Talk Moves- Amy Benson

Though I thought this week’s reading was helpful, I was a little surprised by the topic. Since we are being taught to teach in a “new age”, I feel like a lot of these strategies have already been engrained in us. I didn’t realize that these strategies had categories and names; I simply thought that education was moving in a more student led direction in general, and that over time teaching has reflected these changes. It is hard for me to choose one strategy that stood out to me the most, as I think the chapter illustrated that they all seem to flow smoothly together. I think the strategy that comes the LEAST naturally for me is Wait Time. I’ve heard over and over again, from countless CT’s, that it is so important to develop Wait Time. As a new teacher, I think the idea of Wait Time is a little scary. It all sounds great, but when you’re actually doing it, it feels like failure. It is hard to allow the room to sit in silence for minutes without feeling like you must have done something wrong or not explained something clearly enough (I actually think Wait Time is also a great, but somewhat unnatural, strategy for classroom management as well). The talk move that seems the most natural to me is Adding On. I think that I am always pretty conscious of which students have spoken during discussion and which students haven’t, and I’m always trying to make sure that everyone has a turn. I think it is important to make sure that every student feels like an important part of the conversation and that the rest of the class is interested in what they have to say. I really like that Chapin highlighted the importance of establishing a classroom community in which “all students have the opportunity to engage in productive talk about mathematics”.