Agree or Disagree

The learners are growing in confidence when sharing their ideas, strategies and thinking. The next step in our learning was to allow the class to agree or disagree with our statements and explain why using the word 'BECAUSE'.  We are also attempting to form questions so that others can gain better understanding or get clarification on a strategy or answer.
To implement this I asked learners to show whether they agree with a strategy or answer using thumbs up or thumbs down. Many learners were hesitant to agree or disagree as they felt it had an impact on whether they had friends at playtime or not. To try and reassure the class, we did a few role plays to show how this should look. I hope that with time it would improve but there is still an underlying reluctance by some to agree or disagree. In complete contrast there are a few learners who disagree just because they can and are unable to give a valid reason for their disagreement.

Although we have been attempting to disagree or agree using the word because since the start of term 3 it has not been easy to achieve. This will have to continue to be a work in progress. We are able to however show, using thumbs up or down whether we agree with the answer or not but saying why we decided that has been based on what they saw others showing. Many still find it difficult or are reluctant to say why they agree or disagree. I am wandering whether a lack of confidence in known math knowledge is prohibiting the learners from stating facts incase they are wrong. Perhaps a focus on knowledge and lots of Teacher modelling will help us overcome this stumbling block.