Diane continued to use diagrams through
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out the year to examine various concepts with
her students. In her grade-level meetings, dis
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cussions focused on the concepts of multipli
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cation, division, fractions, their properties, con
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nections, and what understandings students can
develop from different approaches to these con
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cepts. The teachers were especially interested in
looking at the area model for multiplication on
graph paper and considered how this model
could be used to examine fractions and division
as well. Towards the end of the first year when
I visited Diane’s class, I found the students hav
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ing a lively discussion about products and fac
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tors using overhead graph paper. As Diane asked
her students various questions and demon
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strated their answers on the overhead by draw
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ing rectangles, she brought in very naturally re
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lated questions about fractions and division.
Afterward Diane said that these questions on
connections between topics “just popped out”
now after the grade-level discussions. Towards
the end of the second year of the project, Diane
wrote the following words about her work.