Prompts like these will help your students use the language of Maths – to be convincing and precise when they are explaining:
The method I chose was ___ because...
I know this is correct because...
I can think of three possible approaches to solve this…
Another way to tackle this would be…
I realised that the answer should be approximately…
I can justify my answer by…
That must be true because...
We can prove this by...
My solution makes sense because…
If that’s the case, then ___ must be...
We can estimate the answer by...
A more efficient method would be to...
This data suggests a correlation between...
We can represent this relationship using...
An error I made at first was…
The part I found most challenging was…
Displaying the prompts
Either include relevant prompts on your slides or whiteboard, or display a range of prompts on the classroom wall. Wherever they are displayed, give frequent reminders to your students to use them during dialogue. With practice, they will gain the habit of using the language of mathematical problem-solving whenever they need it.
