The Best Question for Open Ended Math Talk
Maybe you’re a parent helping your child develop math skills. Maybe you’re a teacher looking for some new strategies to use in your Math class. Talking about math with children – and more importantly, having your child talk about math – is one of the best ways to help them learn.
What is the Purpose of Math Talk?
The one doing is the one learning. Students need the chance to do math. They need to measure things. They need to find patterns. They need to use real math tools. They also need to talk about math.
Talking about math helps students develop the seven mathematical processes:
- reasoning
- problem solving
- reflecting
- reasoning and proving
- connecting
- representing
- tools and computational strategies
- communication
Edugains is a great website with resources related to the 7 mathematical processes, such as this bookmark with sentence starters for developing math talk. It also has guidelines for whole class math talk: waiting, explaining, rephrasing, agreeing/disagreeing, building on, and extending the ideas that are shared.
Math talk also reveals to teachers what students understand and what misconceptions they may have. With pencil and paper tasks, teachers tend to make assumptions about students’ understanding. In talking about math, it is clear what students know and don’t know.
What is the Difference Between Math Talk and a Number Talk?
Math talk and number talks are two separate parts of a math program. Although they sound similar, there’s an important difference. Number talks are structured mini-lessons that build on specific math skills. Math talk is all conversations about math.
My Favourite Question for Open Ended Math Talk
You can start a math lesson about ANYTHING with this one phrase:
How can you use math to talk about ____?
Here is a video example of how I use this question with a 5-year-old and 3-year-old.
You can show a picture, a collection of items, or notice objects in your home or class environment. On Twitter, @MathBeforeBed posts great pictures to provoke math thinking.
What to Say to Encourage Children to Use Math Talk
Sometimes, when you’re learning to use open ended questions in Math, it helps to have a few go-to questions or phrases for furthering children’s thinking. Sharing these with students to encourage them to talk to each other will help encourage math talk during group work.
- Tell me more.
- Explain your thinking.
- I noticed that you ___. Can you tell me about that?
- Why did you choose that strategy?
- Does it work the same way every time?
Math Talk Posters and Printables
These are open-ended math journal prompts that encourage students to use metacognition and “think about their thinking” in math. It also addresses the feelings students have about math, consistent with the 2020 Ontario Math Curriculum.
I glue this PDF to the inside cover of my students’ Math Journals. They choose one sentence starter each day, at the end of our Math block.
Some days, I will assign a particular question that I want everyone to respond to, for diagnostic and formative assessment purposes.
They are 8.5×11″ page in size. If you choose to print two on one page, they’ll fit in a small exercise book.
Check out more of my blog posts about Math here.
