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Teachers grow from sharing their practice and receiving feedback, yet it can be difficult for teachers to welcome others into their classrooms without feeling judged. Observers need to enter teachers’ classrooms projecting respect and value for the challenging work of teaching. In this article, we share an approach to visiting classrooms, called Affirming Learning Walks, that differs in comparison to more typical learning walks, instructional rounds, or classroom observations. Affirming learning walks are hosted by teachers or administrators, conducted with other teachers, designed around eight practices known to support student achievement, and focused only on those productive practices that are present rather than on the absence of practices or areas for improvement. This approach provides an opportunity to value many of a teacher’s practices that are productive and encourages teachers to engage in more of the productive practices because they are highlighted and celebrated. 

In a cross-sectional study, 160 students in Grades 2, 4, 7, and 11 were interviewed about their reasoning when solving integer addition and subtraction open-number sentence problems. We applied our previously developed framework for 5 Ways of Reasoning (WoRs) to our data set to describe patterns within and across participant groups. Our analysis of the WoRs also led to the identification of 3 problem types: change-positive, all-negatives, and counterintuitive. We found that problem type influenced student performance and tended to evoke a different way of reasoning. We showed that those with more experience with negative numbers use WoRs more flexibly than those with less experience and that flexibility is correlated with accuracy. We provide 3 types of resources for educators: (a) WoRs and problem-types frameworks, (b) characterization of flexibility with integer addition and subtraction, and (c) development of a trajectory of learning about integers.