Talk Moves

I am so happy that I have been able to learn about different ways to elicit conversation between myself and my students and between my students and each other. Since learning about the different math talk questions and ways to phrase questions and when to use certain questions I have really tried to use them in my lessons. For example, I taught a math lesson a few weeks ago and I worked on having the students explain one another's thinking. When a student answered a question about patterns with one of their multiplication facts, I had another student explain their thinking and it was extremely powerful to listen to the students having conversation with another. I also used the revoicing technique during science, when one student was having a hard time explaining his thinking to his group mates. I asked the student if I could try to explain his idea to the group, I revoiced what he was trying to tell them and his group started to understand what he was saying and they felt it was a great idea. 

I think all of the talk moves are extremely powerful techniques that are becoming very useful in my teaching and helping me to elicit student thoughts and understanding during conversation. 

Another technique that has helped me to get more student input, is think time. Giving students an extra 30 seconds to think about the question or problem being asked makes the world of difference for participation. Now that i use think time during my discussions with the students I am getting so much more responses from people do not always share or like to share their reasoning or thoughts.