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 about establishing a safe climate, being consistent with the procedure, and allowing students to think. As time progress, even kindergarten students are able to think and express themselves mathematically. My go to book is by Dr. Sherry Parrish Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computations Strategies. A DVD accompanies the book of examples of different teachers engaging in NT with their students.
Tomorrow, I will do side by side training with a teacher new to kindergarten on NT using ten frames. I can't wait. I will definitely post something this week on how things went with the new kindergarten teacher and her students. Until then, have an awesome week!!!

References
Parrish, S. Number talks. Build numerical reasoning. Teaching Children Mathematics. (2011): pp.     198-206.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 23, 2015 at 6:28 PM

    NT is an awesome tool to use! I enjoy engaging my students using NT!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr Johanna MasseyAugust 23, 2015 at 7:30 PM

      I love how students responses are totally different but makes sense.

      Delete

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