Tools to Support k-5 students in

Mathematical Discourse
Mihaela Munday Ph.D.
Math Instructor
Timpson ISD/Panola College
 Today we are going to be HOT
Honest
Open
Transparent

The Talking Stone: “Where I’m From”

Try This: Write about where you are from, write about the house you grew up in, who raised you, the food you
ate, the sayings you heard, the music played through your life. Write about the neighborhood, the city, or the
state. Write about the things that created you, shaped you and made you who you are today.
Try This: Try beginning with one of the following lines “ I don’t want to write about where I am from
because…”
“Where I am from does not define me because….”
“I am from a place where……”
“ I don’t know where I am from because……”

Write anything that stand out from sharing

 Mathematical Practices:

MP 1: “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.”

Mathematically proficient students can explain the meaning of a problem and the
correspondence between the multiple representations of that problem.
MP 3: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of the others”
Students can make conjectures, build logical progressions of statements to explore the truth of
arguments, justify conclusions, and ask useful questions to clarify and improve arguments.
MP 6: “Attend to precision”
Students have the ability to communicate precisely to others by carefully formulating
explanations. They can use clear definitions in discussions and have the ability to listen or
read carefully to examine the claims made by others.
What is the Mathematical Discourse?
 Discourse—
Elementary Mathematics

Discourse: Structures or ways of organizing oral or written language to serve a

particular function within each subject area. It is mathematical communication that
occurs in a classroom
In mathematics, language forms include
 symbolic representations such as numbers, equations, and two-column
proofs (which can be translated into words),
 tables and graphs (which are shorthand language for summarizing
complex sets of data),
 and narrative (e.g., explanations of problem solutions).
 Choose a question and share your thoughts
1. How do you choose tasks and/or questions that engage and challenge all students’
thinking in your classroom? How do you ensure that these tasks remain at this level?
2. How do you encourage your students to listen carefully to one another’s ideas? To
disagree? To question?
3. How do you decide whether or not to pursue a mathematical idea? How do you
decide when to give more information or let students grapple with their ideas?
4. How do you help students clarify and justify their ideas?
5. How does discourse encourage reasoning and sense making in your classroom?
6. How do teacher-to-student conversations in your classroom become student-to-
student conversations? How do you give more ownership of the classroom to
students?
Bloom's Taxonomy
 In discourse-rich classroom:
• Students clarify and precisely explain or justify a mathematical problem or concepts.
• Requires students to think deeply and furthers one’s own understanding of the topic
• Teachers can better understand possible misconceptions and deal with them before they
become assimilated into the student’s knowledge base.
• Teachers should plan to ask well-constructed questions that promote high-level and meta-
cognitive thinking.
• Teachers should encourage their students to formulate their own questions and make
unsolicited contributions to discussions.
• Students should show respect to the teacher and their peers by responding to and building
on what others have said or asked.
• Good questioning is an art and is one of the most important elements of good
teaching.
 Develop the following classroom questioning features
• Direct and Simple Language
• Definite and Clear Meaning
• Logical Sequence Teacher should:
• Questions Keyed to Class Ability - call on as many different students
• Questions That Stimulate Effort throughout a lesson as possible.

• Open-Ended Questions -avoid predictability in calling on students

• Maintaining Student Interest -begin a class with asking complete answers

• Avoiding repetition -praise the students for correctly answering

a question
• Avoiding repetition of student answers
-student questions may be answered by
• Calling on students other student
• Wait time after asking questions
• Variety in Questioning
 Types of Questions

Two basic types:

1. Convergent questions: Need an exactly answer, low level
(understanding and knowledge) and high level
(application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation
2. Divergent questions: need variety and alternative answer,
different avenues and variations
 Ten Types of Overlaid

Questions to Avoid
Multiple

Questions
Factual
Ambiguous

Whiplash Elliptical

Teacher-Centered
Leading
Chorus
 Overlaid Question

What method shall we use to solve this problem, and what will make
our solution elegant?

Good questions can be:

What method shall we use to solve this problem (pause), Barbara? Or
What would be a good first step in this solution, Max?
 Multiple Question

• Which fractions should we simplify, and how will they help us to multiply
them?

Split the question in two individual questions.

