While reading Chapin, I felt like all of the talk moves stood out. Each talk move stemmed from another and promoted better instruction and learning for the students. However, I felt like talk move 1, revoicing, was the most important because it helps to maintain clear lines of communication between one's thoughts and his or her explanation. Revoicing is also important for those on the other end of the conversation because it helps to clarify any confusion in the talk. As Chapin states, "When students talk about mathematics, it's often very difficult to understand what they say" (Chapin, 2009). Too often, mathematic classrooms are lecture-based, not allowing for any student talk to occur.
In many classrooms, mathematics is demonstrated through steps or procedures rather than talk. For example as I traveled through grade school, one would demonstrate his or her understanding of an idea by showing his or her work on the chalkboard. Many times, the student's demonstration contained little or no talk. It was evident through the student's work if he or she properly completed the problem. Math class was practically silent besides the teacher lecturing for so many years. On a rare occasion, the teacher would ask for someone to explain his or her ideas. This was always extremely difficult because math students are trained to explain their ideas through numbers or symbols, never through talk. Teaching kids the importance of talk at a young age will help to eliminate the uncomfortable feeling of explaining mathematic ideas through talk.
Revoicing is extremely important because it helps students to clarify their thoughts so they are clearly understood. As Chapin and myself explain, talking about mathematical ideas is difficult. Revoicing helps to track one's ideas and provides the best possible explanation. Through my prior experiences, I have seen how useful revoicing can be and through Chapin's examples, I can see how easily it can be applied.
Jessica- Great blog post! I think that all five of the talk moves were very interesting in getting students to have a deeper understanding of mathematical ideas and thought processes. I agree with your findings on revocing. I think that having students repeat to one another what they are to be doing is helpful because learning from peers is always (in my view) just as important if not more important than learning from an adult. Students can relate to each other deeper than a student can relate to their teacher (in most cases) and for a student to hear from another student what they are to be doing or retold what they are doing they will understand it better. In my class when a direction is given and a student comes up to me five minutes later asking me what they are supposed to be doing- I say first, "We're you listening to my directions?" they usually tell me yes but I did not understand what you were asking or I don't get it. To them I then say I gave a time for asking questions and understanding, why didn't you ask? I then tell them to go ask another student who sits next to them what they are supposed to be doing. After that- I usually don't get another question from that student because they understand what they are to be doing. Revoicing is a great tool to use during math and reading your blog post and sarah's was super helpful in thinking about how our students are thinking about math!
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