When we take the time to have rich and meaningful conversations (productive dialogue) about our math experiences, and encourage students to participate, we're nurturing a supportive culture of questioning, reflection, and understanding.
One of the key factors in math achievement involves supporting math language development. This includes asking critical questions, encouraging students to seek clarity, and accepting our failures as opportunities for real growth. In doing this, we're motivating and encouraging students to work together to facilitate productive mathematical conversations. Engaging in meaningful mathematical discourse offers students an opportunity to reflect on their math knowledge and understanding, make connections with prior knowledge, identify patterns, hone in on their reasoning skills, and develop their higher order thinking skills. As teachers, it allows us to observe and evaluate their mathematical understanding and development so that we can better support their math growth as we address gaps in student understanding and refine and redirect their approaches to reasoning and problem-solving.
Students are enjoying the opportunities to present their ideas and mathematical strategies with one another. As they seek out, listen to, and value the ideas and perspectives of others, they are able to maximize their own learning while supporting the growth and achievements of others. This is one example of what taking ownership of mathematical knowledge looks and feels like in The Hive.
This week's guest bloggers reflect on these experiences. Enjoy.
Math conversations help me improve in math because we get new ideas about math when we talk it out. It also helps me think differently and in new ways. It's really helpful to share math strategies. - Blocky
I think the conversations we have about math are a good way to understand different strategies. It allows us to see what's going on inside each other's brains when we think about math. - EarthySmurf
Having conversations about math helps me learn about math in different ways and it makes math more interesting. I like math talks. - G-Money
I think our conversations about math help us improve our understanding of math A LOT. For example, I was having a really hard time with bar models and forgetting how to set them up. When someone came up to the board and showed the class their work and how they set up their bar model, I think that helped all of us. - Cheeto111
Talking about math is one of the ways that we we help each other in The Hive. - Elizabeth_Schuyler
Our conversations about math help us improve our understanding of math. For example, yesterday we had a "ripple effect". I shared something about how I worked out a problem and then a classmate piggybacked on that and in the end, we all learned something new from sharing and talking about our math strategies. - Pineapple
Our conversations about math are helpful. For example, I thought I knew my math facts pretty well, but then a classmate showed us a simpler way to learn our facts and it's so much easier for me now. - Pickle03
I think conversations about math help us share our strategies with each other. Sometimes some strategies are quicker and better than others, but people can make their own choices about the strategy that works best for them. - Recycle14
When we were sharing our bar models, I liked how lots of people got to share. One day, we were at the beginning of a math conversation about bar models and I thought I knew EVERYTHING. By the time the last person finished sharing, I knew a lot more than I did before we started. I learned that you can never know everything. There is always something new to learn. That's what I love about The Hive. - WowWriter
Our math conversations help me a lot. One time, a classmate had a strategy that taught us how to check our work. This has helped me a lot with my own math work. Another time, a classmate came up to the board to show how to make sense of word problems and it really helped me. - Dream
Conversations about math can help you see how other people think about math and so it helps you understand math better. When you hear someone explain how they were thinking about a math problem and how they solved it, it can help you understand how to solve it yourself. - GoatLover
Sources:
Curtis, Jeannie. “More Talking in Math Class, Please.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 31 Oct. 2017, https://www.edutopia.org/article/more-talking-math-class-please.
Audrey Jones, et al. “Let's Talk Math! Implementing Math Talk in the Classroom.” Mrs. Winter's Bliss, 23 Sept. 2020, https://mrswintersbliss.com/math-talk-in-the-classroom/.
“Talking Math: How to Engage Students in Mathematical Discourse.” Getting Smart, 29 Sept. 2015, https://www.gettingsmart.com/2015/09/29/talking-math-how-to-engage-students-in-mathematical-discourse/.
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