Reflect:
- Video Link: Part 4: Students with Math Fluency
- Read the first few pages of your grade level's Number Talk packet:
- Think about how you might fit a Number String or Number Talk into your math time this week. The slide decks are ready to use:
Consider the following questions:
- How do Number Talks encourage kids to be flexible math thinkers?
- Which of the five math experiences shared in the video resonated most with you? Why?
- What caused you to pause and think during this video?
After watching the video and reading more about Number Talks, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above.
Interact:
Read your colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight, or interesting possibility.
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| A Number Talk from one of our classrooms |
Number Talks encourage kids to flexible math thinkers because the teacher is a questioner and listener, more than someone giving direct instruction. They allow students to “take charge” of their learning and really consider how numbers connect, as well as to consider multiple points of views. It is also a great opportunity for students to practice the important skill of supporting their thinking with reasoning/evidence, rather than just stating an answer. By explaining their thinking, hearing other ideas, and connecting number strings together, they are able to grow their understanding beyond just the answer to one problem.
ReplyDeleteI resonated with decomposing the numbers because I think that is a strategy that would be awesome in 5th grade! Really understanding what place value is and how to deconstruct and rework numbers is a hugely helpful and transferable skill.
I love number talks in kindergarten because a lot of it is spacial awareness using dot cards. Dot cards are great because while there is a final answer, there is not right or wrong how on how you got there. I LOVE this for kindergarten because students not feel frustrated with math, everyone can participate, and we are teaching the importance of how they got the answer, versus stressing the right or wrong answer.
ReplyDeleteThis year I didn't give my students any language to go with the dot flash cards. We start every math lesson with them and I pose the question, what do you see and how do you see it? For the first few weeks the answers are the same "I see 3 dots." and its very black and white, but then (without prompting) the answers slowly turn into. "I see the dots stacked on the side and know that's 2, and then one more makes 3." I didn't teach them this, their thinking changed on it's own and I thought that was so cool. Definitely on a trust the process moment, because it did take them awhile to change their thinking, but they did it on their own and I think that makes it so much more rewarding for them.
I LOVE your testimony of trusting the process. Strategies are caught...not taught. So good.
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