Number Talks Images

Number Talks Images.

What: Also known as Visual Number Talks - pictures with a known quantity that can generate a mathematical discussion.

Why: The purpose of number talk images is to develop students' understanding of quantity and to help teachers formatively assess where students are in their thinking by listening to students' strategies i.e. are students putting together groups, looking for patterns, counting one-to-one?

How: Teachers show an image and ask students, "How many do you see? How do you see them?" Students are given individual think time. Teacher selects students to share how many they saw and records the student's thinking. Image at the top right shows a teacher's recording of students' thinking about how they saw the number of cupcakes. Some students saw six groups of five, five groups of six, three groups of 10, two groups of 15, and some students counted one-to-one.

Example: Another example of a Number Talk Image is the Watermelon picture. Teacher would show this picture and ask, "How many whole watermelons do you see? How do you see them?" Teacher would give individual think time. Teacher calls on various students to share their answer only and teacher writes the answers vertically to the side of the picture. After all the various answers have been given, the teacher asks, "Can all these answers be correct?" No. "Who might like to share how they saw the number of whole watermelons?" The teacher calls on several students and records each student's thinking using multiple copies of this picture so students can compare the different strategies. Usually students with wrong answers will self-correct when explaining their thinking. Teacher can help students make connections by asking questions i.e. "Which of these strategies are similar?" "How is James strategy like Hayden's strategy?"

Keep in mind: Teachers do not teach specific strategies to the children during Number Talks because it is important that the children think for themselves and use the mathematics they determine is most applicable to the problem at hand.