An article written about using “math talks” to analyze student thinking and allow students to problem solve.
Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of one’s own thinking or simply “thinking about thinking”. As adults we have a tendency to already know
An article written about using “math talks” to analyze student thinking and allow students to problem solve.
Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of one’s own thinking or simply “thinking about thinking”. As adults we have a tendency to already know our processes for problem solving, but young students today have a very hard time being problem-solvers. Students expect the teachers to tell them where to start or what to think. This is very true of our curriculum now, especially in math. We overload them with strategies and processes that they may not connect with. Let me preface: by no means am I saying throw out your curriculum (but that would be cool wouldn’t it?). I am so however that we need to aide students in recognizing their own thinking! But how do you do this you ask? Especially with a room full of blank stares during math time…
I recently attended a math training for CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) and it really changed my perspective on my math instruction. What I took from this training is the importance of understanding your students’ thinking as well as helping them understand their own thinking. Although it doesn’t seem like it by 2nd grade, we ARE innately build with problem solving skills. We need to get to know how are students are thinking to help drive our instruction.
Something simple I’ve added into my math instruction is a “number talk” of sorts. I use the term lightly because I am under the impression that “number talks” are strictly mental math. During my “math talk” my students are allowed to use any means necessary (any manipulatives/drawings) to solve the problem. The purpose of our “math talk” is not to make math abstract (by doing it in our brains), but to make math concrete and tangible.
Here is an example of a simple “math talk” we did in my class (excuse the messy handwriting, these are REAL life photos, hehe):
I proposed a simple multiplication problem and told my students to find the answer, but SHOW how they got there. That was quite the challenge because so many students just memorize their multiplication facts (which is dandy, but some students just can’t and need additional ways to do it).
This student skip-counted to get his