As parent-educators we have a unique opportunity to listen to our children during this quarantine. Teachers often have ratios of 27:1, so the luxury of sitting down and asking a student to explain their thinking about numbers while probing with open-ended questions for a significant chunk of time is pretty elusive. You however, have a much smaller ratio of students so give this a shot. Number talks allow students to value understanding over procedure, value mistakes, learn to persevere, and see math as making connections (not a torturous answer-getting process). Excuse the close up of the apple slice in my 7 year old's hand in the picture- lots going on in our house!
The best part is... number talks can mean writing a problem or two down and asking your kid what they are thinking!
Find a unique"fun" surface - Whiteboards can be great for this, but if you don't have a whiteboard try taping a bunch of paper (or open cardboard box) on the wall or spread it out on the ground. A different material to write on will signify that this is more than just "do a worksheet" time.
Set up expectations - Explain to your child that you are not really that interested if they get the right answer, instead what you really want to see is the insides of their math brain. You want to see how and why they think what they think about numbers. You REALLY hope they make some mistakes so you can hear how they think about it (make this dramatic with crossed fingers).
Give the right problems -This is the trickiest part, so take your time. Start on the simpler side and give 1-2 that you know your student can get correct but explain their thinking. Try to avoid problems they "just know" - maybe even outlaw the "I just know" from number talks. Give lots of positive reinforcement as you get going. Consider:
- Use open boxes in your problems. For example - 4 x ___ = 24. or _____ + 45 = _____ + 13
- Pull in fractions if possible
- Use IXL to take a peek at the grade level ahead of your child and give problems that they really need to think about.
- Use one fo the 20 different AWESOME ideas from this site, my favorite is SPLAT! and SPLAT! with fractions
- Pull from Open Middle for other great open ended problems.
Build it into what you are already doing These don't actually have to be something SEPARATE from the math your child's teacher is asking them to do. Steal a problem from what they are already doing and ask them to explain their thinking (with a fun marker? On a whiteboard or huge piece of paper? On an ipad app draw screen?).
Ask Questions
- How did you think about this problem?
- What pattern do you notice?
- How does this connect to that problem?
- If we think about efficiency, how do these strategies compare?
- Will this approach always work?
Have Fun with it- This is the time to model that thinking and talking about math CAN be fun. Show your own thinking. Ask your student to compare your thinking to theirs. Be in awe of what their math brains can do, and be transparent about your awe. Don't over do it - stick to 5-10 minutes. If you make your child cry (see previous post), own up to it and ask if they'll let you try again with a different problem tomorrow.
Here is what research says about all this
- Letting Students Do the Thinking - Sue O'Connell
- Brain Science behind Number Sense and Fact Fluency - Jo Boaler
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