Mathy Monday-Number Talks

Testing, testing...is this thing on?  It's been a while since I've blogged, but like many of you, my brain is shifting back into school mode whether I like it or not! So I'm jumping right back in with a Mathy Monday post about Number Talks, one of my favorite parts of my entire day.  So let's get to it!  

What is a Number Talk?
Have you ever stumbled upon something, a product or simple routine, that yields amazing results?  This past year, for me, it was the number talk routine.  This short 15-20 minute snippet of our day transformed my students into mathematical communicators, capable of speaking about their conceptual understanding, constructing arguments about their problem solving, questioning and critiquing the reasoning of others, and eventually, using this foundation to write about their thinking.

A number talk is a daily routine in which students have a chance to deepen their mathematical thinking.  For teachers, number talks are a great way to quickly and informally assess understanding while helping students transition from ineffective to more effective and efficient problem solving techniques.  During number talks, a problem is posed, students solve the problem individually using their mental computation skills, then students discuss their problem solving while the teacher records their method. In the primary grades, number talks focus on developing number sense, building fluency with small numbers, subitizing, and making tens.  In the intermediate grades, number talks still focus on deepening number sense, but also develops place value understanding, builds fluency, strengthens properties of operations and helps connect mathematical ideas.  Number talks provide big bang for your buck!

Where do you even begin?!
 As with any new routine,  it's all about consistency and implementation.  First, decide what mathematical idea you want the students to consider.  Is it strategies for adding multi-digit numbers?  Building equal groups from a set?  Or determining a quantity of counters on a ten-frame.  The beauty of number talks is that they can be modified and adapted to address almost any mathematical concept. 

Next, set the purpose for your students and introduce the routine.

In my classroom, a problem is posed, students silently solve the problem mentally, then they give a "secret thumbs-up" (thumbs-up in front of their body) to let me know they have solved the problem.  When the majority of thumbs in the room are up, I begin to cold-call students to share their thinking aloud with the class.  As they share, it is your job to ask questions to help clarify and solidify their understanding.  Over time, students will begin to ask questions of each other as their curiosity grows.  Modeling good questioning and providing students with thinking stems is key in promoting student-to-student interaction.  Simple stems like "How did you know to..." or "Why did you choose to..." and "I'm curious about the way you..." can promote a spirit of inquiry, which strengthens understanding for the student explaining, as well as those listening.  

Now, this is important, in my classroom, we emphasize the thinking behind the problem solving, as opposed to the correct answer.  And because of that, mistakes will be made.  But guess what?  There is power in mistake making.  My favorite mathematician, Jo Boaler explains it: 

   

 
 Allowing students to work through the thinking behind their mistakes has proven to be extremely powerful in my classroom.  Of course, the environment in which students have a sense of safety to be able to take risks without fear of being labeled a failure is crucial in developing the growth mindset that Jo mentions above.  

So, what does it look like?
Number talks look different in every classroom, and as a teacher, you modify it to meet your students learning styles and needs.  Youtube has tons of sample number talk lessons that teachers have shared from around the country.  Here are a few of my favorites that illustrate how different it can look, yet also show how powerful the mathematical conversations can be.


My students loved the number talk routine this past year, and as their teacher, I loved the impact a small routine had on deepening student understanding, developing mathematical communication skills, and building confidence in our learning.  I will definitely continue to number talk with my 3rd graders this upcoming school year. If you still have some fight left in you, I encourage you to check out "Number Talks" by Sherry Parrish.

So what about you?  Do you number talk?  What has your experience been?

Happy Mathy Monday!

Mathy Monday- MP Edition

Holy moly!  Has it really been over a month since I've blogged on here?  Apparently, it has, but in my defense...back-to-school is all consuming!  I consider it pure luck that I could even remember my password for this ol' thing.  But now that I'm here, let's make this a Mathy Monday and chat about making the Standards for Mathematical Practice accessible to kids. 

New Mexico is one of 45 states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards, and as a third grade teacher here in the Land of Enchantment, we are in our second year of adoption.  It's actually a really nice place to be- we've had a year to play around and try things out, and now, we have a chance to keep what worked and refine what didn't.  Our approach to introducing the Standards for Mathematical Practice is something that worked, and this is how we do it.

We begin each week by introducing the MP using the language directly from the Common Core.  Often times (much more often than not), this language can be extremely challenging for third graders, but this provides the perfect opportunity to implore reading strategies for encountering unknown words while getting kids to "think about their thinking" in mathematics. 

We start with an anchor chart with only the MP written (see picture below, blue ink).  We dissect the language of the MP using prior knowledge, word association, context clues, and even dictionaries.  As a class, we talk it out and break it down so that we come to a common understanding so that all students know what is expected of them. 

From there, it's time to do the math.  Math tasks are selected intentionally so that students have explicit opportunities to engage in the math practice standard.  For example, for MP 1- Making sense of problems and preserve in solving them, students were given a multi-step math riddle that could be solved in many different ways, but would require perseverance to determine the correct answer. 

As students work, I ask guiding questions that will help facilitate our summary at the end of the lesson.  I craft my questions based on what students understand about the math practice (ex: What strategies are you using to make sense of this problem?  Talk to me about how you are persevering through this tough work...").  By doing this, students have already began to think about how they use the math practice in their own work.       

  
After students have had a chance to do the math, we come back together to summarize and debrief the math practice standard.  I try and use the same guiding questions I used during the exploration so the language is consistent.  I record student responses in another color (green) on our anchor chart.  Your landing point should be along the same lines as the expanded MP standards in kid-friendly language.  Throughout the week, we constantly refer back to the MP standard, whether I am pointing out ways in which students are using it, students are identifying how other students are using it, or they are reflecting on their own use of the MP standard.  Later, we add sentence stems to promote the use of the direct language when speaking and writing about our math thinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While this took time, it was well worth it.  I was amazed to hear 3rd graders talking about "attending to precision" and "choosing appropriate tools strategically".  More importantly, these are the habits of mind we hope to instill in our students, so being able to refer back to them while I am teaching helps build self-efficacy skills that are invaluable.     

So, that's how I do it.  In my second year, I am making small tweaks here and there, but I am seeing similar successes.

How are you tackling the Standards for Mathematical Practice in your classroom?!  I'd love to hear and learn from you!