November Postcard - Facilitate Meaningful Math Discourse – ST Math Help

This month's Postcard Message

JiJi is visiting Iguazu National Park, Brazil and Argentina

The park shares with Iguazu National Park in Argentina one of the world's largest and most impressive waterfalls. It is home to many rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, among them the giant otter and the giant anteater. The Iguaçu Falls span the border between Argentina and Brazil and are made up of many cascades and rapids. Animals you might find there include giant otter, ocelot, jaguar, puma, American tapir, collared peccary, ornate hawk eagle, red-breasted toucan, and harpy eagle. The giant anteaters which can be found there, can grow to be over seven feet long. There are also black howler monkeys and capybara.

Congratulations on completing another month of learning with JiJi! Be sure to celebrate your students' success in ST Math along the way.

As students work through puzzles in ST Math, their mathematical thinking grows, and so does their confidence and desire to talk about how they figured it out. Build on this momentum using Puzzle talks to encourage mathematical discourse and problem solving together as a class!

Our online module, Focus On: Using Puzzle Talks Remotely, will guide you through a Puzzle Talk lesson with examples of using remotely.

ST Math Puzzle Talk lessons include everything you need:

Look-fors, facilitation questions, and lesson directions
Correlation to standards
Pre-work assignments for remote support
Class and home extensions.

Focus On: Using Puzzle Talks Remotely

It is also helpful to use exit tickets or math journals to give students an opportunity to write what they learned while playing. You can deepen their learning by engaging students in meaningful math conversations where they can share their thinking, ideas, concepts, and connect what they learned as they hear the ideas of others. Finally, for fun, check out these Thanksgiving activities!

Effective Teaching Practice & ST Math: Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.

Facilitating meaningful student mathematical conversations provides students with opportunities to share ideas, clarify their understanding, and clarify their thinking.
In addition to ST Math puzzles, consider using ST Math Puzzle Talks and Math Chats you’ll get your students talking and sharing aloud, advancing the mathematical thinking of the whole class!