Reflecting So Far...

 

When I started out my inquiry I wanted to promote student discourse in mathematics. I did this by using Talk Moves. This required me to really pay attention and listen to students' when they were sharing their thinking in small groups. It wasn't easy because at times, like other students, I was confused.

However, after much practice and pulling children's thinking back to the problem and what the problem is requiring them to do, facilitating discussions became easier. Once a student shared, I would give the others in the group a raised eyebrow look and that would signal to them that they needed to ask questions eg. Can you explain how you got your answer? 

This rest of the group had to be listening when others were sharing. The children in my Integers group are leading their discussion when problem solving. If the problem is difficult then I would record their thinking on the whiteboard for others to see and this would apply for children that speak quickly. It helps others to take notice and think whether they agree or disagree with the speaker's thinking and answer.

This has changed my practice immensely. I am not talking or leading the discussion as much as I use too.

Where to next? I've focused a lot on teaching strategies through problem solving. I'm now going to focus on teaching number knowledge.