Do-Talk-Record
Getting learners doing things is not enough to ensure learning, neither is getting them talking about what they are doing, neither is getting them to make a written record of what they have been doing. But talking supports making sense of what you are doing, and recording sharpens and clarifies as well as stimulates talking, and both recording and talking can inform the doing so that it is more goal oriented, more effective and more memorable.
Main Section
The
framework Do–Talk–Record was devised by Nick James as a reminder to himself and for use by others that rushing learners into making written records in their notebooks is not only inefficient, but can be counter productive.
Getting learners doing things is, in itself, just ‘doing’; keeping them occupied and active. [see doing & construing]. There is more to teaching than getting learners doing mathematical tasks, posing mathematical questions, constructing mathematical objects. Furthermore, what learners are doing is often informed by the talk that they do around and about what they are doing.
It is through talk that learners rehearse concepts and ideas they have heard from others; it is through talk that learners clarify meanings for themselves; it is through talk that learners become aware of the actions they are carrying out and not simply the effects of those actions on objects [reflective abstraction]; it is through talk that the inner incantations which accompany actions and techniques are first refined and then integrated into the carrying out of that technique or action.
It is by trying to create written records (using pictures, words, and later, perhaps symbols) that learners help to clarify and crystallise the talking that they are and have been doing.
It is not all one way. Talk clarifies doing, and can open up new and more efficient or effective actions to achieve the doing; recording can raise questions about what was being said, and can thereby inform future doing.
Probes & Prompts
How much time do you allow for paired and group discussion during a lesson?
Do you give prompts so that the children are guided towards a constructive discussion?
How often do you expect children to record their work?
Do you allow the children to record in their own way?
Taking Action
Discuss with a colleague the purposes of recording. Consider these:
For communicating to others
· To record answers
· To describe or explain answers
· To record findings
· To present information or data for self or others to interpret or use
To clarify thinking or ideas, or keep track of one’s work
· To help work out a calculation by recording interim steps
· To help solve a problem by sketching a diagram
· To help organise information so that it is easy to interpret
· To help remember key facts of ideas
Discuss which of these need oral explanation as well.
Aim to plan opportunities for do-talk-record into your teaching and highlight them in your planning until this becomes second nature to you.
Case Studies
In the foundation stage practitioners are encouraged to make different coloured plain paper and pens available to the children so that they can mark-make when they wish to. A super example of this was when one little girl decided to survey the class to find out if they were having school dinners or packed lunches. She drew a big plate with food in the middle of her paper and on one side put crosses for those having packed lunches and on the other ticks to show they were eating a school dinner. This was totally child initiated.
Another great example was when, during a series of lessons to solve a story based problem, children had been exploring pictograms to show information about the vegetables that had been taken from a garden on each day of the week. They looked at information for the carrots and leeks and answered questions related to the data and also those that involved finding totals and differences. The pictogram for marrows was missing, just the numbers were there and this class of Year 1 children then had to work with a partner to create a pictogram to show this data. They were given large paper and fat felt pens and had to talk to their partner about what to do and the best method to use. For the marrows, some children decided to draw symbols, others themselves and others the actual vegetable, for the days of the week, some decided to write the whole words, others decided to do initial letters, others pictures representing the days with letters (e.g. suns, stars, moons). It was great to see such a variety of very well constructed pictograms. During the plenary pairs explained what they had done and why.
While working with underachieving girls in Year 5, we were exploring efficient mental calculation methods. They talked through their thinking and the steps they took and recorded their methods in their own way. They were really creative in the artistic sense, making flow chart type representations on plain paper with coloured pens for doubling, halving and adding using partitioning strategies and drawing a heart or flower around their final answers? They enjoyed the freedom to do this and as they had personalised their work they remembered the steps they took from then on. It is funny the way that something so simple can have such a dramatic effect – their confidence in maths increased and they went on to get level 4s and 5s in their SATs in Year 6!
All too often we direct children in how to record when on many occasions we should be encouraging their own methods.
Research Sources
Floyd, A., Burton, L., James, N., & Mason, J. (1981), EM235: Developing Mathematical Thinking. Milton Keynes: Open University.
Mason, J. & Johnston-Wilder, S. (2004/2006). Designing and Using Mathematical Tasks. Milton Keynes: Open University, republished (2006). St. Albans: Tarquin.
Categories
Constructs, Pedagogy