4 Simple Ways to Engage Students in Meaningful Mathematical Discourse

If your students are like mine, they love to talk! 

They love to talk about anything and everything...what happened on the bus, their favorite podcasts or TV shows, what their younger brother or sisters are up to, and even what book they are reading. 

But when it comes to engaging in meaningful math discourse, it can sometimes be crickets! 

I learned quickly that even though my students loved to talk, they did not always love to talk about their mathematical thinking.  The fear of being wrong often set in and kept my students as quiet as mice during math.  This was a mindset that I wanted to change and change quickly, right from the first day of school.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) defines mathematical discourse, as "ways of representing, thinking, talking, agreeing, and disagreeing."  When students are engaged in meaningful math discourse every day, it provides you with many opportunities to listen into their conversations with peers and get a better understanding of what concepts students fully grasp and which ones remain a struggle for them. It also provides you the opportunity to give on the spot support, take anecdotal notes, and informally assess students. 


By providing students with the time and appropriate tasks that are specifically designed to spark these types of math discussions, students grow as mathematicians at a quick rate. They strengthen their own mathematical skills, help their peers' level of understanding, and learn from others' knowledge, too.

Mathematical discourse in the classroom is a win for everyone involved!

With all of those benefits taking place in one math lessons, engaging students in mathematical discourse is a MUST DO in every upper elementary classroom. Follow these easy to implement tips to get your students discussing math in meaningful ways this school year.

Plan Explicit Instruction

As with any expectation you have, having students engage in mathematical discourse is something that needs to explicitly be taught.  

Taking time at the beginning of the year to explicitly teach the expectations you have for math discourse will allow students time to practice how to talk about math problems and strategies with partners in meaningful ways. 

I always create class anchor charts of how to engage in math discussions with my students during the first few days of school. I use prepared math discussion stems and discussions questions that I expect students to use when they work with their partner,  as a guide to get our discussion going. I always am sure to include students' ideas on the charts, too. Just like when students stop to turn and talk about their reading ideas during reading workshop, students are expected to make eye contact with their math partner, refer to the problem at hand, stay on task, and use the discussion prompts and questions given to them to guide their discussion. 

As the year progresses, students will not need the prompts and questions as they have fully embraced these prompts as their own, but they should keep a copy in their math journals as a reference. 


Another expectation that I explicitly teach is for students to use specific math vocabulary in their discussions. This means that they can refer to unit specific math terms on our word wall, from our journals, or from our math alphabet. By being specific, students' conversations will truly serve as a tool to increase their understanding. 

As with any new skill and classroom procedure, be sure to model, model, model your expectations.  

Grab FREE math stems and questions to engage students in mathematical discourse at the bottom of this post.

Create Safe Partner Zones

When it comes to expecting students to engage in meaningful discourse it is important to create a classroom climate that welcomes mistakes! 

Students must absolutely feel safe to share their mathematical thinking, especially if they know they do not understand a concept. One way that I create a safe zone for students is by giving them two different math partners. (These math partnerships change every marking period.) Students have a red and green partner during math.  Red partners are partners that are at the same math level and green partners are partnerships of one higher math student and one lower math student.  

Students develop strong and trusting relationships with both types of partners and are able to learn from both, too. Having both types of partnerships gives all students the chance to shine, help others, get support, and work as a team to complete any task. Most times, red partners are used during instructional work times and green partners are used during math mini-lesson instruction and discussion.  

By having designated go to math partners, students will feel safe in your classroom environment and begin to take risks knowing that someone will always have their back. Their interest in solving math problems increases, too! Read more ways to strengthen your classroom community HERE.

Use Manipulatives

When students are given simple manipulatives to encourage participation and discourse, excitement and involvement increases tremendously. Two simple manipulatives to use to increase participation in your classroom discussions are paddle dry erase white boards* and agree and disagree cards. 

Students love to use the paddle dry erase boards to show their work and compare their thinking.  Kids love holding these by the handle and These are so easy to stack in the classroom and take up very little space. Agree and disagree cards are simple cards that you can make to provide students the opportunity to agree or disagree with their partner or classmate's thinking. 

Students love using these cards and the best part is that when students agree or disagree, they have to provide a rationale to support their opinion. 

Try these FREE 3rd grade math error analysis tasks to get students agreeing, or disagreeing with mathematical work. 

• 5th-grade version HERE 
• 4th grade version HERE
• 2nd grade version HERE

Teacher Tip: When copying your agree and disagree cards, color-code your cards so you can see quickly who agrees or disagrees with a given answer.

