Food for Thought: Using the Math Talk Communities Framework in a Methods Course Krista Strand University of Oregon, Education Studies Dept. Portland State University, Math Education TOTOM 2013

Motivation for Sharing September 2010 – Went to TOTOM for the first time, loved it! Planned to attend every year. September 2011 – Honeymoon, no TOTOM September 2012 – Had my first child, no TOTOM September 2013 – Bought a house and moved yesterday. Refused to miss TOTOM again! And I got so excited about attending that I volunteered to present something.

What I’d Like to Share With You Today An assignment we use in our Elementary Math Methods Course at the UO – Based on a research article that presents a Math Talk Community framework, and a case study of the development of the Math Talk Community in one classroom Benefits of using this article/framework in our course Group discussion: This framework? Other frameworks?

A Little Context Assignment used in a Math Methods course for the Elementary UOTeach program. This is the second Math Methods course of the program. Our students are in the final Summer of their Master’s/credential program and have completed a full year of student teaching. I co-teach the course with a practicing 5 th - grade teacher, Jamie Tait

The Article

Research article published in JRME in 2004 “How does a teacher, along with her students, go about establishing the sort of classroom community that can enact reform mathematics practices?” Intensive year-long case study of one classroom Framework of the development of a Math-Talk Learning Community, based on that classroom and others

The Article Features of Research Article That I Like – Engaging read – Article follows the development of a real classroom – Transcript excerpts provide concrete examples – Low-income, first grade, English language learners, performing below grade level, makes a student- centered, discussion-based classroom seem possible for any teacher – Acknowledges that establishing a productive Math Talk Community is challenging work – Discussion of a realistic timeline

The Framework Four Dimensions of a Math Talk Community – Questioning – Explaining Mathematical Thinking – Source of Mathematical Ideas – Responsibility for Learning Describes Levels, 0, 1, 2, 3, overview of the shift from Level 0 to 3 Descriptions of what the teacher is doing and what the students are doing in each level for each dimension

The Assignment

Benefits Examples of Productive Discussions Sparked in our Methods Course: – Is it ever necessary to have a “Level 0” classroom? On the first day of school? When starting a new topic or unit? What about a Level 1 classroom? Should we expect the Level of our class to dip now and then? How low? – How do we work with students who are used to a Level 0 math classroom? – What are Krista/Jamie doing to push the level of our Math Talk Community when we’re doing math together in this class?

Benefits Using Frameworks in Methods Courses – Shared vision of a rich mathematics learning community – Explication of different components of a Math Talk Community, and their different levels. – Helps students identify what is strong about their own math teaching – Source of concrete ideas for how to push our math teaching to the “next level” – Tool for reasonable goal-setting for Year 1 of teaching – Communication tool throughout our methods course

Benefits Additional benefit – Jamie and I get a window into our students’ understandings of the math teaching they observed and enacted in their student teaching experience. We can tailor our instruction to address the experiences that our students had in the past year Class discussion: How do we move forward from here, taking into account that most of us observed and enacted Level 0 and 1 teaching during student teaching

Using Frameworks in Math Methods Courses Other useful frameworks – Boaler & Humphreys’ (2005) questioning framework from Connecting Mathematical Ideas – Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) OSU study: Modified MQI for professional development Also useful for teacher education? My experience being trained on the MQI What other frameworks do you find useful in your methods courses? Or, have you used the Math Talk Communities framework? Related thoughts/ideas to share?

Using Frameworks in Math Methods Courses