Speaking and Listening During Math {FREEBIE}

Speaking and listening is a big component in the Common Core Standards.  It is important to understand that speaking and listening should occur in more than reading and ELA time.  Students should be speaking and listening during all subjects, especially during math.

Much of the math standards require students to explain their thinking.  It also requires them to realize that there may be more than one way to solve a problem.

But as the teacher, how do you get them to engage in meaningful conversations without having them give each other the answers?

Here is my solution, and it works!  Obviously you will need to model it and set expectations, but I am at the point where students pull this out and hold each other accountable.

Here is how it works:

In my classroom, I refer to it as our "math mat."  I printed and laminated it for durability.  Each student on the team has a role.

The first student reads the question to the team.  In their own words, they tell the team what the question is asking them to do.  I have included sentence stems on the math mat for my EL students and my shy students.  Their job is to make sure everyone understands the questions.  If they don't, it is their job to explain it again, maybe in a different way.  Then everyone solves the problem independently.  This is where they may see that there are different ways to solve the same problem.

The second person shares their answer with the team.  The rest of the team should be actively listening.  I have included a place for academic vocabulary that I change out with a dry erase marker for the lesson or unit.  It is important that students are using the correct vocabulary.  Everyone on the team shares their answer and explains WHY and HOW.

The third person agrees or disagrees with someone at the table.  Each person gets to do this step as well.  If the team cannot come to an agreement, they need to look at their work and see where the mistakes were made and how they can fix it.  Most of the time, my students come to an agreement.

The fourth person is in charge of telling the group what the answer is (the one they agreed to).  Then everyone either adds to or fixes their answer.

Then you need to hold students accountable.  You need to provide them a rubric on how you are going to grade them.  Don't forget this step.  Remember, students need to be held accountable for their learning.

Here is a sample rubric I have used for word problems, but you can make your own as well.

Remember that you will need to make a rubric for each lesson/unit.  It is all about expectations.

You can grab a copy of my math mat here for FREE!

Holding Students Accountable

Students need to be held accountable for their work.  But how do you do it in a meaningful way?

I have my students set goals not only for their learning, but for their testing.  I do data days throughout the school year.  It allows me to give them an update on their growth and it allows them to evaluate their growth.

As a class, I have this anchor chart up in my room that gets updated weekly.  Our goal is to improve our personal and class average.  We set our goal at 80%.  Each week, I take time to review our scores.  We talk about what happened from week to week.  For example, in this picture, we did well on a vocabulary test, but this past week, we went down.  So we discuss things that may have changed.  Were the words harder this week?  Did I just guess?  Did I practice my vocabulary?  We also talk about what they can do to help contribute to our class average.

Students really love to watch it get updated.  Notice I always keep our best scores up there so students know that we can do it.

I drew this chart on chart paper and then laminated it.  I change the numbers using a sticky note each week.  You can also use a dry erase marker if you prefer.

For each goal they meet (80% or higher), they earn 5 minutes of extra recess for our "Fun Friday."

How do you hold your students accountable for their learning?