Introduction

Today, we’re talking about 5 quick math talk strategies that will spark math conversations and increase engagement! 

As math teachers, we often feel like we’re talking at our students. As you know it is easy to fall into the cycle of telling students what to do and how to do it in math. But, deep down what we really want is more engagement. If we’re being honest with ourselves talking and telling our students doesn’t lead to more engagement. What we really want is to get our students talking with each other about math?

In this episode, I’ll share a few simple strategies you can use tomorrow to get your students talking, thinking, and collaborating on math problems.

What are Quick Math Talk Strategies to Spark Math Conversations?

  • Small, quick strategies that encourage student discourse and engagement
  • Why quick changes work:
    • They don’t require long prep or big shifts in your lesson plans
    • They fit into your existing routine without disrupting your flow
  • Key idea: These strategies are designed to get students interacting with each other and with the math, not just listening passively to the teacher! More engagement and deeper thinking! Win- Win!

Why Spark Math Conversations?

  • Research-based reasoning:
    • Math conversations lead to deeper understanding by allowing students to explain their thinking and learn from others
    • According to the NCTM’s Principles to Actions, “Mathematical discourse is essential for developing students’ understanding of mathematics.”
  • Benefits of sparking conversations:
    • Builds mathematical thinking and reasoning
    • Encourages students to make sense of problems
    • Develops communication skills and math vocabulary
    • Shifts the classroom from teacher-led to student-centered
  • In John Hattie’s work titled Visible Learning he ranked teaching strategies based on the impact on student learning. If anything has a value greater than .4 it has a positive impact. Discussions have a 0.82 value indicating they have a positive impact. 15th most impactful move.

How to Spark Math Conversations in 5 Minutes (6-8 minutes)]

Strategy 1: “Turn and Talk”

  • Quick set-up:
    • After posing a question, ask students to turn to a partner and discuss their thoughts for 1-2 minutes. 
    • Bonus: Assign them a turn and talk partner. That way they always know who they will turn and talk with. 
  • Why it works:
    • It gives every student a voice and gives students time to rehearse their ideas while also hearing others’ ideas. What I’ve found is that when students aren’t sure of how to answer a question hearing their partners’ ideas can spark their ideas. Also, sometimes students just take their partners ideas… and that’s okay too. It’s a learning community and we’re here to help each other understand. 
  • Example prompt for Turn and Talk:
    • How might you solve this problem in a different way? 
    • Why did he add? 

Strategy 2: Use Open Ended Prompt to Start the Discussion 

  • Quick set-up:
    • Ask a question that is OPEN and leaves space for lots of different kinds of answers. 
  • Why it works:
    • It allows students to share their ideas of what they did and explain why they did what they did. It engages everyone in THINKING and DISCUSSING their ideas. Have you ever asked a question like “Do you see why she added here?” and everyone then just kinda nods their head and mutters “yeah….” That’s what we’re trying to avoid here by asking open ended questions that welcome in students to discuss and share their ideas. 
  • Here are some examples:
    • “What do you notice about this pattern? Why do you think that’s happening?”
    • Why is this strategy effective? What makes it work? 
    • How is this the same/different from what you did to solve? 

Strategy 3: Reflection after a discussion 

  • Quick set-up:
    • Have students give a quick signal to reflect on their participation after the discussion.
  • Why it works:
    • Provides a quiet moment to process and makes it easier for students to apply what they learned from the discussion to the next problem. 
  • Example prompt:
    • Write about a strategy you could use to solve this problem. What makes it a good strategy? 
    • What is something you learned today that you could try tomorrow? 
    • Revise your work from Grapple Time based on what you learned today. 

Strategy 4: Make student work visual to discuss

  • Quick set-up:
    • Display students’ work and ask groups to discuss it.
  • Why it works:
    • Having students’ work visible makes abstract concepts more concrete and gives students a common point of reference for discussions. It gets students eyes physically up off their paper or desk and up to look at a common “text”. We do this in ELA often– we ask students to refer to the text to cite their evidence to support their claim… right? Well it works in math too. Cite your evidence in this WORK that is visibly displayed for you to check out. 
  • Here’s an example:
    • You display two different strategies– one is a 4th grader that used partial products and another that used the area model to solve the same problem. Then you ask students, “Where did the 40 x 6 come from? Where is the 40 x 6 in each of these strategies?”