I want to start with a sentence that has been living in my head all year:

Struggle is learning.
Drowning is not.

The longer I teach, the more important I think that distinction becomes.

As math teachers, we know students need opportunities to struggle. They need to wrestle with ideas, make mistakes, try strategies, and work through challenges.

That’s where learning happens. But I think sometimes the conversation around productive struggle gets oversimplified. Not all struggle leads to learning.
Sometimes students are challenged, and sometimes students are overwhelmed.

Knowing the difference is one of the hardest parts of teaching.

What Does Productive Struggle Actually Look Like?

When we talk about productive struggle, we’re talking about students doing the thinking.

They are:

• trying an idea
• testing a strategy
• discussing their reasoning
• revising their thinking
• making sense of mistakes

They may not have the answer yet, but they are engaged in the process of figuring it out.
That’s the kind of struggle we want. The kind where students are building understanding.

Drowning looks different.

Students stop engaging. They stare at the page and wait for someone else to tell them what to do. They start looking for an escape instead of a solution.

That’s where we have to pay attention.
Because our goal isn’t to remove struggle.
Our goal is to help students stay in the struggle long enough to learn.

The Two Extremes We Have to Avoid

I think education can sometimes swing between two extremes.

On one side, we rescue students too quickly. The second they get stuck, we jump in. We explain, show the steps, and give the strategy. And before students have a chance to make sense of the mathematics, we’ve taken the thinking away.

But on the other side, we can sometimes celebrate struggle so much that we forget students still need support. Students can’t learn from a challenge they don’t know how to enter. When students feel completely lost, struggle stops being productive. It becomes discouraging.

The goal is not to leave students alone with difficult math.
The goal is to give them the support they need to keep thinking.

Why Support Doesn’t Lower Rigor in Math Class

This is probably the biggest shift in my thinking this year.

Support does not lower rigor.
The right support often makes rigor possible.

Especially through teaching an inquiry-based curriculum, I’ve seen how uncomfortable it can feel when students are asked to make sense of mathematics before they’re given a procedure.

Students are thinking, questioning, trying strategies. And that process can feel messy (for both students and teachers).

But my job is not to eliminate that discomfort.
My job is to create the conditions where students can work through it.

That’s where support comes in.

Things like:

• turn and talks
• whiteboards
• random groups
• checkpoints
• reflection questions
• learning targets

These aren’t ways to make the math easier.
They are ways to help students stay engaged with challenging ideas.

There is a big difference.

The Same Task Can Create Different Experiences

One thing this year has reminded me is how much knowing our students matters.

The same task can create productive struggle for one student and complete frustration for another.
That doesn’t mean the task is wrong.

It means students come into our classrooms with different experiences, confidence levels, and beliefs about themselves as mathematicians.

Some students see a difficult problem and think:
“I can figure this out.”

Other students see the same problem and think:
“This proves I’m bad at math.”

Those are two very different experiences.

And as teachers, we have to pay attention to that.

Productive struggle is not just about the task.
It’s about the learner experiencing the task.

Relationships Help Us Know When to Push and When to Support

This is one of the biggest reasons relationships matter so much in math classrooms.

The better we know our students, the better we can understand what they need.

We can notice when a student needs:

• more time
• a different question
• a conversation with a partner
• a small piece of support
• or simply encouragement to keep going

Differentiation isn’t just about creating different assignments.
It’s about responding to the humans in front of us.
And that’s what makes teaching such complex work.

The Connection Between Struggle and Math Identity

As I’ve been preparing for our July Math Therapy book study, I’ve been thinking about this even more.

Because every student walks into our classroom carrying a story about math.

They bring:

• confidence
• frustration
• past experiences
• beliefs about their own ability

And those experiences shape how they respond when math gets hard.

For some students, struggle means:
“I’m learning something new.”

For others, struggle means:
“I’m not good at this.”

That difference matters.
And I think part of our job as math teachers is helping students rewrite that story.

Struggle is not proof that they cannot do math.
Sometimes struggle is evidence that they are doing the work of learning.

Final Reflection

If there’s one thing I’m taking away from this year, it’s this:

Students need opportunities to struggle.
But they also need teachers who know when to step in.

Not to rescue or to remove the challenge, but to provide the support that keeps learning moving forward.

Productive struggle is essential.
But drowning is not.
And finding that balance is where meaningful math learning happens.

Join the July Math Therapy Book Study

This July, we’ll be reading Math Therapy together and exploring the ways confidence, identity, mindset, and emotional experiences shape learning in math classrooms.

We’ll be talking about:

• math identity
• productive struggle
• student confidence
• math anxiety
• the emotional side of learning mathematics

Grab your copy and read along with us:

Physical book: https://amzn.to/42VJRl6

Audiobook: https://amzn.to/49nV55D

 Listen & Connect

Listen to the episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2187419/episodes/19349712
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