I like Maths Talk. You like Maths Talk.

I really like the idea of a daily Maths Talk. It seems like a fab way to build in maths understand daily. At Orleans we had morning 'Maths Meetings' which were a bit like a Maths Talk. We talked about the weather and the date and then looked at a times table and

a part-part-whole scenario. I am not sure that it deepened understanding, rather was more about the repeated recall of KIRFs.

According to Meli & North, maths talk discuss, explore and share their understanding in order to develop deeper understanding and to develop an culture of questioning in the classroom. I also like the fact that it has nothing to do with speed and more to do with seeing the links between mathematical structures. Could this reduce maths anxiety?

According to Parrish (2011) there are 5 stages to the Maths talks:

1. Environment - a safe place to make mistakes and share confidence

2. Communication and discussion to dispel misconceptions

3. Teacher's role in questioning and listening

4. Fluency helps! (but maths talk helps with fluency)

5. carefully choses problems to discuss

Concerns about maths talk:

• what is the chat doesn't materialise?

• will the students see the value of other methods?

How to get over the concerns:

• Collaborative working

• comparing methods

• looking for links

• asking probing questions

• using student ideas to guide discussions

How might I include Maths Talks in my practise?

I love the idea of having it as a registration activity. This ensures it doesn't get skipped. I think it would have real value to make maths less scary and just normalise all the different strategies that the children will be learning. It could also be a great assessment tool to see which children are fluent or not. Would it be beneficial to center the talk around what we are learning? Of maybe a good way to incorporate recall? It's a great way to think about the 'good' mistake as well.

I found these visuals, which might be useful:

Ground rules - always good!

Looks like - sounds like......

Ways to go about discussions in Maths talk to that we respect difference opinions.