1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,800 Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers, 2 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,680 specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense 3 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:23,560 of their students. Welcome back to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for early 4 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:29,120 elementary teachers hoping to really make a difference in the number sense of their students. 5 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:35,440 Today's topic is, I would say, kind of a hot topic in math education if there is such a thing. 6 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:45,080 It is building thinking classrooms. Now this book, I feel like, took the Facebook math teachers 7 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:51,800 groups by storm. I'm hearing about it everywhere. I heard about it everywhere, and I read it over 8 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:58,200 the summer and I was like, what is so exciting about this book? Like, what is it that is making 9 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:06,280 this so popular? And I have to admit, I was a little skeptical because it's K to 12. And if you 10 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:13,920 are a early elementary teacher, then you know that when things say K to 12, they are rarely actually 11 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:22,400 K to 12, because it takes a special person to understand how to teach little people and not 12 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:29,240 everybody's got it. Not everybody knows what it takes to do that. So like I said, skeptical. Is 13 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:37,360 this actually going to work in kindergarten? So the main premise of this book is that a lot of 14 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:43,720 times when students are presented with some kind of math problem, they're not actually problem 15 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:49,680 solving. What they're doing is mimicking behaviors that look like they're problem solving, but 16 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:56,360 they're not actually problem solving. That's for a variety of reasons. They may have been conditioned 17 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:00,800 to understand that the teacher's going to eventually give them the answer if they don't try. And you 18 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:08,360 know, trying can be a lot harder than not trying. So a lot of times kids get comfortable just kind 19 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:15,000 of sitting back and making it look like they're busy and not actually being busy. This is an aside. 20 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:22,840 But I remember in a high school physics class, like we, me and my friend were supposed to be 21 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:29,200 building an engine or something along those lines. And we were definitely not building an engine. 22 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:36,160 Building was not our forte. So he and I were just talking to each other about anything but building 23 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:42,120 an engine. And a lot of times when a teacher comes over to students who are not doing the right thing, 24 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:47,760 they'll be like, Oh, oh, and then try to make it look they're busy. We were not those people. We are 25 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:54,280 not going to do that. It's like, we kind of looked at her and we're like, Sorry, we're definitely 26 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:59,640 not doing what we should be doing. And she was like, Well, I'm glad that you didn't, you know, 27 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:04,320 try to make it look like you were doing something that you shouldn't. And he's without a missing a 28 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:12,680 beat goes, Well, what you see is what you get. And I will remember that forever, hilarious. But a lot 29 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,280 of times with kids, it's the same. What you see is what you get. If it looks like they're not really 30 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:24,480 working. A lot of times they're not actually working. So the idea of building thinking 31 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:32,200 classrooms is really to move around that and put the kids in a situation where they can't do those 32 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:40,400 typical student behaviors that they have to really go outside of the box because the environment that 33 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:45,800 they're in and the way that math problems are presented changes. When you're taken out of your 34 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:51,400 element and your norm, then you kind of have to react in different ways. And that's exactly what 35 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:58,920 happens with this building thinking classrooms framework. And the results that I've been getting 36 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:05,000 has been amazing with my students. They asked me, Oh, are we going to do a task today? Are we going 37 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,160 to work on the whiteboards today? And they don't ask me questions. They get to the point where 38 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:14,840 they're like, All right, got it. I'm good to go. Let's try and work on this. And they just get right 39 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:20,760 to it. They don't ask me for help. Usually the only thing I'm really doing is having the opportunity 40 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:27,800 to listen to all of their great thinking and support any conflict in partners. But usually, 41 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:34,680 there's really not any conflict. So let's dive into exactly how I set it up. There are three main 42 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:40,200 things that you need to get started with building thinking classrooms, you by no means have to read 43 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:46,800 the whole book before you dive right in, you can, but you definitely don't have to. So the big three 44 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:54,680 that you