When we take the time to engage in 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 to 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.
When it comes to math, I feel like I am heard and understood. The conversations that we have in math are really helpful and are simply explained. I was not so good at long division when I first started, but now the fog is clearing and I am really getting better at it. I appreciate having the ability to ask classmates questions and being able to explain our thinking to each other. Like they say, it's about the journey, not the destination. - LoonDog1
Our class math conversations help us improve our understanding of math because sometimes I don't understand what we are doing, so it helps to keep the conversation going. On the 16th, I really just didn't understand our area model division work, but I heard @TennisMan18 say, "It's not the same. It's division." and it made so much more sense after that. My teacher also told me that we could talk the problem out with someone so I worked with some classmates. They also helped me understand it better. I want to give a shout-out to @Gummy_Worm, @TennisMan18, and @TheRing for all the help the gave me. - @SODA
Our math conversations help us improve our individual math skills. One of our recent conversations about multiplication word problems was a noisy conversation, but it was noisy for a good reason because we were really helping each other out. - @PotatoPie
Our conversations about math over the last few weeks have helped make so much more sense out of multiplication and division. During the first week, I didn't understand it at all. Then, in the second week, we started partner work and it started to make more sense. My partner was encouraging me to stick with it until I got the hang of it and she helped me through it. Four hands are definitely better than two. - @CookieDog
Our conversations about math are helping me improve my understanding of multiplication and division because I am more likely to get it right if I slow down and talk it out with a peer. - @Rosita
Our conversations about math help us improve our understanding of math in a way that lets the light bulb in my head go DING! It's so easy to make sense of anything we talk about and it's not just our teachers that help make sense of it, it's other students like @ApplePie, @TennisMan18, @DollyParton101, and @SODA. - @RUFF!!
Our conversations about math are amazing. My teachers make me feel special and important. When I have questions, they answer them in a way that I understand. We are able to talk it out. Just the other day, we were going over multiplication word problems and thanks to our discussions, I knew how to break it down and solve it. I also want to give shout outs to @ApplePie and @RUFF!! because they helped me understand math better when they share their thoughts and strategies. - @DollyParton101
Our conversations about math help us understand math better because when you listen to others' ideas, you can see how to do something from a "different angle". If you only use your own strategies, you stay single-minded. Listening to other strategies helps you know how to do things in different ways. Math without collaboration is like a fish out of water. - @TennisMan18
Since the beginning of the school year, we have had many conversations about math that really bring our understanding of math to a new level. The conversations about double-digit multiplication really, really helped me. The conversations are the reason I know how to do it. - @ApplePie
The conversations about division helped me improve my understanding because I did not realize that you could use a multiplication chart to help with division. -@Fortnite
Understanding math is one of life's biggest challenges. Lately, we have been talking, checking, and working with each other. I had a misunderstanding this week and @ApplePie showed me what I was doing wrong. It's a good experience when you can learn from each other. Anyone can achieve as long as they have friends to guide them. - @SecretPie
Our conversations about math along with working in partners helps me understand math better. In fact, @ribbet was actually the one who taught me how to do long division. He helped me with a few problems and then said, "Try this one on your own." - @HockeyGirl14
Our math conversations help us build our understanding and see our mistakes as chances to grow. It's good for us and helps us become better mathematicians. - @Avocado234
It feels good to collaborate in math because I like to work together. Working together makes me really think about what I am doing and I like talking out hard problems with other people. It helps me improve my math skills. - @Oreo17
Our conversations about math help me improve my understanding of math because my teachers and friends help me understand math really well. During RTI, my friends and I usually do math problems on the whiteboard tables and the conversations that we have have gone a long way to help me understand math better. - @ribbet
Our conversations about math help us improve our understanding of math because we ask questions and share answers. It's good to share your strategies so that if you have one strategy that doesn't work, there's always another one to try. - @TheGK15
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