{"id":1526,"date":"2015-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecornerstone.wpengine.com\/math-talk-cards-posters\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T20:18:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T00:18:43","slug":"math-talk-cards-posters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/math-talk-cards-posters\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use math talk cards\/posters to promote student-led discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fairly simple to get kids talking (and writing) about math strategies during whole-class strategizing sessions<\/a>, small group modeling, and one-on-one practice. We as teachers just memorize the leading questions (How do you know? Can you prove your answer? What\u2019s another way to solve?<\/em>) and we have lots of go-to phrases that help us push back on and extend students\u2019 responses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what happens when you\u2019re NOT\u00a0facilitating?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We want kids to have those kind of deep math conversations when they\u2019re working with their classmates independently, and we do our best to teach kids to talk about their strategies with one another. And yet when we listen in on their conversations, we often hear something like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI got 14.\u201d
\n\u201cMe, too.\u201d
\n\u201cOkay, Ms. __! We talked about it!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A natural response is to these dead-end conversations is to teach kids how to ask problem solving questions of one another. After some practice, we might overhear conversations like these:<\/p>\n

\u201cI got 52.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat strategy did you use to get your answer?\u201d
\n\u201cI added.\u201d
\n\u201cMe, too.\u201d
\n\u201cOkay, Ms. __! We talked about it!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not much criticial thinking happening, right? So how can you make sure students are analyzing their problem solving process even when you\u2019re not facilitating the conversation?<\/p>\n

You have to help kids overcome the two main obstacles they tend to face when it\u2019s time to talk about math strategies:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They don\u2019t know what to ask (how to start the conversation.)<\/li>\n
  2. They find it hard to articulate their thinking (how to answer the questions.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And so the best solutions I\u2019ve found<\/strong> are partner discussion cards and math talk posters that indicate not only a question or stem to get the conversation going, but also the sentence starter that the other student can use to help him or her form an answer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Partner discussion cards<\/h3>\n

    Here\u2019s an example from some partner discussion cards I made for K-12 Common Core math practices<\/a> (MP1-MP8). CCSS math\u00a0practices are skills that should be integrated and practiced with every math concept we teach. They include skills like making sense of problems and persevering in solving them, reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, and using appropriate tools strategically.<\/p>\n

    \"math-practices-student-discussion-cards-600x600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    As you can see from the photo, the student sitting on the left asks the question. The student on the right uses the sentence starter to help him or her respond to the question. They can then switch roles with either the same card or choose a new card.<\/p>\n

    Math partner discussion cards like these are very versatile and can be used in lots of different ways:<\/p>\n