Why Am I Talking? I think about this question constantly as I am creating a lesson or activity and bounces around my brain while in the middle of a lecture. What can I do to get my students talking? What questions can I pose in the middle of the lesson that will get them processing new ideas and connecting them to previous ones?
Getting my students to talk in class is a two step process. First, I need to help them build relationships with their classmates and with me. If they feel comfortable in class, they are more likely to jump into the tougher math questions. So to start building that report, I start every class with them asking their partners, "Hi, how's it going? How has your day been so far?" We do this every day. Some days I have them ask their partners random questions: What toppings do you like on your pizza? What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Does sky diving sound like fun to you? Usually by the 2nd week they are saying "What's up?" to their partner before I can direct them to.
The second step is teaching them how to talk about math. So many of my students have told me "I know how to get the answer, I just can't explain it." So we spend some time learning how to explain. Our answers to yes or no questions become "yes because" or "no because." We practice every day after nearly every in-class example. "Turn to your partner and ask them, 'Hey, what'd you get?'" I have them talk about their answers, their strategies, their graphs. I have them argue over which answer is the best answer, which ones we should eliminate. It's loud, it's engaging, and it's fun. It does take a little more class time and sometimes we only get to 3 examples instead of 4 but I definitely think it's worth it.
Getting my students to talk in class is a two step process. First, I need to help them build relationships with their classmates and with me. If they feel comfortable in class, they are more likely to jump into the tougher math questions. So to start building that report, I start every class with them asking their partners, "Hi, how's it going? How has your day been so far?" We do this every day. Some days I have them ask their partners random questions: What toppings do you like on your pizza? What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Does sky diving sound like fun to you? Usually by the 2nd week they are saying "What's up?" to their partner before I can direct them to.
The second step is teaching them how to talk about math. So many of my students have told me "I know how to get the answer, I just can't explain it." So we spend some time learning how to explain. Our answers to yes or no questions become "yes because" or "no because." We practice every day after nearly every in-class example. "Turn to your partner and ask them, 'Hey, what'd you get?'" I have them talk about their answers, their strategies, their graphs. I have them argue over which answer is the best answer, which ones we should eliminate. It's loud, it's engaging, and it's fun. It does take a little more class time and sometimes we only get to 3 examples instead of 4 but I definitely think it's worth it.
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