Talking Points

I first heard about Talking Points last year at #TMC14 from Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf).

Brief Description: We were in groups of four and given a list of statements. One person reads the first statement out loud. They say if they agree or disagree with the statement and why. No one else can respond. Then the next person tells if they agree of disagree and their reason. It continues around the circle. No one can respond or debate. Then the person that started goes a second time and says if they still agree or disagree and why.

I tried this as a warm-up once a week on Talking Point Tuesdays. I did not implement it well and a lot of times it turned into debates or kids not giving reasons. So I am not the best example of doing this with fidelity but I did keep doing it.

Anyway, Elizabeth is the expert and just posted a link to her Talking Points for Math google drive folder.

Mine are not always about math and Elizabeth helped me with some but I wanted to share them as a resource. I did six per week and printed four to a page on pretty paper. I cut them up into strips so each student had their own and I laid them out before school started on Tuesday mornings.

There are 34 weeks of files and here they are:


For more information, see Elizabeth's posts:

Start here, then read this one, then watch this one.