People use mathematics to make sense out of the world and to communicate what they think and know.
This new, language-oriented view of mathematics calls for some changes in our vision of teaching and learning. It seems reasonable, then, to look at the best theory and practice already developed for language education - and think about applying those principles to our teaching of mathematics. One method which has been extraordinarily successful in many language arts classrooms is the reading and writing workshop. In this article, I want to discuss how I have adapted and translated some principles and techniques of workshop to my own sixth-grade mathematics classroom. The following assumptions have guided me in my own explorations of the mathematics workshop.