CPM Glossary

Although IRE is the most common type of Teacher-Student discourse, talk moves are a better option.  The secret to talk moves is not to evaluate, but question for better discourse without acknowledging if the response was right or wrong.  Talk moves can work at the small team level or in a whole class discussion. Here are the four types of talk moves. (O'Connor and Chapin)

Elicit Student Thinking (what are the students thinking and saying?)

• Turn and Talk "Share your thinking with your partner"

• Revoicing "Are you saying that.....?"

• Say More "Could you give us an example?" or "Would someone else say that in their own words?" or "I'm not sure I understand what you are saying, could you say more?"

Orient Students to the Thinking of Others (Are the students listening and understanding what others are saying?)

• Repeating "Who can repeat what was said?"

• Sharing Out "What did your partner think?"

• Surveying Access "Can everyone hear what is being said?"

• Focusing Attention on Student Thinking "As we listen to this response, think about how it is the same or different than what we talked about yesterday?"

Deepen Student Understanding (How can I make this more meaningful?)

• Press for Reasoning "Why do you think that?"

• Having Reasoning Repeated in Multiple Ways "Who can put that in their own words?"

• Find a Student Who is Unconvinced "Erin is not convinced, Who can explain why that is true?"

• Turn and Talk, Prompting students to make sense of reasoning "Talk about Marla's idea"

Students Response to the Reasoning of Others (How can students build on this idea?)

• Press for reactions "Do you agree or disagree? Why?" or "What does Marla's statement make you think of?"

• Compare or Contrast "Is what Erin said the same or different than what Marla said? How?"

• Invite Challenges "Who sees it differently?" or "Can someone make a counter-argument?"

• Turn and Talk "Talk to your partner about whether or not you agree with Erin?"

The Task Manager keeps the team focused on the assignment of the day. He or she works to keep the team discussing the math at hand and intervenes if anyone is talking outside of her/his team. Additionally, a Task Manager helps the team focus on articulating the reasoning behind the math statements they make as the well as the answers that are proposed.

Typically, a teacher could expect to hear a Task Manager saying:

“Ok, let’s get back to work!”

“Let’s keep working.”

“What does the next question say?”

“Explain how you know that.”

“Can you prove that?”

“Tell me why!”

One of the eight Mathematics Teaching Practices from Principles to Actions that needs to be a consistent component of every mathematics lesson.  Effective teaching of mathematics engages students in solving and discussing tasks that promote mathematical reasoning and problem solving and allow multiple entry points and varied solution strategies.

The Teacher Toolkit - Collaboration, Pacing, and Routines is a module within the Professional Learning Portal that provides teacher testimonials from experienced teachers regarding the routines and procedures they use to support student learning in their own classrooms.

When implementing new instruction strategies, it is not only important to make obvious the intellectual practices involved in completing and evaluating learning tasks, but also to explain the intent of your practice to your students. Each strategy and classroom expectation should be accompanied by an explanation of how that intentional act will positively impact the students' learning.

Read the article Teacher Transparency , by John Hayes, in the May 2020 CPM Newsletter.  

Mode of Instruction: Teamwork           Purpose: Team discussion and decision making

Objective: To establish mathematics goals to focus learning, teams utilize an established routine to begin problem solving by making sure all members know the goals and learning progression.

Teammates Consult is an effective strategy to use for problem solving and concept development situations. It allows the students an opportunity to think and discuss the problem before actually writing anything down.

• All pencils and calculators are set aside (no writing).

• Students read the problem or question individually.

• Students get approximately 1 minute of individual think time.

• Students take turns sharing and discussing the problem for clarity.

• Students share possible strategies or next steps.

• Teacher gives okay for pencils to be picked up and written work to begin.

A reading strategy where text is read silently and individuals are asked to describe what they say (the authors say) about the topic; interpret what the reader thinks about the topic (I say); and then the reader writes what the topic means to them (so what). This is shared with a partner, group and/or whole class. 

This could be done on your Learning Management System or on a document that all students have access to.

You could assign each student a Team Role ahead of time and then pair up team roles (i.e. Facilitators are paired with Resource Manager)

In your LMS, create a Forum with your prompt. Students write an entry and then read and comment on another a partners entry.  Partners are determined by their team role.

On a Google Doc, put the prompt at the top.  Have each student write an entry and then read their partners and comment or question on what they read.

This could be done with whiteboards so that the writing is large enough for distanced students to see each others work.

It could also be done with a Google Doc.  The teacher posts a prompt in a document or sheet. Have each student write an entry and then read their partners and comment or question on what they read.  Teachers would monitor the time and give students verbal feedback about the amount of time left.