Once the school year is under way, it is important to revisit the established norms in order to maintain the quality of conversations. Why did the teacher allow students to evaluate the correctness of Julie’s answer? There are many popular strategies for these kinds of conversations, each … It is also important to carefully consider the best ways to coordinate student interaction in pairs, small groups, or whole-class interactions to ease transitions and maximize learning. When done in a collaborative and supportive learning environment, this can support achievement of higher order thinking skills, as required by the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice. Carefully crafted questions such as the following can help guide these discussions: In summary, how successfully a teacher facilitates a discussion drives how mathematically rigorous the work is for students. Our challenges and opportunities are shared and it’s never been easier, or more important to make a difference. Students need to be taught how to agree and disagree and how to ask questions for clarification. Her goal is to donate 1,000 pennies. Show Notes. In classroom discussions, students work with multiple ideas and have to balance new ideas with their original conclusions. It’s been a beneficial activity and helps students develop confidence while communicating their thinking. To keep it simple, accountable talk is when students are actively engaged in conversations through listening, responding, agreeing, and disagreeing with each other. Download your free copy here. Video. Requiring at least two strategies builds independence in verifying their own solutions and jump-starts students’ ideas for discussion. This strategy is instrum… Is _______’s strategy an efficient way to solve this problem? “Facilitating Productive Discussions.” Teaching Children Mathematics. It helps them learn how to have deeper conversations with each other! Classroom observations: What should the teacher be doing? Students and teachers acknowledging and discussing errors and the reasons behind them to help students build greater understanding. They also must have an understanding of pedagogy, or how students learn, particularly across the diverse learning environments we see today. Teachers know it is not enough to be proficient in the subject area they are teaching. Teachers can use this information to determine areas of confusion or frustration in order to decide when an intervention might be needed. Math question stems and conversation starters are a useful tool for engaging your students in talking about the math that they are working on in your classroom. Establish a safe environment where students can take risks and where there are norms for classroom discussions. Grand Conversations in the Junior Classroom Author: Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat Subject: supporting classroom dialogue Keywords: importance of oral language, accountable talk, conversation and higher level comprehension skills, types of classroom conversations … Accessed at: www.corestandards.org/assets/ccssi-introduction.pdf. Students who are English speakers also require support as they learn the language of mathematics. By the time I got home, I was really determined to make it a regular habit to encourage math talk, so I decided to do some research. Classroom discussions are a perfect place to develop students’ ability to use textual evidence. Can you think of a counter example? Ultimately, mathematical tasks should be worthy of student discussion and emphasize important mathematical concepts. For instance, consider the following problem: Anna is collecting pennies for a school-wide penny drive. This gives students practice constructing arguments, providing justifications, and critiquing the thinking of others. She has 357 pennies saved in the first week and 225 pennies saved in the second week. Indicators of Instructional Conversation. Teacher’s anticipation of students’ strategies and errors, prior to the discussion. One approach to giving students the information needed for a mathematics lesson involves the teacher simply telling the students what they need to know. Walk into one and you’ll likely see: Facilitating student engagement in mathematical discourse begins with the decisions teachers make when they plan classroom instruction. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions, December 2013. “Keys to Productive Discussions in the Math Classroom.” Making the Common Core Come Alive! The first step is setting the expectation that every student will contribute to the discourse community. Sentence stems and silent gestures are two techniques for streamlining math conversations in your classroom. I will need to hear _______ explain how _________ again. But we all know that setting the groundwork for conversations about thinking and learning can be tricky. Students reaching and justifying conclusions based on their own mathematics knowledge without relying on the authority of teachers. For more on Curriculum Associates, check out: Dr. Gladis Kersaint is the Dean of the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut and an author of the Ready® Mathematics and Ready® Classroom Mathematics programs from Curriculum Associates. By doing this, teachers motivate and encourage students and facilitate productive discussion, fostering a supportive classroom culture that maximizes learning. Teachers need to monitor progress as students engage in mathematics discussions, supporting them as their mathematical knowledge grows and they become more skilled at expressing ideas coherently and using vocabulary, syntax, and semantics precisely. Students benefit greatly from learning to use the tools of mathematical discourse—including words, symbols, diagrams, physical models, and technology—to present and defend their ideas. Equally important is that students know how to listen to the thinking of others, and pose questions and counter examples as a way of deepening their mathematical understanding. Share. In classrooms where there is high-quality mathematical discourse, teachers and students ask challenging and thought-provoking questions, and there is skillful facilitation of meaningful discussions focused on the mathematics. For instance, the teacher might ask the student who is sharing: Questions to ask the rest of the class might be: Promote student reflection on the different strategies. The tasks they use, the ways in which they organize the classroom, and the behaviors they model communicate expectations for classroom norms, including the ways students are expected to engage in classroom discussions. Depending on prior experiences, students might find these new expectations for engagement uncomfortable and may not be ready to plunge into mathematical dialogue feet first. All rights reserved. Facilitate the sharing of strategies with the whole class. These conversations involve students explaining their mathematical thinking while working with others to complete tasks. I'm interested in hearing more about Getting Smart's: Website AdsPodcast AdsSponsored PostsSponsored NewslettersOther. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions, 2009. The third Standard for Mathematical Practice places a strong emphasis on meaningful discourse. English words with a different meaning in mathematics, such as “negative,” “table,” or “rational.”, Specialized terms, such as “hypotenuse” or “trapezoid.”, Terms with multiple meanings in mathematics, such as “median” or “base.”, Ways to read and interpret symbolic representations. Once the task has been designed, the teacher must be ready to handle the different strategies that the students will propose. Rigelman, Nicole. Miller, Kirsten. A powerful instructional move after students have heard the thinking of others is to send them back to work in partners or in small groups to reflect on the arguments of others. Why or why not? Children's ideas about mathematics should be discussed with all … Meaningful math conversations are more than just exchanges of ideas. In order to help students summarize and understand their thinking as well as the thinking of others, it is essential to provide opportunities for students to “turn and talk” about their ideas. By making these predictions in advance of the class discussion, teachers will have a clear sense of the critical “look-fors” as the students are working and an idea of how they wish to shape the classroom discussion. Accessed at: www.insidemathematics.org/index.php/commmon-core-math-intro. Does this look like a classroom dialogue you’ve seen before? Submit your name and email and we will follow up with you shortly to see how we can work together. Practice, Practice, Practice. Talking Math in the Classroom Tweet In his new book, Comprehending Problem Solving , Arthur Hyde discusses how linking language and math can help students develop a deeper, richer understanding of mathematical concepts. It could be student-to-student, student-to-teacher, students-to-students, and even a … In this standard, students are expected to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. You can learn a great deal about what it takes to understand the ideas of others. Teachers should focus on assigning mathematical tasks that are appropriately challenging and enhance students’ learning. Do you agree with ______? The following keys can help teachers ensure that the discourse in their mathematics classrooms is rich and extends the learning of students. Preplanning thought-provoking questions will ensure a high level of intellectual engagement during the lesson. 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