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Communicating about
Mathematics Using Games:
The Role of the Teacher
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Mathematical
games can foster mathematical communication as students explain and
justify their moves to one another. In addition, games can motivate
students and engage them in thinking about and applying concepts and
skills. The first part of this example, Playing Fraction Track, contains
an interactive version of a game (based
on the work of Akers,
Tierney, Evans, and Murray [1998])
that can be used in the
grades 3–5 classroom to support students' learning about fractions.
By working on this activity, students have opportunities to think about
how fractions are related to a unit whole, compare fractional parts
of a whole, and find equivalent fractions, as discussed in the Number and Operations Standard.
In this second part, The Role of the Teacher, two video clips illustrate
communication about mathematics among a teacher and her students. The
third part, Communication among Students, shows how activities like
this allow students to use communication as a tool to deepen their understanding
of mathematics, as described in the Communication Standard. In the
fourth part, Reflecting on Practice, the teacher reflects on her own
mathematical learning that occurs as a result of using activities like
this game with her fifth-grade students.
Video
Segment
Watch the
two video clips below, which are segments from the same class. Find
specific instances in which you think the teacher is effectively fostering
communication in her students. What mathematics learning seems to be
occurring as a result?
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Running time—37 sec.
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Video Transcript
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Running time—56 sec.
File size—11.0 Mb
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Video Transcript
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Discussion
Games afford students an opportunity to communicate their ideas and justify
their thinking. In using games such as Fraction Track, the teacher plays
an important role in encouraging students to explain their thinking and
in keeping students focused on mathematical ideas. Requiring students
to explain and justify their moves during a sample round of the game played
as a whole class models the type of thinking and communicating that is
important for students to use later when they play the game in pairs.
The ability to pose questions that elicit, extend, and challenge students'
thinking is essential to creating a classroom environment in which intellectual
risks, sense making, and deep understanding are expected. In daily lessons,
teachers must make on-the-spot decisions about which points of the mathematical
conversation to pick up on and which to let go, and when to let students
struggle with an issue and when to give direction.
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Time to Reflect |
- What mathematical
ideas are being developed by the students in these video clips?
Does each student seem to understand these mathematical ideas?
What evidence can you find?
- Does the teacher
ask questions that elicit, extend, and challenge the students'
thinking? Which questions seem to work best?
- What other
questions could the teacher have asked these students in order
to further challenge their mathematical thinking or to address
their misunderstandings?
- Do you think
the teacher's questioning of these students will help other students
in the class develop their understanding of fractions? Why?
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Video Credit
WGBH, Boston. "Fraction
Tracks." In Teaching Math: A Video Library, 5–8. Funded and distributed
by the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project, P.O. Box 2345, S. Burlington,
VT 05407-2345, 1-800-LEARNER.
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