This session has reall relevance for us in the primary school. I think the idea of the Number Talk has great potential for us. The number talks provide students with ways to share their thinking,
clarify their thinking and create a visual image to show their thinking.
All these come together to help students come to a deeper understanding
of number particularly and Maths generally. Focusing on just one problem allows for the depth of thinking required to enagage with a problem at a conceptual level rather than a procedural level.
I know many teachers already use something similar when sharing student work but maybe not in a deliberate way. Maybe having a name for this pedagogical strategy would be helpful. I'm not sure I have seen the strategy go as deeply as creating the visual to show student thinking and I think this is an area we could explore more. I really think there is potential here for challenging some of our more able students.
I would like to see teachers use number talks more in classes and hope that through discussion, collaboration and sharing of ideas this can happen- maybe sharing one of the videos in a grade level meeting would be helpful?
The session once again makes me consider the role of the teacher in Maths teaching- putting forward a problem and teasing out the different ways of looking at it from different students rather than teaching a strategy and practicing it on differnt problems.
As Joy noted in her post-I think we do have to think about the anount of sitting and listening students do and this will be the challenge for the teacher-engaging all students a all times. I think in Primary the number talks would benefit from more 'turn and talk' time or working together to create the visual representation of their thinking.
I like the idea of bar-modelling for thinking about problems- this is an inetersting blog post with more details: https://thisismyclassroom.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/throwing-out-that-old-rucsac/
The main idea that I am taking away from this session is that in order for someone to fully understand maths, personal connections must be made. When an individual has the opportunity to discuss their strategy within a collaborative setting, they have ownership over their own learning. It is empowered for them to see their ideas and calculations on board!
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, Math should be viewed as being a flexible and creative subject. Just like Science or Humanities, there is always room for discussion. It is important for students to share and collaborate as this helps to promotes a risk-free learning environment and helps to develop confidence amongst the learners.
The ideas around connection, creativity and beauty in maths really inspired me. The excitement of exploring different ideas and sharing these when solving problems through maths talks is not necessarily new. However, seeing this in action with older students as well as listening to how creative situations can be enhanced through careful considered and intentional teacher restraint and asking clarifying questions, has been confirming and given me reflection time to think about how I can improve my class maths talks.
ReplyDeleteIn Grade One, most children are either counting on and some are using known facts. A few are using derived facts such as deconstruction to reach a solution. I have felt a certain frustration at not knowing how to move students towards a more flexible and creative way of looking at numbers. They can decompose numbers into 10's and 1's and know numbers combinations of all numbers to 10 but do not use this knowledge to solve problems, relying on counting on, and that very quickly! Knowing that this takes time and through lots of practice with number talks as well as getting students to try methods that others use, may help and just adds to the importance of the maths talks in the classroom. The journey or process as being key in mathematical thinking!
Maths thinking as being presented visually at every opportunity also resonates with me. This is an area that I can further enhance in my practice by looking at different ways of visually representing problems and solutions.