Models and Reflection

Yesterday I modeled 2 number talks. One in a 2^nd grade classroom and the other in a 3^rd grade classroom. I had not had the opportunity to observe whole class number talks in either room. I would have liked to have had this opportunity so that my planning could have been more focused but scheduling was just tight. In the end I just decided to jump in and do the number talk. I hoped that teachers would see this as my willingness to take the risk. I also thought that I could write some reflective questions that addressed the appropriateness of the number talk. Was it rigorous enough? Were students able to access the math? Was it connected to the content being taught and learned in math workshop? Were my expectations and routines consistent to what was already established?  Also, having been in both classrooms for math workshop and having had planning meetings with the teachers I had some idea of what was happening during number talks and what would provide opportunity for teacher reflection and growth.  

I provided guiding questions for the teachers to use as they observed me. I pulled them mostly from the Number Talks book but felt that they connected well to thinking these teachers are engaged in terms of math content and pedagogy.

·         Do students use one problem to help them solve the next? How?

·         What strategies do you hear students using? Is this what you expected?

·         What models do I use to show student thinking? How do these models support student understanding/development?

·         How do the sentence prompts help students discuss the problem with each other?

The last question was one that I added. Supporting students in talking to each other about their ideas and strategies, rather than just to the teacher, is an aspect of the routine that both classrooms are working on. I wanted the teachers to start thinking about how sentence prompts could help students create math conversation amongst themselves. I did a simple introduction with the prompts and had them hanging for the girls to see. That was it during the number talk.

In the debrief meeting I will ask teacher reflective questions around the prompts. Which prompts do you think will be easiest for students to use? Why? Which will be most difficult? Why? How will these support students in talking to each other about their thinking? Are there any students who will struggle to use the prompts? Why do you think they will be difficult for these students? What else could we do to support these students? Are there other prompts that could be useful? Are there other tools that we could use to create discourse? Below are the prompts that I wrote out on a chart.

·         I agree with _________ because ___________.

·         I do not understand ____________. Can you explain this again?

·         I disagree with __________ because _________________.

·         How did you decide to __________________?