Reflection of a moment that I would like to change:

A moment of my teaching that I would like to improve for the future occurred
after the class had finished discussing the idea of the flexibility of the zero point, and how
we can use the broken ruler by changing the numbers to be 0, 1, 2. A student raised his
hand and shared his thinking about how you could try to extend the broken ruler, by
adding on a centimeter to the front or end of the broken ruler.
At this moment I chose to say So you could try extending the ruler, youre
saying you could try to draw in your own ruler if you measure another centimeter to the
front or the back, where it is broken (...) as long as you make sure the measurement is
accurate, ok.
If I were to replay this moment I might say, I understand what you are saying,
but do we need to do this, do we need to fill in our broken ruler? Or, can we try what
Eddy said and replace the numbers on the ruler to be 0, 1, 2? If we do that we need to try
to remake the broken part, or can we instead use what we have?
By asking questions like that I would have pushed the students thinking about the
flexibility of the zero point. During the lesson I simply took his contribution, but it didnt
help target the instructional goal or move his thinking towards that goal. By asking
questions and trying to orient the student towards the goal I would have been challenging
his understanding and helping him think about the content target.