Example: Mr. Jones & Mrs. Chen
Here are two examples of teachers interacting with their students in the math classroom. In the first example, the teacher is not using Math Talk. In the second example the teacher is using Math Talk.
Read through each of those interactions. Try to identify what is different.
 Mr. Jones: What is 23 + 18? Susie: 41 Mr Jones: Correct! Nice work, Susie. |
 Mrs. Chen: What is 23 + 18? Henry: 41 Mrs. Chen: Can you explain how you got your answer Henry? Henry: Sure. I started by adding the 3 and the 8. I carried the one and got 41. Mrs. Chen: What do you mean you "carried" the one? Can you explain what that means to the rest of the class? Henry: Well carrying the one really means combining the 10 from the 11 with the other tens. Mrs. Chen: Good. Is there anyone else that did it differently? Susie: Yes, I actually started by adding the 20 and the 10 to get 30. Then I added the 11 to the 30 to get 41. |