yTaking Action Book Study: Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking

Reflect:

After reading Chapter 8, please reflect on the questions below and post your response by Monday. Feel free to respond to any the questions provided or share something else that you intentionally did differently in regards to using student thinking within your lesson.

Please note: the prompts below are to help you reflect. There is not an expectation for you to respond to all {or even any} of the provided questions!

Respond:

Eliciting and Using Evidence of Student Thinking

Select a lesson that you will soon be teaching centered on a task that promotes reasoning and problem solving and has the potential to elicit multiple solution paths among your students.

Establish clear mathematics learning goals for the lesson and consider what students might say, do or write as evidence of their thinking related to the goals.
Anticipate the solution strategies, both correct and incorrect, that students might use in working on the task, and create a monitoring chart for tracking student thinking.
Teach the lesson and reflect on the extent to which you elicited and made use of student thinking and the impact on student learning.

Interact:

On Tuesday, read your colleagues' reflections and respond to at least one other post by sharing a comment, insight, or interesting possibility by Friday.

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shawnseeleydotcom 44p · 260 weeks ago

What really stood out to me as I read this chapter was that I don't really provide my students with many opportunities to implement writing during math instruction. We have plenty of discussion in my math classes, but writing seems to be primarily confined to justification problems in performance tasks. I like the idea of having students reflect on their understanding after having a discussion, using the Think-Talk-Write protocol mentioned in the chapter. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to implement this with emergency remote learning taking place, but I could perhaps have students reflect verbally through Screencastify as they explain their understanding of certain problems.

1 reply · active 255 weeks ago

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Susan Heater (TSD) · 255 weeks ago

My teammate uses math journals in her classroom daily and i plan to implement them in the coming year. She is very excited about the writing because it allows for more justification and reasoning, and allows her as the teacher to see their thoughts.Using Screencastify to explain their thinking is an interesting idea! We are moving into our fraction unit, and I think that could be incredibly helpful!

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Caty Carino · 259 weeks ago

One thing that I reflected on while reading this chapter is the importance of writing in math. Often, math is always taught to be fast an quick paced. I have really slowed math down when focusing on justification. I think justification was a good way to start introducing writing to math. Students actually had to take their time to explain their thinking and prove why they are right. Reading and writing are so relative in math in developing deeper understanding of math problems. As for next year, I think it would be important to start integrating writing and math together more. So students become more comfortable with explaining, looking for patterns, and connecting prior knowledge to their thinking.

I also love the idea of using student thinking to advance learning. I know every year I will revisit certain concepts where I am like"oh yeah! Students came up with this last year" and there are often times where I forget and we have the same struggles all over again.

1 reply · active 259 weeks ago

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Stephanie Clement · 259 weeks ago

Hi Caty!
Yes! I thought the same thing. Students always want to skip those types of response questions when really they are so important. Explaining their thinking can be challenging but it really shows you their level of understanding. I like your idea of integrating writing and math more next year. I want to do the same :)

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Stephanie Clement · 259 weeks ago

Chapter 8 had me thinking about some new types of tasks. Being intentional with the task is so important. The teacher in this chapter was intentional with students making a group of 10. The tasks was hands on so they were engaged. They came up with two different ways to make a 10 and then had to compare and contrast the two leading them to the understanding that they both still make a 10. Same with the even and odd activity. Students worked in small groups with manipulatives to find ways to explain why 8 is an even number. It was a challenge for them, but what an engaging way for them to be able to explain why at the end. I think it is so great when kids are able to come to that conclusion on their own, by participating in hands on experiences or rich tasks. When they come to that conclusion on their own, they are more likely to remember it and use that skill in the future. This is way more impactful then me just telling them a “rule” or “trick”. When students are able to complete a task and explain their thinking this means that they are truly understanding it. If teachers are using tasks that show and elicit student thinking then they are able to decipher what they understand, what is muddled, and then determine instructional next steps.

2 replies · active 256 weeks ago

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shawnseeleydotcom 44p · 259 weeks ago

Stephanie,

I'm trying to figure out how I can use tasks during emergency remote learning. One thought I have is to make a Google Slide and to present it in a Google Meet, asking for student input in the Stream on Google Classroom. Then, I can address student thoughts by reading their responses. I'm going to try it out this next week with some simple tasks that review material. By not recording students in Google Meet, I can record the video and post it for students to watch later if they can't attend the live session.

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Caty Carino · 256 weeks ago

Hi Stephanie,

I think that this book and learning we have done has showed me that there is not one way to do things and that the trick or algorithm is not the only way. It has made be more open to learning and listening to students when they have a different way.

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Susan Heater (TSD) · 255 weeks ago

I tend to use the Puzzled Penguin questions from the math journal on the wipe boards now. What this chapter is reminding me is that writing in mathematics is important. When the kids do the Puzzled Penguin questions together, I feel it allows for a lot of productive mathematical discourse. I have them share their answers with the class, but rarely have them actually write their answers on paper. I would like to implement a journal for the kids in which they are writing about math. The Odd and Even Task on page 192 really inspires me to implement this next year. Having them describe their observations and justify their claims with examples is following math practices 2 and 3. When the kids write about math, you can really see their thinking. Even if they can get a correct solution to a presented problem, they may not understand why it works or why we use that method to solve. Asking them to write about strategies or justify claims with evidence really opens up where they are coming from.

1 reply · active 254 weeks ago

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Julie Rodriquez · 254 weeks ago

Susan, From reading the posts above, I can see we all see the need (and the value) of implementing more writing into our math lessons. I, too, focus a lot on the student talk piece, and use writing less. I loved the strategy shared on page 208 called "Think-Talk-Write" and would like to try using this next year. I think this would be especially beneficial for my students who need more processing time.

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Julie Rodriquez · 254 weeks ago

Some ideas that stood out in Chapter 8 for me were:
1. Continue to create tasks that allow students to "play" and create understanding of the mathematical concepts. In fifth grade I could take the idea of the "Make Ten" task and have students "Make One" with fractions or decimals, where they use manipulatives to create at least two ways to create a fraction sentence equal to one (or another number of my choice). I would also use this concept when learning about volume. Students could be asked to create two rectangular prisms with a volume of 16 cubic units.
2. We need to continue valuing time for student talk and writing. Our grade level has had a focus this year of having our students justifying their thinking (defend their answers). I am seeing students having to explain their understanding and grapple with the words needed to make sense of their own thinking. This guides me in knowing which questions to ask and what next steps I need to take in instruction, whether whole group, small group or individually.
3. From page 191, slowing the pace to allow students to explore, talk and write about their thinking provides time for students to process.
There are always so many great ideas shared in each of these chapters that inspire me.

yTaking Action Book Study

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