Building a common language

Now that our students know the class norms of DMiC (Developing Mathematical inquiring Communities) it is time to step it up and demand mathematical language and interaction from all students. I have been thinking about this a lot over the last three weeks and as a result of my observation in class and the professional learning we have had I am going to introduce some conversation scaffolds.

The idea behind these scaffolds is 3 fold. The first set aim to provide correct mathematical language and sentence structure for sharing an idea. They also aim to give students who still struggle to find a place to start or their voice to share a guide to join in.

These prompts are reminders of what the children already know but at times forget as this process is still becoming 100% embedded in our classroom. 

The second set of prompts is about increasing the level of back and forth conversation within the small groups. I have noticed that students in my class will take the first idea and stick with it without agreeing or disagreeing. 

I choose these prompts because it is clear that we need to develop more talk around the strategies being used to help the whole group understand the mathematical thinking. 

I added these prompts because of the professional learning we did yesterday and the need to now push kids to ask Why and think beyond the how of the mathematical thinking but why did we choose that strategy. I also provides the opportunity for critique and rethinking. 

My next step with these cards is to get students modelling how to use them and adding QR codes to the cards so that students how are unsure can watch the video and see how these can help them converse in mathematics.