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Structured Talk, Positive Classroom Discussions

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Structured Talk, Positive Classroom Discussions

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We ROEL Kinder Teachers developed a Structured Talk poster to specifically discuss norms with our Kinders. We developed a simple sentence frame to use, which ties-in with the learning objectives for the day.

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The video had great information not just about how valuable the discourse between the students was for the students, but also that it provided the teacher a time to listen to the students. When the kids are talking to each other the teacher can hear what the students are thinking and make a decision on what direction to head in their teaching.

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Most feedback in music happens on the spot. After a few lessons, I noticed some techniques students should be mindful of. I have this on my PowerPoint to help remind myself on how to give feedback related to these areas throughout the lesson.

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Building rapport with students in music class

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Building rapport with students in music class

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We really like the clear visual of using students to model the activity.  It is something that we can do more of.  There seems to be few students, and no behavior problems, which would obviously change this activity.  We like singing songs that model through words and actions the lesson objective. We will have to create some for various math activities.

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This is a delightful example of Kinder appropriate teaching.  Decomposing numbers is a pretty finite skill, but the models used are clear and involving for the students.  Making sure that student selection for participation is fair would be important.  The model lesson does not have many students, or even behavior issues...  

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This is a delightful example of Kinder appropriate teaching.  Decomposing numbers is a pretty finite skill, but the models used are clear and involving for the students.  Making sure that student selection for participation is fair would be important.  The model lesson does not have many students, or even behavior issues...  

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Review the slides. Then focus on slides 10 and 11 and plan another week in Journeys with focus on the language function.  Instead of putting the "closing" information in the chat, please post here on the Padlet.

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K-2 Teachers: From 10:00-11:45 you are responsible for your own learning. On the padlet you will see different possibilities for how you may spend your time this morning. You may choose to work alone or with your grade level. The number of activities you choose is really dependent how long you spend on each one;  some will take longer than others. Make sure to post on the padlet so that that everyone can learn from each other.  Megan and Russ look forward to seeing what you worked on.

To post in a section: click on the plus (+). This will allow you to comment, add a picture, link a google doc and more. Then click the hot pink PUBLISH button. If you need to edit your post, click on the "snowman" (3 dots) in the upper right corner.

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Explore Classroom Central

1) Download and print any of the: Recognize, Celebrate and Encourage materials that you would like to use in your classroom. Post a reflection below about which ones you chose and how you intend to use them.

OR

2) View any of the recorded webinars. Post a short synopsis of the webinar here.

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Spend some time in the Teacher Toolbox. Print at least 5 lessons that you intend to use during your Core intruction or ATI instruction time this month. Once they are printed, scan them in an email to Megan with a brief email about why those 5 lessons were selected.

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Select one of the online courses offered. Before you start: create (on paper or Google Doc) a KWL chart. Record what you already know about the topic (K) , what you want to learn about the topic (W---questions), and while you are watching record your new learning. (L)

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Read this article.
The speaking and listening posters are excellent check-lists for students to self-assess their discourse abilities. Print out the one for your grade level and make a plan of how you will refer to the poster in next week's lesson plans. Give a short synopsis of your plan below.

OR:
Create a desk-top "reference" appropriate for your grade-level that includes several key discourse prompts. Print them and share a copy here.

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It has been difficult for me to learn how to stimulate vibrant discussions about mathematics among students. I realized very early in my teaching career that in order to get students engaged in mathematical discourse I needed to foster community in the classroom, help students feel safe expressing ideas, and demonstrate that math can be fun! In this article, you can also download a series of prompts you can use to improve student interaction in your classroom.

I've also learned throughout my teaching career that mathematics discourse does not happen overnight. Each semester I get new students- many of them come from teacher-directed mathematics classrooms where discourse wasn't a focal point of the curriculum. Then there are the students who have experience with mathematical discourse, but still have difficulty putting their thoughts into words.

So how can educators improve and promote quality classroom discourse?

How to Improve Mathematical Discourse in the Classroom

Step 1: Review the Importance of Mathematical Discourse

Participating in mathematical discourse has long been identified as an essential component of students' mathematics learning. In fact, being able to communicate mathematics is so important it is included in both the Common Core State Standards and The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.

