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. Specific skills like adding and division are taught in the context of the students making meaning in real-life applications. Students spend time talking and writing about mathematics for real audiences for real purposes, because understanding and communication are so closely linked.
Students have a great deal of choice in what they study.
They work with the teacher to determine what investigations or reports they will work on, and what mathematical concepts those projects will involve. Within this context of real mathematics work, the teacher finds opportunities to help students develop the specific skills which they need and the curriculum requires. The teacher is a fellow learner and mathematician with the students, as well as an expert resource and coach. In summary, this classroom encourages students to work together, using mathematics to understand their world. The teacher works alongside the students, encouraging them continually to become more sophisticated in their mathematical skills and understandings, and in their ability to communicate mathematically.