You can do a Number Talk in your internship classroom AFTER Week 2
STEP 1: Explain the Number Talk procedure to students (i.e., solve mentally; put up your thumb, etc.), and then show the problem.
STEP 2: Give student time to solve the problem (wait until almost every student has a thumb up).
STEP 3: Ask for possible answers and record them on the board. Making conjectures is an important part of mathematics and students will have a chance to revise their thinking (i.e., decide that the answer is different than they originally thought).
STEP 4: Ask students to pick an answer and explain how they got it (e.g., “How did you get that answer?”) Keep the focus on the process of mathematical thinking, not on the answer. For each strategy:
(1) Listen to the entire explanation by the student before writing anything.
(2) Ask clarifying questions to make sure you understand what the student did and ask the student to explain again as you represent their strategy on the board. Remember that the goal is to represent the student’s thinking in a way that makes sense to others – write out each step clearly; represent strategies on a number line (even though the student did not use a number line), etc.
(3) Ask questions that help students connect strategies or engage with each other’s thinking (as appropriate).
Do another problem if time allows, and when you are done, wrap up by making a connection to the core mathematical idea.
Your goal for this Number Talk is to find out what students understand and how they think, without your assistance. The process of problem solving is what matters, not the answer. If a student has an incorrect answer or is having difficulty explaining their thinking, you should represent what they are explaining and support them to describe their thinking. But do not linger on "correctness." There is no need to show students how to solve a problem.
After your number talk, take some time to reflect. If your mentor teacher is open to reflecting with you, I encourage you to reflect together on what happened. Think about what you'd like to share with the class. This is an informal share (i.e., you don't need to prepare a presentation), but you should come prepared with a specific talking point. These questions might guide your reflection and help you identify what you'd like to share with the class about your experience:
If you and your mentor teacher agree, you can do more number talks. I'd recommend sticking with dot talks for the first few ones so that students become comfortable sharing their thinking and coming up with different strategies. Then, you can start to move into operations with numbers.
Keep in mind that Number Talks are not meant for students to learn new mathematics. Instead, the focus is on explaining their mathematical thinking and using procedures efficiently and flexibly. Especially if your students are not used to using different strategies, you will have a better number talk if you start with a simple (one-digit) addition problem (even for older students). Here's an example of an addition problem in a 2nd grade classroom and a multiple problem in a 5th grade classroom.
If you find that you're doing a lot of number talks, the Parrish (2014) book on Number Talks is a great resource. I can let you browse through it to identify which types of problems would be best suited for your classroom.