need are you need your students to be working in random groups. So for K to two, that's 45 00:04:54,680 --> 00:05:00,760 partners. And for older grades, that would be a group of three. You need some kind of vertical, 46 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:07,800 non permanent surface. So that could be dry race board, or a dry race sleeve, and something to 47 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:13,720 hang them up around the room so that kids are standing while they're working. And the dry race 48 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:19,680 marker makes it easy to race. And students are more willing to take risks. And the third thing is 49 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:25,720 that as a teacher, when you're circulating, you're trying to be deliberately less helpful in a kind 50 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:31,000 way. You don't want to just kind of look at your kids and do nothing with the younger kids. But you 51 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:36,000 do kind of want to reiterate that you heard them and just kind of encourage them like I think that 52 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:41,000 you can do it. I definitely think that you can figure this out and kind of walk away and see, 53 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:48,240 see what happens. So those are your three big things that you need to get started. So the first 54 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:54,800 thing is the vertical non permanent surface. My school was recently renovated. And almost all of 55 00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:01,600 my walls are whiteboards. But I realized that that is not the case for everybody. So if I did not 56 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:07,680 have the whiteboards already, I would definitely be making use of dry race leaves, the type of tasks 57 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:13,360 that I'm doing in kindergarten often require something that the kids are working with, not just 58 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:19,320 off you go. It really depends. But a lot of times I'll bring in other things to kind of support 59 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,520 their thinking. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in the task section. The next thing 60 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:30,520 is random groups. So I use these little color coded cards, and the kids can pick a card. And then 61 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:35,360 they find the person who matches their color and then they go to their workspace, a link to several 62 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:40,160 posts about this as well as those color cards. You can kind of see what I'm talking about. You can 63 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:46,800 also get them for free at the link in the show notes. I've also used computer generated groups. 64 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:52,480 I like classroom screen a lot. But something interesting that I noticed when I first started 65 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:58,960 is the kids did not respond as well to the computer choosing a group as them physically 66 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:03,680 choosing a card. I don't know if they thought that I was still in charge of it somehow and I 67 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:08,160 rigged it. I don't know. But they seem to accept it more when they were the one who got to choose 68 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:12,480 their card and their partner was their partner. At this point, they're okay with either but still 69 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:17,520 prefer picking their own card. A note about the partners though, it did take them a while to 70 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:23,360 understand that their groups will always be random. They'll always be with somebody different. 71 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,960 Sometimes they'll work with the same person. Sometimes they'll work with different people, 72 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:33,440 but it is completely random. The good thing about that is then they got to the point where 73 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:39,600 they weren't so attached to who their partner was and also to understand that everybody in the 74 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:45,440 classroom has something important to contribute and as a mathematician you'll grow by learning 75 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:50,000 and hearing what other people have to say. They might be a little disappointed that they're not 76 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:57,280 working with their best friend, but they can still work with any other classmate to accomplish the 77 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:02,560 goal of solving the problem or attempting to solve the problem. Like I said, because I'm in 78 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:08,240 kindergarten, the kids don't have a ton of school norms that they're breaking through. So I wouldn't 79 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:14,240 say that I had students asking me for help often in this setting because it kind of felt different 80 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:19,440 to them than just kind of your run-of-the-mill activity, but when they did ask for help, I would 81 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:24,720 usually, I asked them if they had talked to their partner. I also encouraged them to ask another group 82 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:29,600 what they were doing or what ideas they had and to see if that would help them out so that they 83 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:35,040 really kind of saw other students as areas where they could get ideas and they could get support, 84 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:39,920 not just me as a teacher. And the students who were getting asked to help another student 85 00:08:40,560 --> 00:08:45,040 didn't feel like they were copying off them because they were helping. They were asking for 86 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:48,880 help. They're like, oh yeah, I'll help you. And the good thing about most kids, but especially 87 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,880 kindergartners, is they really want to help. They want to be helpful. So if someone is asking for 88 