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The Talking Cure: Teaching Mathematical Discourse

By Marsha Ratzel

What's on the horizon for my young learners? I can't predict the future, but I know this much is true: Performing basic computational tasks won't be a gateway to a well-paid or long-term career. My students will need to be adept at locating information, analyzing it, and synthesizing it into something useful. They will have to be able to think, reason, and communicate to solve complex challenges.

This has big implications for how we teach math.

The Common Core State Standards, of course, highlight the importance of " mathematical practices ." The idea is that if you can't talk about or explain the math you're doing, you don't...