PERTS Elevate Resource Library

Math Conversations

Students take on defined roles in pairs or groups to explain their reasoning, give feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue.

Grades 6-8, 9-12 Math Video · 1:58

Overview

Math Conversations is a collaborative math strategy where students take on defined roles to explain reasoning, give feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue. By working in pairs or small groups, students deepen their understanding through discussion, reflection, and peer support. This approach boosts engagement, builds communication skills, and fosters a sense of belonging by valuing diverse ideas. With clear routines and supports, it transforms classrooms into spaces where learning is social, rigorous, and shared.

Through this practice you will be able to:

  • Give students an opportunity to practice their mathematical communication and reasoning skills.
  • Foster student engagement and ownership.
  • Facilitate peer learning.

Materials

  • A math task or problem that requires explanation or multiple steps
  • Peer feedback guides or rubrics
  • Student workspaces (paper, whiteboards, or digital tools)
  • (Optional) Anchor charts or posted discussion norms
  • (Optional) Timers or prompts to guide turn-taking

Day Before Prep (~45 min)

  1. Select a Rich Task (10-15 minutes): Select a task that requires reasoning or multiple representations (not just procedural answers). Explore the task(s) yourself to ensure that you are familiar with multiple methods for solving the problem. As you work through it, ask yourself:

    • What strategies might students use?
    • What ideas or mistakes might come up while students work on this?
    • How can I help students think for themselves without giving away the answer?

  2. Review the Feedback Tool (5-10 minutes): Review the Partner Roles Checklist. Make adjustments to fit the needs of your classroom.

  3. Develop Norms (5 minutes): Prepare or review discussion norms, such as listening respectfully, staying on topic, and offering constructive feedback.

  4. Clarify the Roles (5 minutes): Decide how roles (explainer & listener/feedback partner) will be introduced and rotated.

  5. Determine Groupings (5-10 minutes): Pre-determine how students will be grouped; random grouping determined by the teacher, groupings based on students needs, student choice, etc.

Conducting the Practice (35-50 min)

  1. Introduce the practice (2 minutes): Here is sample language:

    "Today, you will be working with a partner not only to solve a problem, but also to grow together. You will share your thinking, give each other feedback, and build on your ideas as a team. I hope this activity helps you learn from one another and make meaningful connections in your thinking."

  2. Introduce the Structure (2-3 minutes): Explain the goal of interacting through math conversations and the roles students will take. Emphasize that the goal is not just to solve, but to explain their reasoning and improve each other's thinking.

  3. Model or Review Norms (5-10 minutes): Before students begin, briefly model what helpful feedback looks and sounds like. Emphasize that feedback isn't just about fixing mistakes, rather it's about asking questions, sharing thinking, and learning together. Provide students with a few sentence starters such as:

    Feedback Sentence Starters

    • "I noticed that…"
    • "Can you explain how you got…?"
    • "I like how you…"
    • "What if you tried…?"

    Questions for Deeper Discussion

    • "Why does that step work?"
    • "Is there another way to solve this?"
    • "What mistake might someone make here?"
    • "How does this connect to what we learned before?"

  4. Partner Work (5-10 minutes): Students individually solve the task. One student explains their thinking or solution while the other listens, follows along, and uses a feedback tool. Roles switch halfway through. This activity can take place with students at the desk in pairs or standing at posters or whiteboards around the room.

  5. Feedback Exchange (8-10 minutes): Students share feedback and revise work as needed. Encourage students to ask clarifying questions and agree on accurate, well-reasoned solutions.

  6. Reflection or Whole-Class Debrief (10 minutes): Facilitate a brief class discussion or ask students to write: "What did I learn from my partner?" or "What feedback helped me the most?" This debrief may also be a good time to connect the practice to the learning condition again, by sharing something like, "Through these math conversations, you supported each other's learning by listening, explaining, and giving meaningful feedback—exactly the kind of collaboration that helps everyone in our classroom grow as mathematicians."

Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Vague or overly general feedback: Use scaffolds like rubrics or sentence stems to make feedback more specific and content-related.
  • Uneven participation: Rotate roles regularly and establish clear expectations for both students in each pair.
  • Rushing the task: Allow enough time for explanation, feedback, and revision not just completion.
  • Lack of modeling feedback: Students need to see examples of strong feedback and productive conversations to do it well.
  • Limited discussion of correct answers: Model how to have a meaningful conversation about correct answers that deepens students' understanding of concepts.
  • One-size-fits-all tasks: Choose or adapt problems that can support a variety of strategies or require multi-step reasoning to make discussions meaningful.

What to Look For

  • All students actively participating in paired roles
  • Students explaining reasoning rather than just answers
  • Feedback focused on clarity and strategy—not just correctness
  • Respectful, on-topic mathematical conversations
  • Students making revisions based on peer input

Additional Inspiration

This practice was developed in collaboration with WestEd.