Supporting Students' Math Talk

This post continues the series centering on building a math community.  When starting a new school year with a new group of math students, as you start to have math discussions, it's the perfect time to introduce prompts to support student conversations.

In reading, students regularly turn and talk.  They learn to use sentence stems to grow a reading conversation.  Some favorites that I hear the students use include: "I can add on...", "This connects with...", "A different idea I have is...".  Why do we use these in reading?  They offer the students an entry point, a way to get started on their conversation.

This same structure is essential in math.  It's not easy for many young mathematicians to verbalize their thinking.  The use of prompts gives students a way to start or respond.

During the early days in math, introducing math talk prompts requires continuous modeling.  Then students need to practice using them.  It takes time, but it's time well spent.  As the prompts are introduced they can be displayed on a class chart and even taped onto students' math notebooks as tools for their conversations.  Like all new routines. with time the prompts become a natural part of the class' math conversations.  And the reward is deeper math discussions!

When students start to use the prompts freely, compliment them.  This will inspire others to use them more, too.  Some students may create their own sentence starters.  Add their ideas to the list.

What are some strategies you use to grow math conversations in your classroom?  Share your ideas.  We all learn from each other.