Whitin, Phyllis

Describes strategies for helping children learn about math in which students write, draw, and talk to each other about the individual ways they work through math concepts.

Presents an introduction to inquiry learning based on observations of a fourth-grade classroom over the course of one school year, sharing stories from the class as they participated in a bird-watching project that taught the skills of observing, writing, questioning, and research.

The author discusses how to use sketching in the classroom as a strategy for understanding literature, and shares her thinking as a teacher about this learning method.