Chapin, O’Connor, and Anderson’s chapter in planning lessons spoke a lot of the significance of having well thought out and organized lesson plans. Preparation is truly the key to success. As a teacher, meaningful classroom discussions are vital in creating an active and collaborating learning environment. This requires the teacher to anticipate the needs of her students. Questions and talking points need to be set ahead of time. A good teacher also anticipates the responses or potential confusion and comes ready to handle those situations as they arise. The authors also point out that much of mathematical instruction is built upon prior knowledge. The teacher needs to figure out what each student previously knows about the topic and make meaningful connections that add to their prior knowledge.
Chapin, S. H., O’Connor, C., and Anderson, N. C. (2009). Classroom discussions: Using math talk to help students learn. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions. Chapter 9 – Planning Lessons
The Stein article places a heavy influence on students engaging in active learning. Through classroom mathematical discussions, students learn through each other as well as learning to teach others their own strategies to solving problems. As I fully understand, children and adults can really benefit by explaining their reasoning and approaches to someone. Orally explaining things help students sort out their thoughts and methods as well as clear up any misconceptions that they may have or others may have. Stein also makes a point to discuss the importance of providing high level tasks for children to work through. These provide opportunities for rich math discussions because there are multiple solutions or methods that can be employed to figure out the problems. Through these multiple methods, each student could discuss his/her individual method to their peers. This allows everyone to get numerous strategies to solving one problem.
Stein, M. K. (2001) Mathematical argumentation: Putting the umph into classroom discussion. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 7(2), 110‐112.
Atkins article discusses the importance of actively listening to each speaker to fully grasp what each child is trying to say. It stresses the significance of having an open-minded classroom environment where discussion is advocated and children feel comfortable to overtly ask questions without worry of judgment. In these classrooms, everyone takes on a role of a teacher by asking for expansion and clarification if they do not understand what a person is trying say. Teachers need to anticipate possible confusion and really listen to what the students need in order to assist their growth.
Atkins, S. (1999, January). Listening to students: The power of mathematical conversations. Teaching Children Mathematics, 289‐295.
Kazemi’s article on promoting conceptual understanding focuses on how to monopolize classroom discussion and make it beneficial to each student. This is rooted in the notion that children need to explain their rationale for figuring out their solutions. It places an emphasis on the process of figuring out the answers instead of just giving the answer. It not only helps the child figure out what steps they took to get to the answer but it helps guide the listeners through their thought process. The justification for this method is that if a child knows how to solve the problem, then they should be able to apply this method to any problem that is similar to the one they had already solved because they already know the process instead of just getting the answers without a reason.
Kazemi, E. (1998, March). Discourse that promotes conceptual understanding. Teaching Children Mathematics, 410‐414.
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