1) Chapin’s Five Productive Talk Moves
a) revoicing
b) asking students to restate someone else’s reasoning
c) asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone else’s reasoning
d) prompting students for further participation
e) using wait time
2) I did not begin teaching this week and am finishing up my baseline assessment so I can create a lesson plan for next week. I did observe my teacher lead class lesson and I helped when appropriate. The lesson was over finding the greatest common factor and I saw many of the talk moves in action, particularly in the guided practice. The teacher did a good job of revoicing and prompting for further participation. She gained information that would not have been otherwise due to prompting and then explained it in her own words back to the class so others could understand the method that their classmates were using. The students were responsive to the lesson.
3) I think that the teacher did a great job of using talk moves as she deemed appropriate for the class and the lesson. I would have considered expanding upon what the students said by having the students relay and compare the methods used by their classmates. I think that this shows how well a student understands a method while solidifying the idea in the students mind by having them analyze and relate to it. I think that this may have also confused some of the students and may have been hard for others. If they got stuck, I would have to guide them with questioning and probes into a positive train of thought. I think that they lesson have been even better if these other techniques were included. Implementation is easier said than done however.
Eric, I understand where you are coming form when you think that asking "active" thinking questions and higher thinking questions relating to your math lesson that it may be difficult and confusing or overwhelming for your students. I felt the same way. But, I think you might be underestimating the higher order thinking capabilities of your students. It is all in the way that you word your questions. I think that challenging your students and thinking of news ways to ask questions and dig deeper into math can only be a positive thing for you and your students. Good Luck!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, Eric. I know it was probably a quick lesson that you observed, and you had many other responsibilities that you were trying to take care of. But part of these blog entries is to really start noticing and listening to exactly how things happen in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteYour description of the lesson today and the talk moves you saw is good, but it's also hard to really understand or see what happened. This blog is a window into your world as a teacher. And sometimes, I wish that window was open a little wider, you know?
But I appreciate your analysis and critique of what you saw. It sounds like you would push for questioning strategies in which students had to evaluate and restate others' thinking. This leads to deep thinking, and I have to agree with Hattie, is not really as hard for students to do than we think. Many times our students are systematized to just give us short one-word answers. But when given the opportunity to really tell you what they think, they can really blow our minds!
Implementation is WAY easier said than done. During my lesson I had a hard time staying within the time restrictions I had. My students were having great conversation about math and their personal strategies in solving the problems I did not want to interrupt them. If I asked one student to show me how they solved a problem, the other two then wanted to share how they solved the problem. It was a great experience but I had to cut it short due to time. Sometimes, I find it extremely hard to discuss throughly about a topic due to all we have to get done in one lesson. Time management is one thing I have been and will continue to work on. I have about 3 timers on my desk as I teach and I still can never get it right.
ReplyDelete***Lauren Fritz
It sure is! I tried to use some Math Talk moves during my first Math lesson today and it sure didn't flow like it does when my CT uses it! I think it's a great idea to consider expanding upon what the students said by having the students relay and compare the methods used by their classmates. This could work so well for Guided Practice in pairs, and this is doable since our groups are small.
ReplyDeleteI understand how you feel about the students revoicing and explaining each others' ideas and understandings of the problem. In theory, everyone would be on task and pay attention and go as planned, but with our students, its much more difficult to judge understanding. I also would feel stressed if I were to put a student on the spot by asking them to interpret someone else's answer. I'm not sure that would go over very well.
ReplyDeleteI am finding incorporating Math Talk Moves extremely difficult to do in the short amount of time provided for our lessons! It seems like all of them take up extra time that I just can't seem to fit in. I do think it is still important to, like you said, provide the students the opportunity to understand their peers strategies and to compare their methods. In doing so, I have seen that students really have to evaluate their own work as they "sell" their idea to their peers. My biggest struggle using this talk move, however, is the monitoring of students. How are we supposed to keep everyone on task when groups are finishing at different times? I also am not even sure students are sharing appropriate strategies or correct answers with their friend. Hopefully, we will become better at this skill with experience.
ReplyDeletethis is off topic and not an official comment to this post, but I wanted to let you know I recognize that memorable teal color on the walls of my old alma mater :P
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