Activities designed to support the development of explanation, justification, and argumentation.
Many of the activities for the Discourse Strand were adapted from Mathematics Discourse in Secondary Classrooms: A Practice-Based Resource for Professional Learning, written by Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Michelle Cirillo, Michael Steele, Samuel Otten, and Kate Johnson. It is available for purchase from MathSolutions.
Due to copyright, we are not allowed to publish details of the activities on this website. Below you will find activity overviews and the description of the resource from which more information can be obtained.
Language Spectrum: Textbooks & the Math Register
“In this activity, participants will delve deeper into characteristics of the Mathematics Register. Most mathematics textbooks have at least two sections that students need to engage with: the explanatory information that acts as a written type of ‘lecture’ and text that requires students to do something (e.g., work on examples). In this activity, we provide excerpts of both of these types: texts A an dB are of the former type and … text E is of the latter type” (Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2018, p. 36). Participants focus on finding examples of the Mathematics Register in each text example.
Reflecting on Classroom Discourse
This activity introduces participants to the IRE (initiate-respond-evaluate) interaction pattern that is pervasive in mathematics classroom discourse (Mehan, 1979). It then engages participants in considering other interaction patterns and how specific teacher discourse moves can support these other interaction patterns.
Teacher Discourse Moves
This activity introduces participants to specific teacher discourse moves (TDMs): waiting, inviting, revoicing, asking, probing, and creating. “One goal of this activity is to have participants begin to recognize what the TDMs may look like in classrooms and to become aware of the intended purposes of the moves” (Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2018, p. 120).
Teacher Discourse Moves & Positioning
This activity (re)introduces participants to ideas of positioning in mathematics classrooms and has participants identify student participation and positioning in The Case of the Hidden Triangles transcript.
Analysis of Linear Functions Classroom Video
This activity connects well with the Linear Functions Card Sort Activity and is based on The Case of Linear Systems from MDISC resources. Here, participants watch a video of an 8th grade math (not algebra) class working on linear functions (Video 4.2a, Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2018). As they watch the video, they focus on general noticings and wonderings, as well as identifying teacher discourse moves and evidence and examples of positioning (of students, the teacher, and mathematics).
Responding to Deficit Thinking