Meaningful Math Talk

So the million dollar phrase in math this year at our school is "Math Talk." At first I thought, "why make rules for talking during math, I mean if they are explaining their thinking then they understand." I now have what is called "new learning." Math Talk is AWESOME! So the talk moves get a little redundant in the beginning but the reward is SO great. Now more than ever my butter beans are having (gasp) MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS! You know how at the beginning of the year you can hardly get them to explain their thinking? Well those days are LONG gone and I can hardly get them to shut-up about how they are solving their problems. On a recent assessment one of my kiddos solved a word problem 3 DIFFERENT WAYS and he only HAD to solve it one way!!!! So, I am sorry for yelling but math talk really excites me. If you don't know anything (or if you know something) about math talk you may want to check out my BRAND SPANKING NEW TPT ITEM: 

Funny story about Brand Spankin' New by the way, I recently introduced some headphones to my students this way and a student thought that I wanted to punish him using the headphones as a weapon . . . anyway . . I looked up the phrase here and I won't be using it any more . . .