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I believe the story the student mentions is "Something from Nothing" by Phoebe Gilman.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/887573.Something_from_Nothing

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Fabulous post! As near as I can see (my field is language and literacy) your pedagogical perspective is very much aligned with cutting edge research in math education. This kind of opening classroom doors for collaborative reflective analysis and opening the room to discussion and agency turns the table on cookbooks and recipes. It’s heartening to see the dedication and clarity of your mission—and the substantive contribution you are making. Thank you!

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Love this Desmos lesson! Ruch's student-centered conversational approach invites all learners into the math at the opening of the lesson. She effectively draws students in by asking them to share experiences or traditions from their families as well as their opinions about what they will need to think about when making a quilt, such that there is something for everyone to ponder and share. I am curious about what happened later: what approaches did she use to support persistence in modeling with systems of inequalities?

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Love the thought put into this lesson and the connection to children's literature. I also see where I would have started the lesson the same way, several years ago, but now would have the students up and meeting in groups to do the the discussion piece and bringing their thoughts back after they worked together so that there is less guidance in the discussion and more student agency and participation. Follow up with having several books about quilts available for students to view and discuss which would hopefully lead to more discussion before they returned to the individual assignment of creating their own quilt using the patterns and symmetry they would have discussed. The work and background work that Amanda Ruch did was very evident though.

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