Monitoring and assessing student thinking, facilitating mathematical
processes and increasing student engagement are key issues for
practicing elementary mathematics teachers. Awareness of student
thinking allows teachers to plan lessons according to zones of proximal
development and pace teaching, and group members accordingly. Awareness
also allows teachers to catch misconceptions early. This article
examines the use of Google Classroom to facilitate the mathematical
processes of communication, representation, reasoning and justification
or proof, allowing arguments to be built on prior knowledge that is
accessible and readily available and noting the particular benefit for
students of age 10-12 who benefit from shared awareness and subsequent
student calibration when sharing their thinking at this age.