Teaching your students how to have a conversation can really benefit them in many aspects of their life, not just in the classroom.

Have you heard of Talk Moves? It is a powerful classroom tool for both teaching and learning. It is based on mathsolutions.com but you will find, it is not just great to use during Mathematics lessons but in all areas of the curriculum.

Teaching appropriate discussion and conversation skills assists to build community and relationships in the classroom between your students. It encourages students to talk and share their ideas in a safe space. Talk Moves also supports students to learn from each other, not just relying on the teacher as the sole provider of knowledge.

It offers six strategies to teach your students to better participate in your class discussion, either questioning or sharing their ideas to have rich and meaningful conversations.

Talk Moves aims for our students to;

• wait time

• turn and talk

• revoicing

• reasoning

• adding on

• repeating

• revise your thinking.

By giving a student wait time, you are allowing them to organise their thinking and give a more considered answer. It may sound something like “Take your time… we will wait”.

Turn and talk is great for students as an opportunity to build their confidence by rehearsing their ideas before sharing. It may sound something like “Partner turn and talk or think, pair, share”.

Revoicing is great as a clarifying technique. It can be used to highlight key ideas or revisit misunderstandings. It may sound something like “So you are saying that ______. Do I have that right?”

By encouraging your students to reason, students can justify or elaborate on their ideas by providing evidence. It may sound something like “Do you agree or disagree, and why?”.

Adding on invites students to build on other students responses. Great for promoting deeper thinking and reasoning as to why they agree or disagree with what another student has stated. It may sound something like “Would someone like to add on?”

When concepts are complex or need further attention, repeating can add emphasis to these areas. It may sound something like “Can you restate or rephrase or summarise what _____ just said?’’

Allowing students to revise their thinking, indicates that is acceptable to change their thinking once new knowledge is gained. It may sound something like “How has your thinking or understanding changed now?”

Have you used Talk Moves in your classroom? Is it just in Maths lessons? Or are you thinking of giving this a go? We would love it if you joined the conversations and left a comment below.