I feel that I have made good progress with using the 5 talk moves and it has become a normal part of maths that the students expect. I find myself using the moves without really knowing I am - telling me that it is starting to become a way of 'being' - more than just something I 'do'. The talk is still largely led by myself and I am making an effort to direct the students' talk back to each other and less back to me in the 'ping pong' style. I use lots of think, pair, share but I don't yet think the students are thinking deeply about each others' responses which is something that Jody picked up on in this Observation. I agree that my next step is having the students discussing more freely and having them lead it. Jody and discussed how this might be a challenge. We thought about explicitly teaching them to lead a discussion through modelling and 'role play' and using prompt cards. Deb also introduced me to the idea of a 'fishbowl', where half the group sit down and solve a problem and the other half observe on the outside and then ask questions for clarification. When I tried this, the questioning was very basic - only 'how did you work that out' etc, then there was little to no challenging or further questioning once they heard the explanation. This is something I would really like to work on as it is totally student to student conversation.
