Creating Culture

In addition to the Math Talk Moves that you'll use, creating a classroom culture that is conducive to Math Talk is important. Below are several steps involved in creating that culture.

Start small

Start Math Talk in small group or individual settings before you do it as a whole group. The small group is less intimidating for students and helps them understand what you're looking for when you ask them to explain their thinking. Math Talk can happen in a one-on-one situation as you work with students individually. Remember, the idea behind Math Talk is to get students to explain their thinking.

Invest time modeling behavior and explaining expectations

Depending on your school and your students, Math Talk might be fairly new to them. When you ask them to explain, they might wonder what that means exactly. If your students are completely new to the idea of explaining and justifying their answers, you might have to provide them with examples of the kinds of statements you're looking for. Or, you might want to put sentence starters up on the bulletin board to reference during class discussions.

Be encouraging and supportive

Encourage students to share their thinking regardless of whether or not they think they are wrong. Traditionally we've treated math as though the single correct answer is the only thing we're looking for. This can be intimidating to many students. With Math Talk we want to encourage students to explain their thought process, listen to others, and learn from their mistakes. Don't take this as, now it's okay to do math problems incorrectly. We still want to teach precision in math, but the process for how we get to the answer is important. Students will learn more from their mistakes than you think. They need your encouragement and support when they make mistakes.

 

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