Communication

(Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Viewing)


Essential Skills in Communication:

Changes in the workplace increasingly demand teamwork, collaboration, and communication. To be prepared for the future, high school students must be able to exchange mathematical ideas effectively with others. As students interact with others, this offers them opportunities for exchanging and reflecting on ideas; hence, communication is a fundamental element of mathematics learning. Students should be able to formulate ideas to share information or arguments to convince others. As students develop clearer and more-coherent communication (using verbal explanations and appropriate mathematical notation and representations), they will become better mathematical thinkers. (Adapted from NCTM, 2000)

Implications for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Communication should be addressed throughout curriculum, instruction and assessment. The curriculum materials used in a classroom should reflect this emphasis on communication by providing lessons that promote student-to-student, student-to-teacher, and teacher-to-student communication. Instructional practices should provide opportunities for students to communicate with each other as they study mathematics in the classroom. Teachers should act as facilitators for learning, encouraging student discourse. In doing this, students should be encouraged to share their thinking (strategies) and listen to each other as they solve problems.

The students' ability to communicate is vital to assessing their mathematical understanding(s) both formatively (day to day) and summatively. Students' understanding should be assessed through the use of good questions that promote the need for communication among students. Assessments in the mathematics classroom should include open-ended questions as well as peer and self-assessment. Assessments should ask students to communicate a mathematical concept in multiple ways (with multiple representations) to demonstrate a deeper understanding of a concept.

  1. Organizes and consolidates his/her mathematical thinking through communication | Example
  2. Communicates his/her mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others | Example
  3. Analyzes and evaluates the mathematical thinking and strategies of others | Example
  4. Uses the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely | Example