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:57,840 help, they're definitely into that. Are you with me so far? Great. Now jumping right into what 89 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:03,520 they're actually doing once they get to their vertical non-permanent surface. The book suggests 90 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:07,760 starting with a non-curricular task or something that doesn't necessarily have to do with 91 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:13,120 math or the concept that you're working on, just to kind of get them into the flow 92 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:17,200 of what they're doing and also to get some buy-in. Like this is a fun experience. This is something 93 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:22,400 that you'll enjoy. So anytime we're at the boards, it should have that same feeling. So it's kind of 94 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:26,640 setting them up for that idea that this is going to be a good time. We're going to do 95 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:32,560 really fun things together and we get to work with a partner. Because I had read this book over 96 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:40,240 the summer, I had set up my classroom with wanting a lot of that empty space available for them to 97 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:45,440 work. Because I was starting right at the beginning of the year, there are so many routines that the 98 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:50,800 kids have to learn and this is just another routine. The big things that I was thinking about would be 99 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:56,320 a potential issue for the kids is sharing the marker. With your partner groups, there's only one 100 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:01,120 marker between them so they actually have to talk to each other and discuss. So my concern was that 101 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,440 they wouldn't be sharing the marker and that they wouldn't actually be talking to each other. A lot 102 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:12,640 of parallel play or parallel discussion and not a lot of interaction. So when my first task for 103 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:19,120 the kids was share the marker and take turns. And when I started, I had to be like, okay, two minutes, 104 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,760 okay, switch the marker, switch the marker. But really, they got over that really quickly and I 105 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:29,680 didn't have to do that continuing on. It was just kind of to get them used to switching on and off. 106 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:33,520 And what I noticed them doing was they were good, we're going to share the marker, but they were 107 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:40,240 very much doing their own thing next to each other instead of creating one thing together. So their 108 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:46,080 task, their first task was share the marker and draw a picture on your whiteboard. And so they 109 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:52,240 were drawing their own pictures in a future task. I had them try to draw something together. I kind 110 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:56,800 of thought what is something that would really require them to work together if they want to do, 111 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:05,440 if they want to accomplish a goal. So my next task a different day is I gave each group a pile of 112 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:11,200 blocks and their goal was to build the tallest tower that they could together. So that really got 113 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:15,760 them talking to each other trying to figure out what was the best way to build this tower. And 114 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:20,960 it seemed really successful. And then after that, we went back to the whiteboards and I had them try 115 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:25,680 and draw pictures together. And I did have to model what it might look like to do that. So 116 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:30,080 like that kind of conversation like, well, what do you want to draw? I want to draw this. Okay, 117 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:34,400 I'm going to draw one thing in this picture. And then you're going to draw the next. So I think the 118 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:39,760 example was an ocean. It's like, okay, I'll draw the top of the water. And then the partner drew 119 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:45,840 the sand, etc. They did much better than that. And then we went on to our first quote unquote 120 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:54,880 official task. And so I gave each group a baggie of magnets. And I said, go count these. And the 121 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:59,600 kids have to count them. They came back to the carpet. The whiteboard part of it was, 122 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:06,880 how are you going to show me how many things that you have in your bag, how many items were in your 123 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:13,360 collection. And that sparked a lot of really great discussion with the kids about how they might show 124 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:18,320 that. And this was really great, especially for kindergarten beginning of kindergarten, because 125 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:23,520 some kids come in and they know their numbers, they can count 200, like they have one to one 126 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:28,800 correspondence, all of those big number things they have a good foundation of. And some students, 127 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:34,160 it's really their first experience at school at all. And numbers are just squiggles, slig letters 128 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:39,920 or squiggles. So that was a great kind of hands on way to get both partners involved, even if one 129 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:45,680 of the partners didn't necessarily know their number symbol yet. So starting this building 130 00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:50,000 thinking classrooms journey, especially within mind that some students might not have the same 