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How comfortable did you feel sharing your ideas with the whole group at the beginning of the year? What about now?
I know that the classroom community plays a large part in student participation in mathematical discourse, so I wanted to get the students' perspective on it. For these two questions, students answered on a Likert scale where 1 was "Not at all comfortable" and 5 was "Very comfortable." 50% of students expressed that their comfort level went up, with 40% reporting the same comfort level now as at the beginning of the year, and only 1 student reporting that he feels less comfortable sharing now than at the beginning of the year. The mean score of student comfort at the beginning of the year was 2.9, compared to the mean score of student comfort now at 3.6.
How much support do you feel like the teacher gives you when you are sharing? When you are engaging with others' ideas?
Through my research, I saw that teacher moves play a large part in student participation in mathematical discourse (Wood et al., 2019). Was I supporting students with sharing their thinking and engaging with others' thinking? Students mostly seem to think that, yes, I am. Students feel more supported when sharing their own thinking (mean of 4.15), and slightly less supported when engaging with others' ideas (mean of 3.8).
Did you enjoy math in 4th grade? Do you enjoy math in 5th grade?
Because I use a lot of mathematical discourse and problem solving tasks in my classroom, I know 5th grade math probably looks quite a bit different for my students than their 4th grade math class. As part of finding out how students experience mathematical discourse, I decided to ask students if they liked math in 4th grade and do they like math now. One student who went No to Yes said "The math in 5th grade is challenging but fun and it doesn’t make me feel like other kids are way better." Another student who went from Yes to No said, "I don’t really like math in 5th grade because it’s challenging but it also helps me learn more than in 4th grade." Four of the students who liked 4th grade math but do not like 5th grade math said some variation of "The math this year is harder."
Community building is always a high priority at the beginning of the year, but being friends does not necessarily mean that students feel comfortable being vulnerable by sharing their mathematical thinking. Students generally became more comfortable through the year, as they experienced more mathematical discourse. I encouraged students to work together to solve problems and explain their thinking to each other in pairs, helping to build and solidify their mathematical identities. Encouraging students to then share their thinking with the whole group helped them to identify both themselves and others as capable mathematicians, further building our mathematical community and opportunities for more meaningful discourse (Wood, 2019). As students experience more opportunities to engage with mathematical discourse, and see that, even if wrong, their thoughts are respected and valued, it makes sense that they would be more comfortable as the year goes on.
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