Resources for Number Talks

Fraction Talks

Fraction Talks are built around classroom talk and student action. These two principles guide the teacher’s questions, disposition, and facilitation of the activity. They can be a daily routine, or used for entire lessons. Nat Banting (NSD teachers may know his #MenuMath work) began playing with Fraction Talks in May 2015 with the goal of developing a simple visual that could foster creative thinking around fractions. He has great resources on his site fractiontalks.com to get you started including images for fraction talks, "how to" guidance, and a .pdf student handout to keep track of your students’ fraction talk reasoning.

• Extend fraction talks using Fraction War Cards by Carla Dawson
• Watch this Fraction Talk War student discussion. Such rich conversation!
• Another possibility: A Fraction Talk Which One Doesn't Belong (WODB)

Secondary Number Talks

Some secondary teachers are hesitant to spend the time on Number Talks given an already packed curriculum, but ignoring a lack of number sense is doing a real disservice to our students. Sometimes 6-12 math teachers think Number Talks are an elementary strategy that won't work for secondary students. Not so! Here are some secondary teachers sharing the strategies and resources they use in their own secondary math classrooms.

• Sara Van Der Werf:
  • Secondary Number Talks (I'll convince you with ducks)
  • The best things I ever did in my support math classes
• Dylan Kane:
  • Number Sense - Exponents Number Talk
  • Number Talks & Factoring
  • Number Sense - Dots & Powers of Ten
  • Number Talks archive
• ScaffoldedMath.com: Number Talks
• Math Talk Resources from SFUSD

Building Thinking Classrooms

Want to learn more about Building Thinking Classrooms?

More info about BTC

• Read a summary of the book
• Watch the BTC Facebook live session with Peter Liljedahl 8/7/22
• Join Peter's session at the FREE Making Math Moments Virtual Summit (see PD opportunities below for registration info)

ELD Support

Hey there! I’m Jes Calkins, Elementary English Language Development Teacher on Special Assignment (Elem. ELD TOSA, jcalkins@nsd.org). Looking forward to providing tips, tricks, and insight into how we can collaboratively provide ELD services and meaningful access to content for all Multilingual students at NSD! 

Here’s 2 things I’m really excited about!
 

WIDA Standards…but make it Math!

Did you know that the WIDA Standards incorporate language for Math? Standard 3 supports Multilingual learners in communicating information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Mathematics. Check ‘em out!

Language Objectives made easy!

Creating a language objective and not sure where to start? Check out this video from “The All Access Classroom” - How to create a language objective in 3 easy steps  

PD Opportunities

NSD PD Course: Become a Desmos TOP CHEF (STEM)

In this asynchronous learning opportunity, teachers will explore how CL can be used to create interactive Desmos activities that support student learning of mathematics. This asynchronous course is designed for teachers with some prior experience using Desmos Activities in class. Patty will be

Teachers can earn up to 12 STEM hours for this course. For more information, click the button below to view course requirements. If you have questions or need help, give me a call (x7617) or email me.

Free Virtual Conference: Make Math Moments Virtual Summit, November 18-20

Links and Resources

Books I'm Reading...

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Other Things I'm Checking Out...

• FractionTalks.com
  • Dan Finkel of MathForLove.com shares his Fraction Talk Lesson Plan
• Sara Van Der Werf: Secondary Number Talks 
• Free digital book: Nix The Tricks
• Dan Meyer: Math Practice Isn’t Like Practice in Sports or Music but It Should Be
• Differentiate Math Instruction with Math Workshop
• Math Medic - free lessons for Geometry, Algebra 2 and Precalculus
• Stats Medic - free statistics lessons and exam review for AP Statistics
  • EFFL: Experience First, Formalize Later
• Calc Medic - free calculus lessons and exam review for AP Calculus
  • Using Questions to Move Student Thinking Forward
  • The Rights of the Learner: Building Confidence and Equity
• Free games from Games for Young Minds
• i-Ready: Free Math Discourse Resources
• Amplify: Free set of math instructional routine cards
• OER Commons: Mathematically Productive Instructional Routines

Teacher Support