131 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:55,280 numbers knowledge as others, I try to pick tasks that were very visual that didn't necessarily 132 00:12:55,280 --> 00:13:02,080 require writing numbers down to be able to solve the problem. And let me tell you finding tasks 133 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:07,520 for kindergarten, especially beginning of the year kindergarten, was a challenge. I just wasn't 134 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:13,280 really sure where to turn like the book itself has some examples. But again, I was like, some of my 135 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:18,960 kids are still working on their one to one correspondence to three, like we're not ready for 136 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:26,000 a lot of numbery type math problems. So that has been a challenge, but we work through it. And I 137 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,680 will have a link below to some of the tasks that I use that my kids have really enjoyed. 138 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:35,280 If you're wanting to try this in your classroom, and you only get to that part of the book, 139 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:41,120 you are setting your kids up for a really great math problem solving experience, especially if 140 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:46,160 you're told to give your kids rich math tasks. That's a quote unquote. And I rolled my eyes. 141 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,920 But you're like, what kind of tasks am I going to give them? And how am I going to have them 142 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:58,720 actually problem solving and not just mimicking or sitting there. So this is a really active way 143 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:06,400 to break all of those kind of inhibitions down and really let their math skills show. One thing 144 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:12,480 I will say is, as in any classroom, kids different at different speeds and different paces. So something 145 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:17,840 that the book talks about is thin slicing. So if they've solved this problem, you can give them 146 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:22,080 another problem that's similar, but just a little bit more challenging. So that's something I definitely 147 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:26,080 had to work on like really thinking through, all right, what is this task going to be? What is the 148 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:31,440 next step and next step? And another thing that also really helps if you're not quite there yet, 149 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:36,640 is if you see that a group is finished, send them over to go help another group that might be 150 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,960 struggling. And that's a great way for the students to learn from each other and also the kids who 151 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:45,600 finished to be able to explain what it is that they were doing, which is another really great way 152 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:52,800 for them to consolidate their learning. For me personally, I'm working on the next kind of steps 153 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:59,680 in the book, which are consolidating your learning. So after they've done the problem or engaged in 154 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:06,000 this problem, how am I going to kind of get them from the whiteboard to applying that knowledge or 155 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:12,400 getting a good grip on that knowledge to be able to apply to other problem solving tasks 156 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:16,240 and giving them choice and how it is they want to practice 157 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:23,040 on their own or with their partner, what they were just working on on their whiteboard. I can't 158 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:31,520 remember where I heard it, but in a study, they had asked a bunch of mathematicians to solve x 159 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:36,240 problem. And what they noticed is someone who's actually really flexible with math and their 160 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:43,840 thinking won't ever use an algorithm, they'll just use what they know to create a answer that 161 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:49,520 makes sense for them with their knowledge. So that's my goal with this with my students. I want 162 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:55,280 them to really be able to be flexible with the way that they approach a problem and persevere if 163 00:15:55,280 --> 00:16:00,480 something is challenging. And the best thing about doing this with young kids is they're not at the 164 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:06,320 point where they really need homework, they're not at the point where they have tests that would be 165 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:13,600 like state testing or anything like that. So I figure that if I can really get them thinking 166 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:18,720 flexibly now when they're young, my hope is that as they go on to the next grade level and the next 167 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:24,400 grade level, that will be in their brain and will help them to solve any problem that they get 168 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:31,360 in any math class that they happen to be in. So like I said, I will leave a link to my original 169 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:38,640 post, the cards, some really great resources that I use to find my tasks, and feel free to leave a 170 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:44,640 comment, leave a review, ask me any questions, all of my information will be there. And I would love 171 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:50,320 to connect with other teachers of young mathematicians who are trying this in their classroom or are 172 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:54,480 interested in trying. Make sure to check out the book, it goes much more in depth than I could go 173 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:59,120 here, and I will catch you in the next episode. Let me know if there's anything you would like me to 174 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:02,560 talk about.