Which fractions should we simplify, Carla? And
How simplifying fractions can help us multiply or divide them, Laura?
 Factual Questions
• What is a prime number ?

How we recognize a prime number?

What are two examples of prime number and composite number?
How a prime and a composite number are different?
 Elliptical Questions
• How about these two angles?

• What is their relationship between these two angles, Jamal?

• Which angle has the greater measure?
 Yes-No or Guessing Questions

• Is ?
What is the relation between and , Eric?

• Is triangle ABC isosceles?

What type of triangle is ∆ABC, Jose?
 Ambiguous Questions

• How does the law of sines differ from the law of cosines?
Under what different circumstances are the laws of sines and cosines used,
Asher?
What is the relationship between the area of a circle and the
circumference of a circle?
What is the ration between the area and circumference of a circle, Heather?
 Chorus Responses Questions

• What type of quadrilateral is ABCD, class?

 Whiplash Questions

• The factors of 63, are what?

What are the factors of 63, Raven?

• We now have a+b equals to b+a because of which property?

Which property justifies the fact that a+b equals to b+a , Simone?
 Leading Questions

• Wouldn’t you say that ∆ABC is equilateral?

• Seven is a factor of 35, isn’t it?

What are the factors of 35, Antonio? Or By what number must 7 be
multiplied to yield 35, Miguel?
 Teacher-Centered Questions

• Give me the solution set of 3x-5=2.

• Give us the solution set of 3x-5=2, Sam.

• What must I do next to solve this problem?

• What must we do next in solving this problem, Jack?
 Application for good questioning

Which type of questions would you use in your classroom to solve this problem?

Farmer Jim keeps 12 hens in every coop. If Farmer Jim has 20 coops, how
many hens does he have in all? If every hen lays 9 eggs on Monday, how many
eggs will Farmer Jim collect on Monday? Explain your reasoning using words,
numbers, or pictures.
• Which new mathematical representations (including notation) will students need to learn
to “read” and use in this learning activity?
• What “non-mathematical” words or phrases will my students need to understand in order to
make sense of the task scenarios in the learning activity?
 Question Template
• What are (or accounts for) the similarities between_________and________?
• What are (or accounts for) the differences for___________and_________?
• Give an example of (something) that is _________but not________.
• Under what conditions are we allowed to_________________?
• Why is it so much more difficult to_______________than to_________?
• What is the connection between (something learned earlier) and ( new skill, procedure, or concept)?
• When should I use (new skill, procedure, or concept) instead of(old skill, procedure or concept)?
• If (some condition or number in a given problem) is changed to_____, how would the method we used have
to change?
• Examine the conjecture________in the extreme case where__________.
• How do I decide which of the following figures is best for consideration of the( problem, conjecture,
data)_____?
• How would I know to __________instead of __________at this point in the (problem, proof, argument)?
• How do I decide what to do first when trying to (solve, prove)_____?
 Graphing Organizers
Verbal and visual word association(VVWA) :places a
vocabulary word into one section of a four-by-four
graphic. The remaining three sections are filled with a
visual representation of the word, a definition and/or an
equation, and finally, a personal association.

-Use of compare and contrast activities.

-Tables
-Charts
-Diagrams

Frayer Model
Definition in your own words Facts/characteristics

Word
Examples Nonexamples
Compare and contrast activity
The power of the pictures: dots and boxes
 Differences
Sometimes , an already familiar word in standard English has much more
precise, and at times, somewhat different meaning in mathematics.
Examples: simplify, similar, factor, rational, irrational, radical, and odd.
For example 5 is an “odd” number but 1,000,504 is not.
In the figure below some triangles are similar, some not.
 Consistency- necessary to become mathematically fluent
Encourage students to use academic language such as substituting:
-“numerator” for ”top number”
-”invert the divisor” instead “ flip the second number”

Rich Mathematical Discourse Environment

• Word Wall
• Student –maintained glossary
• Student-generated VVWAs
• Problem-solving Posters
• Bookshelves for mathematical-related readings.
• Books on the history of mathematics
• Interesting Problems and Puzzles
• Interdisciplinary applications of mathematics
 Conceptual Math
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_xDd5UyAU
Student-centered strategies
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTuPVtayOI