Kids Love to Talk

Kids Love to Talk

As teachers, we often say things like "My class is so chatty" or "My class won't stop talking." Let's face it- Kids love to talk! Do you want to hear a secret? I love it! I adore listening to my students talk. The things that come out of their mouths can be downright hilarious. If you listen close enough, you'll notice kids have such a unique angle on everything. So how can we use this love for communicating to improve learning in our classrooms? We do this by making talk a regular and welcomed part of our daily routine. If you know me, you know I love Kagan. I've entirely engrossed my self in learning, teaching, and maintaining Kagan structures in my classroom. I mainly focus on these structures during Language Arts. But, math has become my new Kagan obsession. I recently attended a two-day Elementary Kagan Math training, and it was fabulous!  So I am here to report on what I learned and how I will incorporate it into my math block. 

Do you want to meet mathematical challenges by teaching for understanding?

Would you like your students to boost communication as they explain their mathematical thinking? 

As I began to organize my thoughts to write this blog, I was a little overwhelmed. I learned over 20+ different Kagan structures to use during math instruction at the training. I left full of knowledge but a little scatterbrained on which structures to adopt first and which to put on the backburner. So I am going only to give you a few that I already am or plan on incorporating into each part of my Eureka math lessons.  

Who's ready to create a room full of individuals with different backgrounds and experiences who become a caring community of active learners?

Just because it's how my mind works, I organized this section by Eureka Math lesson areas. Just a note, many of these structures can be used in multiple parts of a lesson.

Fluency

There are so many structures you can use for fluency activities. Here are a few.  

• Team Line Ups-Participants line up according to some pre-established criteria. Line ups can be used to make smaller teams (fold the line to make face partners, shoulder partners, count off by 4's, etc.) and can be used to promote communication and develop concepts. 
• Each student is given a number, and they line up in number order, by 2's. 5's or 10's (skip counting).
• Each student is given a shape, and they line up by the number of sides.
• Each student is given a fact to solve, and they line up according to the product.  
• Line up according to a fraction or rounded number.
• Each student has a length of string and line up according to the length.
• Estimation of items in a jar
• Rally Robin- You can use the line up to have students talk in pairs or work with a shoulder or face partner at their table. When they Rally Robin, they speak back and forth by alternating oral responses. Students can...
• skip count
• count forwards or backward
• tell how many ways to make a number (5+5=10, 4+6=10, etc..)
• name two dimensional or 3-dimensional shapes
• Rally Table- You can use the line up to have students work in pairs or work with their face or shoulder partner at their table. Rally Table is students working in pairs; students take turns generating written responses or solving problems. Students take turns passing a paper and pencil (whiteboard), each writing one answer or making a contribution. This can be used in many ways...
• fact practice (+,-, x, /)-Sprints
• 100 chart
• filling in a place value chart
• finding 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less
• Quiz-Quiz-Trade Students quiz a partner, get quizzed by a partner and then trade cards to repeat the process with a new partner.
• fact practice (+,-, x, /)
• missing numbers
• rounding
• finding 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, 100 less
• Rally Coach-Students sit in pairs. Students share a paper and pencil. A solves, B coaches, and praises. Then they switch. This works well with quick one answer problems.
• Sprints

Application Problem (Word Problem)-There are many structures you can use for an application problem. Here are a few. 

• Round Robin- (team speaking) Students go around the table speaking - in teams, students take turns responding orally, solving a problem, breaking a problem down step-by-step 
• 1. Teacher assigns a topic or question with multiple possible answers 
• 2. In teams, students respond orally, each, in turn, taking about the same amount of time. (30 seconds each) 
• Variations: 
• All Write Round Robin: each student records each other student's answer on their own paper. 
• All Write Consensus: after reaching consensus, each student records each other student's answer on their own paper. 
• Think-Write-RoundRobin: students think about their response, then independently write it down before the RoundRobin 
• Single Round Robin: the team does just one round of sharing, each teammate getting one turn. 
• Continuous Round Robin: each student adds to the discussion/list. It goes around many times. 
• Timed Round Robin: each student shares in turn for a specified time. 
• Instant Star -Students are randomly called to stand and share with their teammates. I like to use this strategy for students to orally tell their team how they would solve the problem before they solve it.  
• Teacher asks a question. 
• Teacher calls for think time. 
• Teacher randomly calls a number. 
• The student on each team with that number stands and shares her/his thought or answer with teammates. 
• For high consensus questions, teammates praise or coach, if needed. For low consensus questions, teammates praise the thinking that went into the answer.
• Rally Table- Students working in pairs/teams; students take turns generating written responses or solving problems. Students take turns passing a paper and pencil (whiteboard), each writing one answer or making a contribution.

Concept Development- A majority of the time, I bring my students to the rug with the manipulatives required. My students always sit next to their shoulder partner on the rug. Students usually bring whiteboards to the rug for concept development.

• Think Pair Share- A problem is posed, students think alone about the problem for a specified amount of time, then form pairs to discuss the question and share it with the class.
• This structure is useful when introducing or reviewing a topic.  
• This structure also gauges how much students already know or need to know about what you are teaching that day. 
• Sage and Scribe-This structure helps me to know if my students are ready to be released to begin their Problem set. I pose a question to see if each partner can use math academic language to tell their partner how to solve a problem. It's interesting to hear one partner explain it and see how the other partner interprets it.  
• Shoulder partners work together for about 5 minutes. 
• Partner A tells Partner B what to do. B does what A says. 
• Switch roles

Problem Set- I choose these structures based on students' ability of the skill. This determines if they will work in teams, pairs or solo. This is also the time I can pull a small group of students who need some extra assistance.  

• Team-Pair-Solo-Students solve problems first as a team, then with a pair and finally solo. If students struggle with teams, we stick to teams and keep trying. Just as with a team, if they struggle in pairs, we skip solo.  
• Rally Table- Students working in pairs, students take turns generating written responses or solving problems. Students take turns passing a paper and pencil, each writing one answer or making a contribution. This works well for multi-step problems. Rally table is fantastic for kids who are unsure because they can do one small step and then pass the paper. 
• Rally Coach-Students sit in pairs. Students share a paper and pencil. A solves, B coaches, and praises. Then they switch. This works well with quick one answer problems.

I have my work cut out for me.  I've been using some of these structures regularly, have introduced a few new structures and need to teach the rest.  I believe at getting really good at a few and then adding more.  It's a work in progress but we are having fun along the way!  

Positively Teaching,  

Randi Muehlen