When students engage in conversations, what they say reveals a number of things. It exposes their level of understanding about a mathematical topic. It shows whether they can listen to and react to their classroom colleagues-a critical skill for their future workplaces. It helps them learn to develop arguments, one of the key standards for mathematical practice. And it gives you, the teacher, valuable information about where they might be struggling.

To promote quality mathematics discussions, students need to understand why discourse is important.

Students need to be reminded that communication is helpful for understanding mathematical concepts. They need reassurance that although it can be unnerving to participate in discussions about mathematics, it is beneficial to their learning!

Step 2: Establish a Community

Establishing a learning environment that welcomes student involvement is the key to engaging students in discourse.

First and foremost, it's important to create an atmosphere where students are celebrated for their inquiries and are encouraged to comment. If students know the classroom is a safe space to communicate in, they will be more willing to discuss math with their peers during discourse.

Additionally, teachers need to promote a learning community where students are active listeners. Active listening is an important component of any classroom, but in the math classroom it is crucial to comprehension! Without active listening, students will not be able to critique the reasoning of their peers or analyze how their understanding aligns with or differs from their classmates.

Finally, teachers need to set the expectation that every student will contribute during math talk. Establishing expectations emphasizes that the class is a community of learners. They are all in it together!

Step 3: Facilitate Student Interaction

Simply posing a question that encourages discussion does not guarantee successful math talk. Mathematical discourse begins with student interaction.

The goal of teaching students to interact in pairs, in small groups, or as a whole class is for students to be able to construct viable arguments and to critique the reasoning of others which is Standard for Mathematical Practice 3.

The ability for all students to reach high levels of reasoning for all students is greatly enhanced by training students to have good peer and class discussions.

Students need exposure to their peers' reasoning. They also need low-risk opportunities to practice their own reasoning in pairs or small groups. These opportunities reach their pinnacle when students can have dynamic whole class discussions.

Here are some helpful ideas to improve student interaction!

How to Promote Mathematical Discourse in the Classroom

Promote Interaction When Students Work in Pairs

Think-Pair-Share is a staple of American pedagogy. Pairing students in order for them to discuss mathematics accomplishes many objectives. One of the most important objectives is that students get to "rehearse" their responses. Students sometimes don't want to share their ideas in class because they aren't sure how to phrase their thoughts. Perhaps they are not sure whether their responses are valuable or correct. By first sharing their ideas with a peer, they can get an initial reaction and sharpen their response if called on to share with the class.

One thing I do when I want to help students to have better interactions in pairs is to provide sentence frames or scripts for their conversations. Especially if students have little experience in discussing math with partners in the classroom, I might give them a simple script for comparing their answers on last night's homework. For example, you could share these prompts with your students:

I used to think that students could naturally have conversations like this. However, without training, many students will not do this on their own. I usually also train students to thank each other for their help or to say something like: "Great job," "Thanks for your help," or "That was a great way to find that answer."

Promote Interaction Among Students in Classroom Discussions

The most important thing I think I can do with my students is to hold them accountable during classroom discussions. One way to do this is with accountable discussion prompts. This is a big investment at first, but the long-term dividends are great!

First, students are accountable for listening. I make sure students understand the importance of tuning into the class discussion. Using popsicle sticks, dice, index cards, or some other random way to call on students, I have students repeat what they have heard other students say regarding the topic. I encourage them to reiterate specific points. This promotes active listening.

Second, students are accountable for speaking. During the listening exercise, I also take the opportunity to highlight the importance of speaking up when addressing a group of people. Sometimes students who don't speak very loudly need to project their voices more because students on the other side of the classroom are not able to hear them. Reserved students might need some prompts such as: "Could you repeat that for me?" or, "I'm sorry I couldn't hear you, could you speak up a little?"

Finally, students are accountable for sharing. Once you are confident students are tuning into the class discussion, you can ask them to agree or disagree with each others' ideas, add on to or continue a thought, or bring up a new point.

