Talking About Math!

Discourse is an essential element of a mathematics classroom. In order for students to fully comprehend the objectives being taught in the classroom, they must be able to articulate the reasoning behind their mathematics practice. By including these discussions within lessons, especially centering the conversation on misconceptions, students are able to demonstrate their conceptual understanding(s) of a topic and deepen their mathematical knowledge.

The following unit provides insight on how to incorporate discourse, specifically student-led conversations, in the classroom and discusses techniques that can be used to engage student discussion.

By the conclusion of lesson 6, you will have a developed plan for student-led discourse focusing on the potential misconception analyzed from unit 2.

Lesson 5: Understanding Student-Led Discourse

Objective: Reflect on provided readings and summarize the impact of student-led discourse and mathematical argumentation on learning environments.

Directions: Read the following articles then answer the reflection questions below.

Readings:

Article 1: Promote Mathematical Argumentation in classrooms.

Article 2: Using Talk to Make Sense of Mathematics

Reflection Questions:

Use the Discussion Tab to answer the following questions and share your thoughts with other participants in this course.

1. Summarize how to promote mathematical discourse in the classroom based on your understandings from the above readings.

2. Reflect on how student-led discussions can be applied in your current classroom and enhance student understanding(s).

Lesson 6: Discourse Focused on Misconceptions

Objective: Develop a student-led discourse moment within an existing lesson plan based on the potential misconception plan created during unit 2.

Directions: Using the selected potential misconception moment from Unit 2 and the discourse prompts below, develop a discourse plan for your error analysis lesson. After your discourse plan is complete, submit your final Error Analysis Planning page from unit 2 and discourse plan to the email address below.

For Reference: 20 Discourse Prompts

Project Submission:

Email your final project to: mldill@albany.edu

Next Steps

Done? Return to the Main Course Page to access extended resources on this mini-course topic.