I bought Number Talks last summer, because I wanted to re-think how I taught maths. It has been a revelation, and now I can't imagine teaching maths without using the strategies and techniques in this book.
We all work to help our classes develop number fluency and the ability to use different computation strategies. In Number Talks, the emphasis is on children talking about how they solved a problem. Many of us probably grew up being told to 'show your work' in maths - with number talks, children 'talk through their work' - which allows them to clarify their own thinking, become the mathematical experts for their own class, and help their classmates see different ways of arriving at the right answer.
The following video shows a kindergarten/Primary 1 number talk, given by the same teacher who presents the kindergarten number talk in the Number Talk book. If you've read my post about developing Number Sense, you'll realise how many elements of the Number Talk routine I've borrowed in my own teaching!
We all work to help our classes develop number fluency and the ability to use different computation strategies. In Number Talks, the emphasis is on children talking about how they solved a problem. Many of us probably grew up being told to 'show your work' in maths - with number talks, children 'talk through their work' - which allows them to clarify their own thinking, become the mathematical experts for their own class, and help their classmates see different ways of arriving at the right answer.
The following video shows a kindergarten/Primary 1 number talk, given by the same teacher who presents the kindergarten number talk in the Number Talk book. If you've read my post about developing Number Sense, you'll realise how many elements of the Number Talk routine I've borrowed in my own teaching!
In my Primary 1 class, we've done many number talks using dot cards. In our routine, when I listen to the children's explanations for how they saw a given number, I write up the corresponding number sentence on the white board. In the above clip for the dot card showing '10', for example, when the girl said she 'just counted', I would write 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 10. Another boy saw two 5s and knew that was 10, so 5 + 5 = 10 would be written up, too. Number talks designed for older children begin with the written mathematical sums, but I like connecting the written notation to their dot card subitising skills. I think it helps my littlies to connect the representation of a number (the dot card picture) to its abstract mathematical formulation (e.g., 5 + 5 = 10). They can also see very quickly that there are slower vs. more efficient ways to count/add numbers!
Has anyone else read Number Talks and implemented ideas from it in your own class? I'd love to hear about your experiences.
Has anyone else read Number Talks and implemented ideas from it in your own class? I'd love to hear about your experiences.
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