Goal
This week my goal is to strengthen student-led mathematical discourse. The student-led part (the most important part) is not as strong as it was before winter break. I find myself starting to ask more and more prompting questions to get the whole group conversation started. So, I plan to try and strengthen the whole group conversation by having students use their journal responses (where they have been justifying their answers, explaining their thinking and justifying/explaining why they chose to use a particular strategy over another) and going back to the conversation starters I made last semester as a way for students to initiate and continue the conversation.
Reflection
This week I began to implement and refer back to the conversation starters I made before winter break. The starters I use are phrases such as "I agree because...", "I disagree because..." and "I solved it a different way- this is how I solved it..." I continued asking them to journal in response to a HOT question. Then I asked them to use their responses to share out followed by asking them to use the starters to link to other classmates thinking. I realized that while many students are taking the time to share, I don't think that they are truly listening and thinking about what their friends are saying. I think this because I noticed that sometimes a student will share and another student will share and it will be completely unrelated to what was just said. I would love to see more linking of student responses (responding to others thinking, not just sharing their thoughts on a topic). That is the "meat" of a conversation and I think it will take our conversations to the next level.
This week my goal is to strengthen student-led mathematical discourse. The student-led part (the most important part) is not as strong as it was before winter break. I find myself starting to ask more and more prompting questions to get the whole group conversation started. So, I plan to try and strengthen the whole group conversation by having students use their journal responses (where they have been justifying their answers, explaining their thinking and justifying/explaining why they chose to use a particular strategy over another) and going back to the conversation starters I made last semester as a way for students to initiate and continue the conversation.
Reflection
This week I began to implement and refer back to the conversation starters I made before winter break. The starters I use are phrases such as "I agree because...", "I disagree because..." and "I solved it a different way- this is how I solved it..." I continued asking them to journal in response to a HOT question. Then I asked them to use their responses to share out followed by asking them to use the starters to link to other classmates thinking. I realized that while many students are taking the time to share, I don't think that they are truly listening and thinking about what their friends are saying. I think this because I noticed that sometimes a student will share and another student will share and it will be completely unrelated to what was just said. I would love to see more linking of student responses (responding to others thinking, not just sharing their thoughts on a topic). That is the "meat" of a conversation and I think it will take our conversations to the next level.