Ever since I read about Stand and Talks on https://www.saravanderwerf.com/ (The amazing Sara Vanderwerf's website) they have become the single most important routine/device/exercise/strategy I use in my classroom. You can also hear about them in this Global Math Department's webinar:
Just like warming up before exercising in earnest, like if you take a class at a gym or are getting ready for a race, the coaches ALWAYS warm you up. "Run 500 meters." Then we stretch and THEN we exercise, Stand and Talks open students up. They warm up their minds and activate an openness to learning through safe dialogue with a partner first. I love them. 

What is a Stand and Talk? 
Here is my proposal for the CPM 2020 conference: (Still holding my breath, I was rejected, but asking to be included in some other way--advise accepted)

Stand and Talks--5 minutes that will reshape your classroom culture

Think/Pair/Share is a common go to strategy to give students a cognitive boost.
But what if instead of sitting, you could create a similar, potentially richer, easy access,
sky’s the limit, non-disruptive experience moving and standing? Stand and Talks take five minutes
and will increases math discourse, always gives a student something to share out, and shifts the
cognitive lifting from teacher to student. 

Stand and Talks begin with a prompt to look at and hold so there are no awkward silences.
The directions are simple, the possibilities are endless. I have used them for review, preview,
introduction, and vocabulary. I have used them as an icebreaker with students and with colleagues.
I have used Stand and Talks with Notice and Wonder, What is the same and what is different,
Examples and Non-Examples, Who did it better, and What can you label?
I was introduced to the this strategy by Sara VanDerWerf @saravdwerf
and I can’t wait to share it with you! As Sara says, “My goal is for students to say it before I say it.” 

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 My directions are modeled after Sara's: You will be standing up and pushing in your chair
when I finish giving you the instructions. You are going to move at least 15 steps away from
your table mindfully and quietly with no devices or writing utensils.
You will find someone to partner with that is NOT at your table. If there are an odd
number of folks, someone needs to find me and I will tell you what to do. When everyone is
partnered and standing, I will give you a card with a picture, graph, or problem on it. You will find
at least 5 things to say about what is on the card. If you can't find more, repeat the ones you have.
You only have 90 seconds so we are not going to worry about who our partner is and you will not
complain about standing the entire time.

 I walk around and listen, make sure the students are on topic, nudge them in their thinking. I also
can have "plants" for the whole class discussion that comes after. When the 90 seconds are up,
I ask students to freeze and then I give them a silly instruction for who picks up the paper copies on
the table in front of the room. "The tallest replaces the card and gets two paper copies, the one who
slept the longest, the one with the oldest living grandparent, the one who lives closest to school...(see
the community building there?)

 When the students get back to their seats, we annotate them together. This can reinforce, re-engage
or front load a lot of student thinking! The oohs and aahs are super fabulous and a lot of good information
comes from not just the top students. We then glue them into our Everything Notebooks (see earlier
post). And move on with our day. 5-10 minutes max. (We have 95 minute blocks every other day)


They look like this on a half sheet of card stock:

 1) I used this S and T just as I was introducing graphing a quadratic by complete the square. in Math 2 (CPM) (Used as
review for all things quadratic in College Readiness):

Here it is annotated:


2) I used this Stand and Talk for introducing piece wise functions in College Readiness: Thank you @ cluzniak @math_mrestrada


3) This is a beautiful student generated Stand and Talk from College Readiness:

4) This is another student generated Stand and Talk from the Spring Final for College Readiness.


5) This is one of my favorite Stand and Talks EVER. I wish I had done a pre and post for Math 2. This was at the end of Right Triangle Trig.

Here it is annotated:



6) I admit, I completely stole the next one. I thank @NatBanting. I used this with Math 2 (and again with College Readiness) introducing the Zero Product Property. 




 Anything can be a Stand and Talk. I saw this on Twitter and wrote that if you take out the
original prompt and replace it with "What do you notice? What do you wonder?" you get a
really cool Stand and Talk.


Here is another image from @riehlt:

Gotta Stop, going down the rabbit hole...

Is there anything I should add? That you have questions about??? 



About Me

About Me
Hi there, I'm Amy! A high school math teacher, poet, crafter, athlete, and mom. This blog features both math and teaching strategies, as well as some of my favorite recipes and everyday triumphs and struggles. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to share on Twitter, Facebook, or email me if you have any questions!

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