Math Talk, Student Discourse, and EL Support

I know you all have had some sessions about getting students to talk during math time.  Well, as a verbal processor myself, I find this a CRITICAL part of math time and all learning in my classroom.  There are definitely times for our classrooms to be 100% silent.  BUT in my opinion, focused student talk is a critical piece to transformational change, especially for our EL students.  I am definitely one of those people that has light bulb experiences while I talk.  It's the same for many of our students. We want our students to be able to share HOW they solve problems and WHY they solve them in the way they do.  We want them to talk through their thinking and reasoning, explain strategies, and prove their answers.

EL students (and really all of our students) benefit from language support during math talk.  Instead of getting caught up in the language, if we provide enough support students can think about math (which is what we want during math time!)

So here are a few things I use in my classroom to provide this support:



1. A math language anchor chart that stays up all year.  These are basic sentence frames that can be applied to almost anything in math.  I refer to this during math tasks, partner work, whole group, and while leading small groups.  After referring to it enough, the students remind each other of it.  I also added one not in the picture:  First I ____, because ____.  Then I ____, because ____. Last I _____, because _____. 





2. An Academic Vocabulary Wall (I have a section for ELA, Science, and Social Studies too).  As I teach new concepts and skills, I add key words that students will need to use in their verbal and written
explanations.  So for example, I'm currently teaching division.  I want students to be able to tell me what number is the whole and why.  So in their explanations, they can refer to the wall and look for the words "total" and "split."  Their answer may sound like: "The whole is 18 because that is the total number of cookies that Jon is splitting up and putting on plates."







3.  Sentence Frames: For key questions that I will be referring to (these are the questions that help me scaffold/break down the skill), I often use sentence starters to help students respond throughout the unit.  This just gives them a starting place with how to explain their thinking.





4. Re-define words: This applies to ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! When I first started teaching EL students, I watered down vocabulary SO MUCH because I wanted them to understand.  Well, that is a HUGE disservice to them.  They are deprived of words and left powerless if they don't learn words at school, because they won't hear them at home if they don't speak English at home.  So after talking to a colleague one day, I got the best vocabulary advice ever! He told me to use the hard words, but just define them.  So in math, this might sound like, "We are going to partition, or split, our circle into quarters, or four equal parts."  So if I was modeling this, I just used "partition" and "quarters" (both words they'll need to know to succeed in math), but I defined the words with simpler words to reinforce the meaning and help them understand.  Throughout the day, I could do the same thing.  I might say, "Wow, I see Juan really being persistent as he is working on this problem. He is not giving up even though it's hard."  Bam. It will change your life. BY THE WAY, THIS HELPS ALL STUDENTS!

Math Fluency

Math fluency is a super important part of teaching math.  We of course want students to also explain HOW and WHY during math time.  BUT fluently adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing is also very important! It helps take away extra thinking while you model too!  If you're modeling how to solve a 3-digit regrouping problem, and you have students that struggle with fluency...they will get caught up in the computation and miss the HOW and WHY.

So... here are some fluency routines, games, and activities that I have used in my classroom and that my students love! :)

1. Mad Minute - This is a 1 minute timed fluency worksheet that my students complete EVERY DAY.  They LOVE it!  Each student gets a page protector and inside they place the fluency facts that they are working on.    Monday-Thursday, they practice with a dry-erase marker. And on Fridays, they take it out of the page protector and complete the fluency sheet with pencils.  In my class, students have 1 minute to get 20 correct.  If they mastered the facts, they move on to the next one.  I organize the worksheets in files (see picture), so that I can quickly check students and hand them a new worksheet (eventually I train a few students to pass them out).
FYI: to set this up in the beginning of the year, they complete one at a time with pencil until they don't pass.  Once they get "stuck" on one, I hand them a page protector, and that's when they start practice.  This allows me to quickly differentiate and meet students where they are at!  Some students may be working on multiplying by 4, while others are multiplying by 9.

2. Speed Fun - For this game, I usually do boys vs. girls or  have table groups challenge each other.  Each team lines up. The person in the front solves one problem (we use post-its and they just stick them on), then hands the marker to the person behind them and goes to the back of the line. The first
line that finishes first with 100% accuracy wins and congratulates the other team.  You can also make this a center and have "mini speed fun" games where students compete against each other.
My example is from when I taught 1st grade, just change to multiplication and division for upper elem! :)

3. Addition or Multiplication War - Students work in partners with a deck of cards. They split the deck in half, and at the same time they each throw down 1 card.  The first one to find the sum (for lower elem) or product (for upper elem) of the 2 cards gets to keep them both.  I practice this in the beginning of the year a lot, and then add it to math stations/centers. It's one of the easiest stations EVER, because students can use the cards as pictures to help them solve the problem. For example if they have 3 x 7, they can count the diamonds (or whatever symbol that is on the card) on the 7 card three times if they need help to solve. I also model and set the expectation that they need to check each other. The person with the most cards wins.  :)
*you can do this with dice and cards...both of which you might as well stock up on! :)

4. Flash Cards -  You can play memory games, matching games, racing games, quiz-quiz-trade and so much more with flash cards! Make the investment and buy some! :)
*Students can also make flash cards that go with their mad minute during math stations!! :)  Just give them index cards and an example so they have the right answers! It's an easy station and they can take them home to practice!