Part 4: Students with Fluency

Reflect:

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? 

Respond:
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.

A Number Talk from one of our classrooms


Comments (10)

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Chelsea Cameron's avatar

Chelsea Cameron · 157 weeks ago

Number talks for the win! I love seeing the lightbulb turn on during these activities. Number talks are most successful to me as the teacher when I see a kiddo who is taking a little longer to put the pieces together and then they listen to a classmate present their ideas. Even though they didn’t completely solve it on their own, they gained new strategies that they might be able to apply on the next one! This encourages flexible thinking! I loved the Gatorade example because math is so much easier for kids when it becomes the real world. If they can imagine it and relate to it, it clicks easier. Not only does it click but it shows the students there is PURPOSE behind everything we do.
1 reply · active 153 weeks ago
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Shawn Henderson's avatar

Shawn Henderson · 153 weeks ago

I agree. The visuals were great resources. Seeing the kids talking through their math process creates a much more accepting math experience.
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Nani Sipila's avatar

Nani Sipila · 154 weeks ago

Number Talks are a powerful teaching tool. It lets children learn how other children solve math problems. I love listening to them share their ways of solving a math problem. It helps them develop the flexible thinking they need for math when they realize there are different ways to solve a problem. I agree with Chelsea that seeing the “Light Bulb” go on for a child is amazing. I start most math lessons with my math helper adding on to a number. Then the kids can come up with as different ways to equal that number. Example the number is 112. I may have some kids use addition (110+2), subtraction (200-88), coins or multiplication. It is truly fascinating all the different ways they can come up with the number. They love sharing their ideas with friends. I tell the kids we are waking up our math brains.
Number three on the video resonated with me the most because it made me pause. I feel most children see the math around them when you point it out, but I know there are kids who don’t have the life experiences to see math in their environment. COVID has set kids back because some kids did not leave their house for long periods of time. We still have a lot of catching up on life experiences.
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Pam's avatar

Pam · 154 weeks ago

I wrote down her list of 5 traits of a fluent math kid. All of them resonate with me. Her list gives me ideas of what to watch for as kids develop math fluency. The list also gives me ideas for activities to build fluency with kids. The slide decks are amazing. I will begin using the addition strings slide deck tomorrow as a Math "warmup".
1 reply · active 152 weeks ago
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Renae Hanson's avatar - Go to profile

Renae Hanson 59p · 152 weeks ago

I'm excited that you are going to try an addition string as your warm up. Let me know how it goes. :)
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Carissa Loreth's avatar

Carissa Loreth · 154 weeks ago

Math talks encourage flexibility by providing a bridge between what students already know and what they are capable of understanding using strategic scaffolds. Overall what resonated most with me about the videos were that the opportunity for math talks surround us in the real-word. It is so valuable to take the time with our students and children to make math relevant in their lives. One aspect of the video that made me think was the Illusion of understanding when kids get the right answers but they only have a surface level of understanding.
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Jessica Hanna's avatar

Jessica Hanna · 153 weeks ago

I love number talks as they really show what the kids are actually understanding versus just reciting numbers. So many of our students are learning to solely depend on a calculator and not understanding what the relationship between the numbers mean and how it can be moved and changed and how it can be fun and silly. This video really challenges me to try and find ways for the kids to find math numbers in their day to day life and their outside life. I would love to bring more of these math talks and teaching them to parents to be talking with their kids about math and the numbers all around them.
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Shawn Henderson's avatar

Shawn Henderson · 153 weeks ago

Watching the videos and hearing the speaker I was reviewing in my mind what I said to my students when we worked on math. Most of the time, the kids wanted to following the rules of math and it was hard to have them take chances and see the flexibility options. When students were able to do problems that were not the way of the book but their way, I would allow their work if it was correct. That was opposite of what this PD is about. I see that I should have provided more opportunities to talk about the process and dive deeper into understanding how they got the answer.
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Cacie P (RCES)'s avatar

Cacie P (RCES) · 151 weeks ago

The very first video of her first grade son talking through his thinking of the number string was amazing! I love that he was able to talk through how he broke down each step of his thinking by starting with the hundreds and then noticing that there was 99 that he could add 1 more to and create a more 'friendly' number in the process. This type of number talk with a whole class is so incredibly powerful because a kiddo might explain a way of thinking that the teacher hadn't thought of and will resonate with another kiddo in the class. I also think it is so powerful for kids to have that type of vocabulary and ability to talk through step by step out loud to others. We ask kids to do this type of talking and breaking down in reading all the time but very rarely in math. Number talks and number strings especially help kids see how their knowledge of smaller numbers and how they work can help them solve bigger problems that they otherwise would be intimidated by.
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Sara Emerson's avatar

Sara Emerson · 151 weeks ago

One of the things I have really been trying to focus on this year is having my students share their thinking during number talks and during our core math lesson. I frequently asked my students “how much and how do you?” and to “justify/prove their thinking.” We talk a lot about the different strategies used to come to the same solutions to support flexibility.
As I listen to my students talk about how they are mentally adding 10 and 100 to any number they are using so many of the things mentioned in the video. I find it reassuring to know my students are using smaller quantitates to add larger ones, decomposing numbers and explaining their thinking. Learning more about fluency has helped me understand the progression my students are on and how to support my less fluent students.

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