managing effective student discourse matt fisher luann malik corinne murawski
TRANSCRIPT
Managing Effective Student DiscourseMatt Fisher
LuAnn Malik
Corinne Murawski
Managing Effective Student Discourse Why is high level classroom discourse so
difficult to facilitate? What knowledge and skills are needed to
facilitate productive discourse? Why is it important? (i.e. Why do we care?)
Teaching is HARD WORK!
Orchestrating classroom discussion that builds on students’ thinking places
specialized pedagogical demands on teachers and requires an extensive and interwoven network of both
pedagogical and content knowledge.
A Brownie Problem I invited 8 people to a party (including me),
and I had 12 brownies. How much did each person get if everyone got a fair share?
Later, my mother got home with 9 more brownies. We can always eat more brownies, so we shared these out equally too. This time, how much brownie did each person get? How much brownie did each person eat altogether?
- Corwin, Russell and Tierney 1990, 76
Social Norms Social Norms are things like explaining
thinking, sharing strategies and collaborating These afford opportunities for students to
engage in conceptual thinking Many teachers attempt to establish these
social norms HOWEVER, SOCIAL NORMS ALONE
MAY NOT ADVANCE CONCEPTUAL THINKING
Sociomathematical Norms Explanations consist of mathematical arguments, not
simply procedural summaries of the steps taken Errors offer opportunities to reconceptualize a
problem and explore contradictions and alternative strategies
Mathematical thinking involves understanding relations among multiple strategies
Collaborative work involves individual accountability and reaching consensus through mathematical argumentation
Adapted from the work of Yackel and Cobb, 1996
“Socioscientific” Norms Scientific argumentation is about sharing, processing, and
learning about ideas. It focuses on ideas, not individuals. Explanations consist of scientific arguments, not simply
procedural summaries of the steps taken or recall of facts. Different conclusions based on patterns of evidence offer
opportunities to explore alternative explanations. Scientific thinking involves understanding the relationship
between theories, hypotheses, and experimental evidence. Collaborative work involves individual accountability and
reaching consensus through scientific argumentationAdapted from the work of Yackel and Cobb, 1996 and Taking Science to School
Discourse for Conceptual Understanding Quantitative analyses indicate that the higher
the press in the classroom, the more the students learn
“Press for Learning” was measured by the degree to which teachers Emphasize student effort Focus on student learning and understanding Support student autonomy Emphasize reasoning more than a correct answer
The Importance of QuestionsTeachers’ questions are crucial in helping students make connections and learn important mathematics and science concepts.
Teachers need to know how students typically think about particular concepts, how to determine what a particular student or group of students thinks about those ideas, and how to help students deepen their understanding.
Weiss & Pasley, 2004
The Importance of Questions
Asking questions that reveal students’ knowledge about mathematics allows teachers to design instruction that responds to and builds on this knowledge.
NCTM, 2000
Teachers provoke students’ reasoning about mathematics through the tasks they provide and the questions they ask.
NCTM, 1991
Patterns of InteractionTeacher: What kind of mathematical
relationship does the equation y = 2x + 5 show?
Student: A linear relationship
Teacher: Okay. It’s a linear relationship
Patterns of InteractionTeacher: What kind of mathematical
relationship does the equation y = 2x + 5 show? [Initiation]
Student: A linear relationship [Response]
Teacher: Okay. It’s a linear relationship [Feedback]
Patterns of Interaction Although this form of interaction, called IRF,
was identified and described over 25 years ago, it is still prevalent in classrooms today
- Stigler and Heibert, 1999 This type of interaction has been shown to
lead students through a predetermined set of information and does little to encourage students to express their thinking.
- Cazden, 1988, Nystrand 1997
The Role of Questioning in Instruction
Read the vignette on pages 562 – 563 of the article, Unveiling Student Understanding: The Role of Questioning in Instruction
The Role of Questioning in Instruction What are your impression of the vignette and the
discourse that did or did not occur?
What can you say about the “press” in this classroom?
How would you characterize the teacher’s questions?
How do you characterize the students’ responses?
What can you say about what students knew or learned by the end of the episode?
Analyzing QuestionsForm
Closed form seeks a particular answer.
Open form are aimed at promoting description,explanation, solution method, strategies, etc.
Analyzing Questions
Look at the specific questions from the vignette and think about the form.
How does the form influence what is learned by the teacher about student thinking?
How does the form influence the level of discourse in the classroom?
Analyzing Questions
Read the vignette (example 2) on page 485 of the article, Questioning our Patterns of Questioning
How does this vignette compare/contrast with the previous vignette?
Think about the form of the questions. How do they affect the outcome of the discussion?
Questioning: Funneling or Focusing
Funneling occurs when a teacher asks a series of questions to guide students through a procedure or to a desired result.
Teacher engages in cognitive activity
Student merely answering questions – often without seeing connections
Questioning: Funneling or Focusing
Focusing requires the teacher to listen to student responses and guide them based on what students are thinking rather than how the teacher would solve the problem.
Allows teacher to learn about student thinking
Requires students to articulate their thinking
Questioning: Funneling or Focusing
Again, consider the vignette (example 2) on page 485 of the article, Questioning our Patterns of Questioning.
What questions would you ask to move from funneling to focusing?
Questioning: Funneling or Focusing
Read example 2 (revised) on pages 487 – 488.
What are the key differences between the example as funneling and the example as focusing?
How might this be applicable in your classrooms?
Do funneling versus focusing questions have any potential influence on the discourse?
Science Writing Heuristic Originally a framework rooted in “writing to
learn” and Elements work well for verbal discourse also:
beginning questions procedure development claims and evidence reading and reflection
Teaching and Learning
Ball and Cohen (2000)
teacher
content
contexts
student(s)
student(s)
Scouts and TentsTake a minute to think about this problem on
your own:
Four tents will house 12 scouts.
If there are 40 tents, how many scouts
will have a place to sleep?
Scouts and Tents Student Work As a group, choose 3 student strategies that you would
want to have shared in a whole class discussion. How would you characterize each of these strategies? In what order would you have these students share? What questions would you ask the student as they are
working at their desk? What questions would you ask the class as they are sharing
their solution? When you decide on how you would order the work,
write your choices on the chart paper up front.
Questions for Student A
Questions for Student B
Questions for Student G
Enactment of a Classroom Episode Ms. V. teaches a combination fourth- and
fifth-grade class in an elementary school in a mid-sized urban city in the Midwest.
She had recently participated with other teachers in professional development programs designed to help teachers understand and build on children’s mathematical reasoning.
The White House held an Easter egg hunt on Monday. For every 16 children that staff hid 20 pink eggs. If there were 36 children, how many pink eggs did they hide?
Ms. V’s Class
Debrief the classroom enactmentUse the transcript to site evidence as you answer
these questions… How would you describe the social
interaction? How would you describe the discourse forms? Do you think the mathematical goal of the
lesson was achieved?
Before you leave… Complete the session evaluation. This is
session D. Take a copy of the Gomez article from the
table by the door.