What to Expect From Students

Pulling this all together in the classroom might seem overwhelming, especially if you are new to integrating discourse into your classroom routines. But you shouldn't the only one doing this, as developing great student discourse should be a goal of every teacher in the building. If you are teaching only math or just math/science, then you should tap into your network of ELA counterparts to help you.

Speaking and Listening Posters

Speaking and Listening standards provide a jumping-off point for you as the teacher to know what is expected for classroom conversations for any grade level from Kindergarten to Grade 8. It sets a course for the incremental development of students listening and speaking skills.

The Speaking and ListeningPosters provide tips for being an active participant and can be given to each student or posted in your classroom.

Creating Classroom Discourse Chart

As you are planning your lessons, you can use this downloadable chart to help you identify Speaking and Listening standards to improve reasoning in your classroom discourse for each grade level.

This chart shows the increasing sophistication that students should have in reasoning and argumentation at each grade level in the two standard clusters, Comprehension and Collaboration as well as Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas. For both clusters, it lists the standard numbers, the actual standards, and how the standard has changed from the grade level before. That allows you to hone in on exactly the facet of communication that you want your students to develop.

If your supervisor or coach is looking for "language standards" as part of your lesson plan, these would fill that need. This download will also be very helpful at your professional development meetings across content areas.

In Summary

If you are learning how to foster great student discussions in your math class, these ideas will help your students to engage with each other. To successfully engage students in mathematical discourse teachers need to foster community in the classroom, help students feel safe expressing ideas, and demonstrate that math can be fun. Although it's ideal to implement best practices for math talk at the beginning of the school year, it is never too late to improve math discourse in the classroom.

Download a series of prompts you can use to improve student interaction in your classroom.

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How to Improve Mathematical Discourse in Your Classroom

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To successfully engage students in mathematical discourse teachers need to foster community in the classroom. Download a series of prompts you can use..

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Read this article and watch the short video embedded in it. Self-analysis: do you think you are more of a fucussing or funneling questioner? Write a commitment statement that includes three questions that you can commit to asking your students in order to get them to become thinkers and talkers. Share your commitment statement here.

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Have you ever listened to your students talk and thought, "I wish I could channel that energy towards talking about math!" Classroom discourse has an effect size of 0.82 (Hattie et al, 2017) - this tells us that using discourse effectively can provide two years of learning gain for one year of classroom instruction. It's worth it. Let's think about how to get there.

Benefits of Classroom Discourse

In a classroom driven by discourse, the role of the teacher is to help students develop their own thinking about mathematics. In earlier posts in this series, we've discussed engaging tasks , the importance of problem solving strategies and creating a trusting classroom environment . These elements come together in a classroom where rich discourse is part of the routine. Students share their thinking with each other (not just the teacher) so they see and hear alternate ways of representing or approaching problems. They learn from their own mistakes and the mistakes of others. They build their own understanding through these rich conversations. Check out this ORIGO One video for more on the benefits of classroom discourse.

Using Discourse to Promote Understanding from ORIGO Education on Vimeo.

In a discourse-driven classroom, a map of conversation looks like a scatterplot. Rather than a ping-pong back and forth to the teacher (teacher question-student response-teacher question-student response) the conversation moves around the room. The teacher poses a question and one student responds. Another student asks a clarifying question ("What did you mean when you said....?") and then a student steps in to say, "Wait! I did it this other way and got the same answer." Students are talking with each other about mathematics ( part of the definition of math discourse). They are taking ownership in their learning and this is what produces such a powerful impact on achievement.

Student debating solution

Types of Questions in Classroom Discourse

Teachers can facilitate this ownership through discourse by the tasks they provide, the classroom structure they establish, and the questions they ask.

Think about what happens when you ask a learner how they know their answer is true or why they believe their answer is correct. In many classrooms, students stop and back up their thinking, presuming their answer is wrong because follow-up questions are only asked when an incorrect answer is given. None of us set out to teach students this idea but our actions often deliver this message. Make it a habit to ask a follow-up question for every student response.

