Learning Site Final Artifact

Tawonia W. Queeley

May 2, 2023

Site: Philbrick School | Topic: Math Discourse

The Challenge

What challenge or need were you addressing as a Learning Site / Learning Cohort?

As a Learning Site, our challenge was:

How do we support students to synthesize their thinking through mathematical discourse?

What specific piece of that challenge were you addressing in your specific context?

What made this topic relevant to you?

I wanted to be more intentional with student turn-and-talks.

My goal was to:

• be the facilitator by supporting students in having more natural conversations with each other
• reduce the amount of “teacher-student-teacher-student” conversations

What I Tried

• asked an open-ended question related to what we were currently learning about in math (Geometry)

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• put students in groups of 3 or 4 to discuss

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• provided each group of students a minute to discuss their thinking with each other

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What I Expected

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For there to be some students who dominated the conversation, and some students who would be more passive

For students to respond to each other using a mix of nonverbal cues and verbal responses

For students to explain their thinking and/or provide reasons and examples to support their thinking

Early Impact

I started to notice that…

• Not every student in the groups got a chance to share their thinking
• One student chose not to share while others were more eager to share
• Some students were clearly the leader, while others were easily observed to be more passive
• Students used both verbal and nonverbal communication
• Not many students built on each other’s thinking

Adopted

Changes I Made…

Adjusted

Abandoned

Pose at least one open-ended question in each subject area. That way, each day, students have an opportunity to discuss with their peers and increase student discourse amongst themselves

Add more time to the timer. One minute is not enough time to get all students talking in the table groups.

Instead of having large groups of 3 or 4, strategically pair students up so that students who are more dominant in a conversation aren't with a student who is more passive.

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What I Learned

Key Ingredients

Thoughtful Questions

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Intentional Groupings

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Multiple Opportunities to Practice

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Be the Model

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Highly engaging, open-ended questions will get students talking.

Be thoughtful around groupings and pairings. Groups of two make each student stand out and be accountable for their part in the discussion. No one is invisible.

Students need many opportunities to talk to strengthen their academic discourse, academic language, and accountable talk.

Be sure to model what you want from students as often as possible. The more they see it, the more likely they are to emulate. Praise them with reason when they do!

Next Steps

Provide feedback. With my last attempt, I recorded the audio of my students sharing their thinking in their partnerships. When reflecting with my team, one of my group members gave me the great idea of playing the recording so students can listen to themselves and hear how they engage in conversation. This could be during one-on-one or small group student conferences. This would help students to assess how they’re doing with accountable talk and brainstorm ideas on how they can grow and improve.