Facilitating Meaningful Mathematics Discourse

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis begin a season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Facilitating Meaningful Mathematics Discourse.” Our hosts first identify what they mean by discourse and why it is important: that students are able to communicate their mathematical thinking in ways that others can clearly understand for the purpose of furthering their own mathematics learning.

Next, Curtis and Joanie unpack how to get students talking in math class, a necessary condition for meaningful math discourse. Classroom culture is a key element to ensure that students feel safe and comfortable enough to share their mathematical thinking. Implied in this is that the teacher must hold themselves to precision of language as well, and should understand when to require precision from students and when to be more flexible with informal language.

Finally, their conversation suggests that effective math discourse is not improvisational, but rather something teachers can and should plan for, and use as a strategy for an equitable classroom.

Additional referenced content includes:

· NCTM’s Principles to Actions

· NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12

· Strategies for facilitating math discourse in the classroom

· Latrenda Knighten, NCTM President’s message on Let’s Give Students the Gift of Time

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [e-mail] . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.