Tara: Week 1

This week marked the beginning of my first year of teaching, and additionally the first week that I used number talks in my classroom. I will begin by describing what I did in my classroom, followed by a reflection, and questions that I have going into the upcoming week.

Introducing "Number Talks"

I decided to sell the idea of number talks to my students as a way to build their flexible thinking by seeing and trying to understand multiple ways of thinking and doing basic arithmetic. I gave them two goals over the course of the year:
1) Push themselves to offer their strategies and methods out loud in class
2) Work on actively listening to their peers' methods as a way to help build their flexibility with numbers
I began this week with two dot talks. My reasoning for doing this was twofold. First, I wanted to build their understanding of the structure of number talks, without the added pressure that arithmetic often brings. Secondly, I wanted them to get into the habit of sharing, listening, and trying to understand other students' ideas and thoughts.

Reflection on the week

I have four classes that I am doing number talks in. Three of which are sophomore classes; these students are taking IMP2, Interactive Mathematics Program. One of which is a freshman class, taking IMP1. 

I was surprised at how mixed my classes were in their reaction to this activity. In the first two classes, both my sophomore classes, they participated, but less willingly. I had to wait to have students raise their hands, but I did eventually have students share their ideas. In the next two classes, students were very eager to share their ideas and to help me understand their classmates ideas. There were several times where I was unsure about how a student counted the dots and needed some help from other students. They jumped at the chance to explain to me what they thought their peer was thinking. I was so impressed by their ability to listen and focus during the dot talks. 

I do feel lucky that my students are all exposed to used to listening to different methods and I think they have already begun building the idea that understanding and seeing multiple methods can help you understand topics even better. So, I am hoping that number talks can reinforce that idea and help them gain more practice understanding, communicating, and thinking in new ways. 

Below you will see pictures of the blackboards for the first dot talk.

Period 1 (10th grade):

Period 2 (10th grade):

Period 3 (9th grade):

Period 4 (10th grade):

Questions as I go into next week

How can I maintain the enthusiasm of my 3rd and 4th period classes as we go into doing number talks with arithmetic?

How can I try and further the sharing and enthusiasm of my first two classes? Also, are they too nervous to share? Or, have they not bought into the idea of number talks? 

Additionally, the native language of over 90% of my student population is Spanish. Could this be affecting some students' willingness to share their ideas?

I think I want to start with addition next week, but am still having trouble deciding on which problem to begin with. I don't want to give them a problem that is too hard, because then it may further shut students down or curb the enthusiasm of others. On the other hand, I am afraid if I make it too easy, they will think it is too childish. 

Right now I am definitely leaning towards giving them an easier problem because I want everyone to be able to access it, and I don't want them to feel bad if they struggle with it. I'd rather it be too easy and then move to a more difficult problem if they are comfortable with it.