2. Five Major Reasons That Talk Is Critical to Teaching and Learning
Talk can reveal understanding and misunderstanding.
Talk supports robust learning by boosting memory.
Talk supports deeper reasoning.
Talk supports language development.
Talk supports development of social skills.

3. Strategies for Encouraging High-Quality Student Interaction

4. The Use of Rich math tasks
Tasks with multiple solutions and/or strategies
Opportunities to explain and justify their strategies and reasoning
Tasks with simple operations and simple solutions with provide little or no opportunity to engage.

5. Justification of Solutions
Encourage productive argumentation and justifications in class discussions
Justify strategies, not recount procedures

6. Students Questioning One Another
Provide students with higher-order question prompt cards with a range of higher-order questions
Use question stems that could be applied to current content such as “how are ... and ... similar?”

7. Use of guidelines for math-talk
Explain: “This is my solution/strategy….” “I think _______ is saying that …”
Explain your thinking and show your thinking.
Rephrase what another student has said.
Agree with reason: “I agree because…”
Agree with another student and describe your reason for agreeing.
Agree with another student and provide an alternate explanation.
Disagree with reason: “I disagree because …”
Disagree with another student and explain or show how your thinking/ solution differs.
Build on: “I would like to build on that idea…”
Build on the thinking of another student through explanation, example, or demonstration.
Go Beyond: “This makes me think about…” “Another way to think about this is…”
Extend the ideas of other students by generalizing or linking the idea to another concept.

8. Teach as Facilitator

9. Accountability & Assessment
Hot Seat Questioning: teacher calls on one student to summarize another student’s thinking.
Secret Student: Teacher selects on secret student. If that student is on task when the teacher checks on him/her the whole class gets a point.
Mini White Boards
Thumbs Up, Thumps Down
ADCD Cards/Corners
Exit Passes with “Why” Questions
Group Quiz

10. Productive Partners How students can be expected to act during partnered academic discussions
4 L's
Look at your partner
Lean toward your partner
Lower your voice
Listen attentively

11. Sample Strategies for Precision Partnering How teachers can present partnered discussion expectations to students
Students will be split into A/B partners, consider ability when pairing.
Discuss prompt/question
Students will read answer to their partner. Should be read with expression.
Teacher will indicate when it is time for different partner to share.
Listen to partner's idea, make eye contact and have a pleasant facial expression. Write down partner's idea.
Students are expected to always be on task. If students have extra time, they will share a second answer or simply repeat their first.
. Be an “Idol” not “Idle”, if students are not on task, they will be the first group called on to report out in the whole group discussion.
Whole class discussion (various structures for student accountability)

12. Sample Discussion Sentence Starters
To share new ideas...
What if we tried __________________________?
I have another approach to the problem.
How about _________________?
Here's another possibility. We could _________________?
To disagree respectfully...
That is a good approach to the problem, but what about _________________?
I understand what you're saying but __________________?
I am not sure that will work because __________, what if we tried _________?

13. To summarize ideas already shared...
To help clarify ideas...
Could you explain what you mean by (other person's idea here) ?
Could you explain that another way?
What part of the problem is hard to understand?
What can we do (what do we need to know) to clear up our confusion?
To summarize ideas already shared...
I hear you saying ___________, is that right?(Name) suggested that _______________.
What do the rest of you think?
I like (Name)'s idea that _________________.

14. Number Talks
The order of number talks has been selected based on the problems simplicity and its ability to elicit conversation:
Middle Grades – 5 Days of simple algorithms – focus on 1 talk move per day.
Week 1:
Algorithms – beginning with simple problems for your grade level, moving towards inequalities and comparisons.
Number Talk
Talk Move =
practice respectful/attentive listening positions
14.6 – =
practice repeating partners response
6.3 – 2.7 =
listening, repeating and sharing out partners response

15. Number Talks
Equalities – with out variables initially. With variables (missing values) next.
Number Lines – Bars, grids and graphs
Verbal – number trains
Number Translations – models
Creating a 6-10 minute ritual each day. Repeating, practicing and modeling the communication expectations will go a long way in opening up shy students, E.L. students and unfocused/unmotivated students.

16. Number Talks
Series of number talks with a common theme across grade levels (primary, upper elementary, middle school)
Rich enough to produce continued discussion
Emphasis is on reasoning of understanding, not solving the problem – “defend work”
EXAMPLE: Number line theme
K -2
3-5
6-8
Defend the placement of a whole number on a number line
Defend the placement of a fraction on a number line
Defend the placement of rational numbers on a number line

17. Sample Number Talk
Alex says that 5/8 is always to the left of ½ on a number . Cecilia says 5/8 is always to the right of ½ in a number line. Who is correct and why? 1

18. Resources Articles & Information Number Talks www.mathsolutions.com