Methods of Math Teaching and Learning

This week's post is all about my experience with Number Talks (NT) with kindergartener and their teacher. I model NT for the new kindergarten teacher to give her an idea of how to incorporate NT in her daily routine. This week we used the tens frame and 3 dots. We started with the concept of 3 based upon the teacher's initial assessment of her students. First, I started with simple procedures(begin with the end in mind). Then we got into it. I showed three dot randomly arrange so that they know without a doubt the concept of three. We did this three different ways. After each showing, I asked them how many dots did they see. Most knew there were three dots. The next question was how did they see it. Now, here was the challenge. It is not uncommon for kindergarteners to come with limited vocabulary. The reason is that this is their first experience in a formal school setting. One of the goals in NT is to expand their vocabulary and to become deliberate in expressing the exact ar

Getting Ready for Number Talks! This week I will be visiting classrooms to engage in Number Talks (NT). What is NT? Number Talks is an intentional ritual to sharpen mental math by engaging in math discourse. Math discourse refers to communication in the mathematic classroom. Number Talks allows children the opportunity to strengthen accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency with mental math strategies (Parrish, 2011). I have incorporated NT as a ritual part of my classroom for at least 5 years. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to do. Allowing students to engage with mental math strategies strengthens math vernacular. Student begin to become intentional and precise with their thinking and language even at the early elementary school grades. A kindergarten teacher from another school asked me if I have tried it with kindergarten students. I told her yes. I have seen NT used in kindergarten classrooms by phenomenal teachers and have engaged with kindergarteners first hand. It's all abou

First Week of School The first week of school went by well. Although very busy, I did not get a chance to give the multiplication assessment last week. This week will be different. I have a couple assessment goals for this week. I will help the reading coach administer her assessments. In between the time, I will give math assessments. Yes! Fourth and fifth grades will take the multiplicative assessment for OGAP and a timed multiplication assessments. Also, I will  give diagnostic interviews using CBM material for first grade. I believe this assessment will yield more elicit responses and information than a computer based test. This will give their teacher and me information on where to begin with their students. I can't wait. This will probably take a couple weeks, but the information is valuable. Pray for me! I will blog next week on my progress. See you next week!

Sunday August 9, 2015 Well, another school year is here! I'm so excited to see my Mighty Champion Scholars on Tuesday especially the incoming fifth graders. I saw a  fifth grade student tonight, and he is ready for a multiplication assessment. He asked me in the store "When are we going to have a times table assessment?" I told him sometimes this week. Be ye ready! This brings me to Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP)training involving multiplicative thinking. The multiplication assessment will have some drill type problems. But I will change it up to reflect the OGAP training I received. My goal is determine if  students understand what multiplicative reasoning means conceptually. Therefore, he will receive a different type of assessment to determine his level on the multiplicative framework. From this, I will develop a Number Talk sequence and other strategies to help develop their reasoning. I will blog about the outcome of this project. I am excited!

Good Sunday evening! This week in education I participated in a Number Talks (NT) workshop presented by Ann Dominick. I have been implementing NT for several years. So the information was not new material. It solidifies my belief that math discourse is an essential part of elementary school mathematics. Student expressing themselves mathematically. Students express their understanding of the problem and preserving to solve them; critique the reasoning of other students; and look for patterns in structures; choose tools strategically and appropriately. In essence, students, through NT, display math practice standards. I can remember having rich conversations on how to solve a particular problem and explaining to one another how to solve them problem. I can't wait to get back to school to start our NT journey. I did record myself engaging in NT with my students. I may post it later. One take away from this session is to start with dot images even at the upper elementary grade. I