This moment in my second number talk exemplifies a critical place for improvement in making my number talks more accessible and equitable for all my students. While I want to give space for my quiet students to share their ideas and allow them to have a voice, I also want to avoid becoming their “microphone.” I do not want these students to always depend on me to amplify their thinking for the rest of the class. When I act as their “microphone,” I am again positioned as the dominant force in the number talk as I decide which students speak and how they can engage in the activity. As seen in this video where I became Nico’s “microphone,” this marks an important place for growth in creating greater accessibility and equity in my number talks where my students’ voices and discourses are truly centered and I take on a more peripheral role. Indeed, classroom talk serves as a critical space for cultivating and celebrating my students’ confidence in their mathematical abilities and meaning-making. More simply, classroom talk can help validate and uplift the many different perspectives, voices and ways of expressing oneself that my students bring into the classroom. As a result, I missed an opportunity to uplift Nico’s voice and meaning-making by “filling in” for him and explaining his thinking to the rest of the class. Even more, I also moved away from the more democratizing effect of number talks that provides the space for my students to collectively discuss and collaborate to make meaning of and find the answer for each problem. Thus, as a next step, I hope to move more intentionally towards this ideal in my number talks and take on more of the role of facilitator for student-driven conversations.
