Five Major Reasons That Talk Is Critical to Teaching and Learning

2. Five Major Reasons That Talk Is Critical to Teaching and Learning • Talk can reveal understanding and misunderstanding. • Talk supports robust learning by boosting memory. • Talk supports deeper reasoning. • Talk supports language development. • Talk supports development of social skills.

3. Strategies for Encouraging High-Quality Student Interaction

4. The Use of Rich math tasks • Tasks with multiple solutions and/or strategies • Opportunities to explain and justify their strategies and reasoning • Tasks with simple operations and simple solutions with provide little or no opportunity to engage.

5. Justification of Solutions • Encourage productive argumentation and justifications in class discussions • Justify strategies, not recount procedures

6. Students Questioning One Another • Provide students with higher-order question prompt cards with a range of higher-order questions • Use question stems that could be applied to current content such as “how are ... and ... similar?”

7. Use of guidelines for math-talk • Explain:“This is my solution/strategy….”“I think _______ is saying that …” • Explain your thinking and show your thinking. • Rephrase what another student has said. • Agree with reason:“I agree because…” • Agree with another student and describe your reason for agreeing. • Agree with another student and provide an alternate explanation. • Disagree with reason:“I disagree because …” • Disagree with another student and explain or show how your thinking/ solution differs. • Build on:“I would like to build on that idea…” • Build on the thinking of another student through explanation, example, or demonstration. • Go Beyond:“This makes me think about…”“Another way to think about this is…” • Extend the ideas of other students by generalizing or linking the idea to another concept.

8. Teach as Facilitator

9. Accountability & Assessment • Hot Seat Questioning: teacher calls on one student to summarize another student’s thinking. • Secret Student: Teacher selects on secret student. If that student is on task when the teacher checks on him/her the whole class gets a point. • Mini White Boards • Thumbs Up, Thumps Down • ADCD Cards/Corners • Exit Passes with “Why” Questions • Group Quiz

10. Productive Partners How students can be expected to act during partnered academic discussions 4 L's • Look at your partner • Lean toward your partner • Lower your voice • Listen attentively

11. Sample Strategies for Precision PartneringHow teachers can present partnered discussion expectations to students • Students will be split into A/B partners, consider ability when pairing. • Discuss prompt/question • Students will read answer to their partner. Should be read with expression. • Teacher will indicate when it is time for different partner to share. • Listen to partner's idea, make eye contact and have a pleasant facial expression. Write down partner's idea. • Students are expected to always be on task. If students have extra time, they will share a second answer or simply repeat their first. • . Be an “Idol” not “Idle”, if students are not on task, they will be the first group called on to report out in the whole group discussion. • Whole class discussion (various structures for student accountability)

12. Sample Discussion Sentence Starters • To share new ideas... • What if we tried __________________________? • I have another approach to the problem. • How about _________________? • Here's another possibility. We could _________________? • To disagree respectfully... • That is a good approach to the problem, but what about _________________? • I understand what you're saying but __________________? • I am not sure that will work because __________, what if we tried _________?

13. To help clarify ideas... • Could you explain what you mean by (other person's idea here) ? • Could you explain that another way? • What part of the problem is hard to understand? • What can we do (what do we need to know) to clear up our confusion? • To summarize ideas already shared... • I hear you saying ___________, is that right?(Name) suggested that _______________. • What do the rest of you think? • I like (Name)'s idea that _________________.

14. Number Talks • The order of number talks has been selected based on the problems simplicity and its ability to elicit conversation: • Middle Grades – 5 Days of simple algorithms – focus on 1 talk move per day. Week 1: • Algorithms – beginning with simple problems for your grade level, moving towards inequalities and comparisons.

15. Number Talks • Equalities – with out variables initially. With variables (missing values) next. • Number Lines – Bars, grids and graphs • Verbal – number trains • Number Translations – models • Creating a 6-10 minute ritual each day. Repeating, practicing and modeling the communication expectations will go a long way in opening up shy students, E.L. students and unfocused/unmotivated students.

16. Number Talks • Series of number talks with a common theme across grade levels (primary, upper elementary, middle school) • Rich enough to produce continued discussion • Emphasis is on reasoning of understanding, not solving the problem – “defend work” • http://www.sandi.net/page/33501 EXAMPLE: Number line theme

17. Sample Number Talk • Alex says that 5/8 is always to the left of ½ on a number . Cecilia says 5/8 is always to the right of ½ in a number line. Who is correct and why? ½ 0 1

18. Resources • Articles & Information • www.mathsolutions.com • Number Talks • http://www.sandi.net/page/33501