ABSTRACT
Diane is a fourth-grade teacher at Liverpool Elementary School in the Buckeye School District located in Valley City, Ohio. Every spring, fourth-grade students in Ohio are required to take a state proficiency exam in mathematics. To prepare for this high-stakes test, teachers typically "cover" all the mathematics concepts and terms the students will meet on the test. Diane's profile is a wonderful example of how to engage students in worthwhile tasks that connect with and invite the community into the classroom by acknowledging and honoring the culture of students. She incorporated National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM's) Principles to Action in that her goal is clearly focused on having students implement a geometric task that requires problem solving through its use of a quilt to model the concepts. She supported productive struggle through suggestions or purposeful questions that helped students apply the heuristic, "Think of a simpler problem".
