Routine 1: Tell Me Everything You Know About ____________
Directions
- Choose a word or phrase that is the focus of your first curriculum unit. This could be something like: fractions, addition and subtraction, shapes, data, multiplication, etc. If students are introduced to that concept for the first time during the unit, such as volume in fifth grade, use a term like ‘measurement’ to elicit prior knowledge related to volume.
- Write your chosen concept or topic at the top of a piece of chart paper.
- Prompt students, “Tell me everything you know about [your chosen topic].”
- Give students 1 minute of independent think time and then 1 minute to quickly tell a partner one thing they are going to share with the whole class.
- As a whole group, record students’ ideas on the poster as they share.
- When they are finished, ask if there are any ideas on the chart paper they have questions about. This is a good opportunity for students to ask clarifying questions of one another, revise their thinking, and agree or disagree with others’ ideas. You do not need to come to a final conclusion on each point of disagreement, especially if it is something they will learn in the unit. Simply just mark that idea with a question mark and revisit it later.
- If there is time, you could start another poster with the prompt, “Tell me everything you wonder or have questions about [your chosen topic].” This communicates that sharing things they wonder and asking questions are part of learning. The information you’ll learn about student thinking will be extremely helpful going into the first unit.
- As you move through the first unit, refer back to the poster frequently and ask students if they would like to add anything new or revise a previous idea.
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Routine 2: Talking Points
Directions
- Arrange students in groups of 3 or 4.
- Print a copy of the talking points for each group.
- As a class, review how each round works. The first time you do this, it might be helpful to also model the process with a fun talking point such as, “A hot dog is a sandwich.”
ROUND 1 – Read the first talking point aloud. Take turns going around the group, with each person saying in turn whether they AGREE, DISAGREE, or are UNSURE about the statement and why. Even if you are unsure, you must state a reason why you are unsure. As each person shares, no one else comments. You are free to change your mind during Round 2 and/or Round 3.
ROUND 2 – Go around the group a second time, with each person saying whether they AGREE, DISAGREE, or are UNSURE about their own statement OR about someone else’s agreement, disagreement, or uncertainty from Round 1. As each person shares, no one else comments. You are free to change your mind again during Round 3.
ROUND 3 – Go around the group a third time to take a tally of AGREE / DISAGREE /UNSURE votes and record that number on your Talking Points sheet. Then, move on to the next talking point.
Sample Student Handout with Third Grade Talking Points
| Talking Point | Agree | Disagree | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractions are always less than 1. | |||
| A fraction is a number. | |||
| We can locate fractions on a number line. | |||
| Fractions tell us a size. | |||
| One half is always greater than one third. | |||
| We can combine fractions. |
Sample Math Mindset Prompts
- Being good at math means being able to do math problems quickly.
- A person is either good at math or bad at math.
- I prefer to work on problems that challenge me rather than ones I find easy.
- When working in a small group, if one person knows how to solve the problem, they should show the others in their group how to do it.
- There is always one best way to do math.
- Getting a problem wrong in math means you failed.
- Drawing a picture is always helpful when doing math.
Sample Math Content Prompts
- 5 is the most important number.
- The number 146 only has 4 tens.
- Fractions are numbers.
- When multiplying, the product is always greater than the factors.
- Division of fractions is just like division of whole numbers.
- The opposite of a number is always a negative number.
- It is easier to work with decimals than with fractions.
- For any equation with one variable, there is one best way to solve for the variable.
- It is easier to work with degrees than with radians.
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