We Have to Encourage our Students to Share their Thinking

During our last math class, Allison shared her story of encouraging a young student who was often not called on in math class.  When she saw his work, she asked if he would share it with the class.  He was not willing; a sad commentary on how he felt his thinking measured up.  Thankfully, Allison got around his reluctance by offering to share it for him.  She even took the time to make a poster of his method and referred to it throughout the class.  This was an amazing tactic to me, and gave me the inspiration to be more intentional about calling on EVERYONE in my class.  I must admit that quite often when we are going over our worksheets, I have called on those students who were reliably "correct".  This is because I am still stuck on the idea that it is the "right answer" that matters.  But after this class, I see that there is so much more to math than getting the right answer!

The example that Allison shared caused me to reflect on a recent math lesson in my kindergarten placement.  The children were working on the concept of ordering by size: big, bigger, biggest; long, longer, longest, etc.  The teacher was trying to get them to understand that they can only use the suffix "-est" when they are comparing three or more items.  She told them to use the words ending in "er" when comparing two items.  The children were having some difficulty remembering this, and I heard one little girl say quietly to herself, "It's easy-- you use the one with three letters at the end to compare three things, and the one with two letters at the end to compare two things."  I thought that this was a  brilliant way to remember which words to use, so I asked her if she would share it with the class.  She is a quiet, reserved girl, and I was not surprised that she declined to share.  I thought about it all day, and watched what happened to those who got called on, trying to view things from my five-year-old friend's perspective.  This is what I think she may have learned about sharing one's thoughts in class:

• If you have something to say, it had better be on the same topic as what the teacher is talking about, or you will likely be told, "We aren't discussing that right now."
• If you think you have the answer, you will know if it was wrong if the teacher says, "Well, sort of... does anyone ELSE have any thoughts?"
• If you share something that you think is really great, sometimes the teacher will think it is great, and sometimes she won't, and I can't always predict when that will happen.

Upon reflecting, if I were this little girl, I might choose not to share my thinking either.  It has made me realize how important it is to be encouraging to my students all throughout the day.  If I want them to share their math thinking, then I need to encourage their thoughts all throughout the day.  And I need to be sure to listen to ALL of my students so that everyone feels important and listened to.