Smith, M. S., Hughes, E. K., Engle, R. A., Stein, M. K. (May 2009). Orchestrating discussions. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 14 (9), 548-556.
Orchestrating discussions in a classroom can be a difficult task for a teacher and requires much preparation on the teacher's part. These authors have developed a five practice model that helps teachers effectively use student responses during in-class discussions in a manageable way. The five points are; anticipating student responses, monitoring student' work and engagement on tasks, selecting particular students to present their work, choosing a specific order in which students present, and connecting student' responses to other students ideas and key concepts. The authors discuss in depth how to use each of these practices and how each can help "build on and honor student thinking" while ensuring that the key mathematical concepts are taught. An example of a task about fractions, ratios, and percentages using marbles is used to show different student responses and an efficient way to use those responses to teach statistics. The authors believe that by giving teachers a road map to follow in class discussions, teachers can better use class discussions in a effective way.
Overall, I think this was a very insightful and helpful article, and I believe that this model can be very helpful. As a student who has not yet had to do this type of classroom discussion yet, I may not fully understand the difficulty of orchestrating classroom discussions. Yet, I believe that by using this model, a teacher will be able to give their lesson plans more potency. In the example the article gave about a task concerning marbles, the authors show clearly how this model of teaching can be implemented, and how it can help class room discussions. I have also seen examples of teachers who have used other models to control class discussions ineffectively, and i think using this model would have been helpful for them. Although this model may take more time and better planning by a teacher, in the end it will save the teacher time and energy.
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Wow what an awesome post. It was very clear and concise. I liked your critique of the article. I would have liked to see more negative critique or anything that you disagreed with in the article, and also make sure not to forget to italicize where we're supposed to in your citation. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job summarizing the article.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the second paragraph could have been strengthened by more specific reasons and specific examples of the models and why they worked or didn't work.
This sounds like a very interesting topic, as i'm sure many teachers attempt to set up their class room with the same discussions. I can see how it would be very beneficial to help the teacher with the lesson plan but how would it impact the students learning? Good job on the summary, I felt like you hit all the main ideas very well.
ReplyDeleteNo one makes math sound as hot as you do
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