Numbers Talk with Preservice Teachers
Hello All!
I know it has been a while since my last post about my math adventures. I have changed jobs and am no longer worker with young children. I currently teach pre-service teachers. So far it is a joy to prepare future teachers to become effective teachers. My pre-service teachers and I started Number Talks. These teacher candidates include undergraduate and alternative masters program students. Alternative masters students are students who have obtained a bachelors degree in a non teaching field, but are seeking initial certification and will receive a masters degree in education.
After giving the back ground history of Number Talks(NT) and assessing to determine if any of my students have knowledge of NT, it was determined this topic is new to them. Therefore, I started from the beginning by teaching the procedures of NT- fist to your chest, thumb up,...... Of course they followed the procedures quite well. I displayed dot images for 3 seconds. Then I ask how many did you see?
The students elicited 7 and 8. Then I ask how did you see it after turning back to the dot images.
A couple of my students -my only male student and another student- told me they saw 3 and 2 and 3. I circled how they saw the 3 dots, 2 dots, and 3 dots. Both students saw the dots the same way. Another student said, she counted by 1's. That is where I introduced the word efficient. Efficient means working with the least waste of time, effort, and manner. Then that student agreed counting by ones was not efficient. Another students said she saw groups of two in a diagonal manner. I circle the dots as she told me how she saw them. At the conclusion of NT, I asked to classify this task in based on the work of Smith and Stein (2000) involving cognitive demand task and worthwhile task. My students felt this was a high cognitive demand task because of the multiple perspectives (multiple entry points) they used to determine the number of dots they saw.
I introduced NT to my pre-service teachers for a couple reasons:
1. I wanted them to observe and experience math discourse in a classroom. Math discourse builds math competency and purposeful math communication. I want to experience examples of possibilities to allow students to discussion in the elementary classroom.
2. In order to teach their children how to think mathematical, they must experience thinking mathematically themselves. I learned NT through professional development at the in-service teacher level. If they experience NT now, hopefully my students will use it in their classrooms. They will be ahead of the game.
3. I wanted them to experience a high cognitive demand task (Smith & Stein, 2000). Number Talks allow students to employ multiple entry and exit points to solve a problem.
If my pre-service teachers can learn how to infuse mathematical discourse via Number Talks, more children will gain mathematical proficiencies. This is the goal for our elementary students.
I know it has been a while since my last post about my math adventures. I have changed jobs and am no longer worker with young children. I currently teach pre-service teachers. So far it is a joy to prepare future teachers to become effective teachers. My pre-service teachers and I started Number Talks. These teacher candidates include undergraduate and alternative masters program students. Alternative masters students are students who have obtained a bachelors degree in a non teaching field, but are seeking initial certification and will receive a masters degree in education.
After giving the back ground history of Number Talks(NT) and assessing to determine if any of my students have knowledge of NT, it was determined this topic is new to them. Therefore, I started from the beginning by teaching the procedures of NT- fist to your chest, thumb up,...... Of course they followed the procedures quite well. I displayed dot images for 3 seconds. Then I ask how many did you see?
The students elicited 7 and 8. Then I ask how did you see it after turning back to the dot images.
A couple of my students -my only male student and another student- told me they saw 3 and 2 and 3. I circled how they saw the 3 dots, 2 dots, and 3 dots. Both students saw the dots the same way. Another student said, she counted by 1's. That is where I introduced the word efficient. Efficient means working with the least waste of time, effort, and manner. Then that student agreed counting by ones was not efficient. Another students said she saw groups of two in a diagonal manner. I circle the dots as she told me how she saw them. At the conclusion of NT, I asked to classify this task in based on the work of Smith and Stein (2000) involving cognitive demand task and worthwhile task. My students felt this was a high cognitive demand task because of the multiple perspectives (multiple entry points) they used to determine the number of dots they saw.
I introduced NT to my pre-service teachers for a couple reasons:
1. I wanted them to observe and experience math discourse in a classroom. Math discourse builds math competency and purposeful math communication. I want to experience examples of possibilities to allow students to discussion in the elementary classroom.
2. In order to teach their children how to think mathematical, they must experience thinking mathematically themselves. I learned NT through professional development at the in-service teacher level. If they experience NT now, hopefully my students will use it in their classrooms. They will be ahead of the game.
3. I wanted them to experience a high cognitive demand task (Smith & Stein, 2000). Number Talks allow students to employ multiple entry and exit points to solve a problem.
If my pre-service teachers can learn how to infuse mathematical discourse via Number Talks, more children will gain mathematical proficiencies. This is the goal for our elementary students.
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