This study examined the ways in which elementary mathematics methods course activities, designed as representations, decomposition, and approximations of practice, can be used to develop prospective elementary teachers’ ability to organize a discussion. The authors found that the activities resulted in 21 prospective elementary teachers who in addition, focused their goal on extending student thinking and 12 whose goal also intended to address making connections within and between strategies. Prospective elementary teachers’ justifications for their selecting of student work revealed an interesting result. The majority of prospective elementary teachers had set a goal for the discussion of introducing strategies or having students use strategies.