Teachers can also move their questioning towards focusing questions rather than funneling questions. As the name suggests, funneling questions send a student down the narrow path a teacher defines. "What would happen if you multiplied here?" Focusing questions, on the other hand, are designed to help students clarify their own thinking. "What operation might you use here? Why?"

Additional classroom discourse questions include:

what are you trying to figure out?

why does that work?

is there another way to approach it? To represent it?

how are these ideas related?

Activities to Encourage Discourse

If we want our students to talk with each other about mathematics and share their reasoning, we must provide engaging tasks as a platform for this discussion. Let's return to a problem explored in the edWeb webinars around problem solving .

A prompt like this, with many possible solution pathways and a variety of reasonable responses, is an excellent foundation for classroom discourse. Look to include problems like this in your instruction on a regular basis to provide opportunities for discourse. As your students learn to be comfortable with these conversations, you will find rich discourse happening throughout instruction.

Hattie, J., Fisher, D., Frey, N., Gojak, L. M., Moore, S.D., & Mellman, W. (2017) Visible Learning for Mathematics: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Check out our handy printable here on Classroom Discourse. Looking for more free printables? Check out our Resource Center today. About ORIGO Education
ORIGO Education is dedicated to making learning meaningful, enjoyable and accessible for all students with Pre-K and Elementary print and digital instructional materials, as well as professional learning for mathematics.

About the author

Sara Delano Moore, Ph.D.

Sara Delano Moore, Ph.D.is the Director of Professional Learning at ORIGO Education.

An experienced teacher and nationally recognized speaker, her work emphasizes the power of deep understanding and multiple representations for learning.

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Classroom Discourse: Questions, Ideas & Activites - ORIGO Education

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Have you ever listened to your students talk and thought, "I wish I could channel that energy towards talking about math!" Classroom discourse has an effect size of 0.82 (Hattie et al, 2017) - this tells us that using discourse effectively can provide two years of learning gain for one year of classroom instruction.

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This is a long video. Watch at least the first 10 minutes. More if you want. Reflect on how this teacher uses gestures, learning partners, and student models to get students to understand what it means to decompose numbers as they use math language in their discourse. Either type your reflection and attach it here, or record a video reflection.

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Watch the video. Which of her ideas would you like to try in your classroom? In your upcoming lessons in Reading, Science or Social Studies is there a place where you can add student discussion time? Spend time preparing an anchor chart, sentence stems. revoicing practice or color-coded sticky note strategies, as mentioned in the video. Below, type a small description of how you are planning to use one of the strategies in an upcoming lesson.

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Classroom Discussions in Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade // positive classroom discourse!

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Watch the video about the value of math turn and talks. Evaluate yourself: do you have norms in place so that a structure for turn and talk is in place? Look forward to your current or upcoming math unit. Where can you intentionally include turn and talks? What prompts or sentence frames will your students need to be successful. Create a slideshow with the frames OR write the frames on a poster paper or sentence strips. Take a photo and post here.

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Curriculum Associates, Makers of i-Ready

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Ready Classroom Mathematics: Value of the Turn and Talk

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Skim pgs. 98-107. Look at your lessons for next week. Find two lessons to focus your attention on. How can you encourage independence and also increase the rigor in your plans? On a piece of construction or butcher paper, make a t-chart. Label the sides "before" and "after". On the "before" side, write the way you originally intended to teach the lesson. On the "after" side, write the "makeover" ideas that will include more rigorous learning on the part of your students. Post a photo of your t-chart.

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Reread pg. 85. Find the bold wording: "Find time to play and have fun as a class". Commit to creating socializing/laughing moments with your class next week. Post 3 commitments you will make in this area in order to continue to build rapport with your students.

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Reread pgs. 101-107. Explicitly plan on giving different types of feedback to your students in the upcoming weeks. Add these to your lesson plans directly or on sticky notes. Take a screenshot or photo and post here.

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Reread pgs. 75-79. Reflect on how you have used the information from the book study to continue to build rapport with your students since returning from the winter break. Write or type a one-page reflection, illustrating specific examples. You may want to include reflection on any new students that have joined your class. How are you building rapport with them?