Provide Specific Math Tasks and Prompts

While it is possible to ask students to discuss any question in math, including how to solve an equation, the most meaningful discourse takes place when students are knee deep in problem solving and error analysis tasks. Problem solving activities require critical thinking and understanding, planning steps to solve, and then completing multiple steps to figure out the solution. 

Error analysis math tasks are also a great way for students to work with math partners to engage in meaningful math discourse. These are especially perfect for math discussions as students are expected to agree or disagree with how a problem was solved and explain their rationale. 

Talking about math truly helps students understand math concepts and self-reflect on themselves as mathematical learners. Math discourse aligns with the Mathematical Practices set forth from the Common Core State Standards. Remember,  just like any other lesson or activity, engaging students in meaningful math discourse must be planned.  

You can use any problem solving activity that you already have to try this out, but instead of having students head off to work independently, pair them up, send them off with math discussion stems and discussion questions, throw in some manipulatives, and get ready to listen in and support your learners as they begin to love solving and discussing math tasks! 

Their interest in solving math problems increase, too! Read more ways to get your math students to LOVE math problem solving HERE.

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8 Acrostic Poem Ideas to Challenge Upper Elementary Students

Teaching students how to write a meaningful acrostic poem is no easy task! They seem easy enough, but sometimes students try to take a shortcut and write just a word or two for each letter.  When written correctly and with variety, acrostic poems are a simple way to get students excited about writing. 

What is an Acrostic Poem?

An acrostic poem is a poem that uses the letters of a focus word, or phrase, to begin each line of the poem. The word or phrase is written down on the left side of the poem. Each letter in the focus word begins a complete thought (sentence or phrase) about the topic, beginning with the given letter. All of the lines in an acrostic poem are written about the focus word of the poem.

Although acrostic poetry can initially seem like an easy form of poetry for students to write, it is quite challenging. That is why I always encourage students to brainstorm carefully during pre-writing with a partner and use a dictionary to help find letter-specific words that they can use when they first start writing acrostic poems. 

Once students get the hang of writing acrostic poetry the fun can begin! There are so many ways to challenge students when writing acrostic poetry, making it easy to differentiate any acrostic poetry writing lesson.

Try one of these ideas to put a fun twist on the traditional acrostic poetry writing activity and help differentiate your lesson or challenge your entire class.

• Alliteration Acrostic Poems: Each word in the line starts with the starting letter of each line.

• Verb Acrostic Poems: Each line is comprised of verbs that can be done in a specific season, holiday, sport, or place.

• Adjective Acrostic Poems: Each line is comprised of adjectives to describe something specific.

• Personal Experience Acrostic Poems: Each line includes a memory of an important event that is the focus word of the acrostic poem. Example: Field Trip, Graduation, Birthday

• Specific Direction: Be specific and narrow when you give directions for this type of acrostic poem. Example: For a “Friendship” acrostic poem, have students write about the characteristics that make a good friend on each line.

• Focus on Nonfiction: Have students research something related to a topic. Example: For an “America” acrostic, students can research Memorial Day or Flag Day, gather information and record what they learned in the form of an acrostic poem. This is perfect for biography and research projects, too. If you are studying endangered animals, have students create an acrostic poem for "endangered" and include all the information from their research in their poem.

• Fiction Book Reflection: These are so much fun to write and offer the students a change in the traditional summary or reader reflection activity. Example: If you are studying characters, have students write the name of a character from their book and fill in each acrostic poem line with character traits, feelings, and actions-all supported by examples from the text. It is an engaging way for students to show what they know! This also works well with settings. Have the students write the name of an important setting from a book and write the acrostic poem with the focus of how the setting impacted the story. 

• Mixed Up Acrostic Poems: Each line has a different rule created by you! Be creative and use your students' ideas and interests to guide you. 

Acrostic Poem Teacher Tip: Create a poetry bulletin board for the year and simply swap out a new acrostic poem each month. Be sure to hold on to each poem as you change out the bulletin board each month or season. Collect the students’ poems and create a student poetry book to present to the students at the end of the school year.

Acrostic poems are fun to write and boost students’ self-esteem and interest in writing. By writing acrostic poems with a twist, students will never tire of this form of poetry. The only materials you need are paper, pencil, and markers. So what are you waiting for?  Get started today on writing different forms of acrostic poetry with your students. Your students will love it and it will greatly improve their creative thinking and writing skills. 

Looking for an acrostic poetry set to differentiate instruction or at your writing stations and centers? Click HERE or the picture below to grab everything you need from acrostic poem templates and rubrics, to bulletin board letters for a year-round poetry writing classroom display!

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