code switching with rational numbers to make complex problems more figure-out-able.

Talking Points:

• What is code switching in rational numbers?
• A Problem String using equivalence to think about multip...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on June 18, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

Five years of important conversations, lots of laughs and a blooper every once in a while. In this episode Pam and Kim revisit some important moments of the podcast from the last 5 years.

Talking Points:

• Clips from the past 5 years!
• Types of questioning
• Student compliance 
• Problem Strings vs Problem Talks
• Math distortions
• Wait time and Private signals

Check out our social media
Twitter: @PWHarris
Instagram: Pam H...

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on June 11, 2025. 

Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.

Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

Twitter: @PWHarris

Instagram: Pam Harris_math

Facebook: Pam Harris, au...

How can you get the most out of I Have, You Need in your classroom? In this podcast Pam and Kim answer some common questions and dig deeper into one of their favorite routines, I Have You Need.
Talking Points:

• Do cars speak the language of fractions?
• I Have, You Need (See also Ep 7 and 164)
• Why it is helpful to know partners of 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.
• Common misconceptions
• Why it is important for the teacher to call the numbers
• Is...