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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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Have you ever done math conferences with your students?

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And if you did, how did it go?

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I have been teaching math and science for a long time and I can't say that I ever really

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did formal math conferences, but it's such a simple idea and can have a huge impact on

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your students.

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So let me show you how I do my math conferences.

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I was listening to a presentation by Dr. Nikki Newton and she was talking about conferring

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in math class and how visual goal setting is really, really helpful for all students,

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but especially your students who might be struggling because then they get small achievable

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goals and they see it.

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They see it in real life, real time.

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So I created my own math goals for kindergarten, counting in number sense goals, and it includes

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number identification, number writing, subitizing, one-to-one correspondence, and wrote counting.

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It is really, really simple to use, really quick to do.

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I wanted it to be something that I could do quickly, something that the kids would really

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enjoy, and something where I could take really quick anecdotal notes without having to write

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everything out.

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I teach Spanish immersion, so I have an English version and a Spanish version, especially

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if I send it home for families, maybe Spanish speaking families, then they'll be able to

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see exactly what it is that they're working on and how they might support it home.

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I also have a progress collection sheet and on that collection sheet, it has the number

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range that we're working on and a little check and a X.

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So if they've mastered that numeral, they can circle the check and if they're still working

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on that, you can circle the X for your own knowledge to know, oh, that's a target number

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for them.

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And that really helps when you're talking to your students about what their goals are,

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because you're like, oh, you missed four, but you got one, two, three, and five.

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So four is going to be the number that we're working on, and then you can come back and

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revisit.

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So the way that this kind of goal-setting conference works is you see the student doing

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math or you might ask them to do a couple of tasks with you and see where they're at.

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And after that, make sure that you give them a compliment on something that they're doing

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really, really well and maybe offer a strategy or two to help them with something that they

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were having a little bit of trouble with and kind of set that as your goal for the next

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thing you're going to work on.

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And after they've achieved all of these small, bite-sized goals, they get to color in this

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section that they've mastered so they can see all the progress that they're making.

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So to the actual assessment, in this resource, I've included numeral cards, dice cards, finger

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pattern cards that you can use, but honestly, to make things really easy, I just used a

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whiteboard, dry erase marker, and my own fingers for the lower numbers and 20 objects for the

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higher numbers.

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So what I would do is if we were working on the number range one to five, I would give

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them the numbers out of order.

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So I would ask them to tell me, like, what is this number?

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And then if they say, four, be like, awesome, let's do the next one.

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What is this number?

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And go one through five.

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And then if they master all of those numbers, they get to color in the section that says

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you recognize numbers one to five, and then you can move on to the next section.

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So the way that this works is they kind of go by rows.

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The way that I've set it up is they kind of go by rows, so a number, writing, number,

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recognition, counting, and supertizing.

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You don't have to go in that order by any means, especially this number.

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Counting is a little bit more of a challenge than counting or supertizing, but you can

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definitely do whatever order you want and whichever fits the needs of your students.

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So step by step, what was the procedure of this goal setting conference?

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I asked the students to come over and sit with me that we were going to do some math

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together.

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And since I started this later on in the year, I knew that most of my students at least knew

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the numerals to five, so I started with numerals.

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But if I did at the beginning of the year, I probably would have started with counting

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or supertizing since those aren't as number heavy, that's more abstract.

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So after the numbers, I just drew a dice face.

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So you can use the dice cards that I have, but I just drew a dice face and I was like,

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okay, what is this number?

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And I would show them for a few seconds and then put it down and they're like, ooh, it's

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four.

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You're like, all right, what about this number?

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And then they say five and I would do all of the dice face.

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And then if they got them all, they could color it in.

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And if not, it'd be like, okay, we're working on learning this one.

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This arrangement is the number four.

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And as they move on and moved on to 10 frames, the same thing.

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You could use a 10 frame and put your counters on it, but for supertizing, you want it to

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go a little bit faster.

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So you could use the 10 frame, you could use a 10 frame cards, or I just drew a 10 frame

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on.

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Really simple.

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How many is this?

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And then they're like, ooh, it's six.

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And they're like, okay, great, how many is this?

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And I just moved through the numbers.

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And then the last thing I had them do for me was write the numerals, which seems to be

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the most difficult thing for my students to do because of their fine motor.

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So I let them use the whiteboard and they love using the whiteboard.

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And also, I've, I mean, students love using the whiteboard anyway, but I've definitely

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been diving into using whiteboards, vertical whiteboards, a lot with my students that they

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get to write on them and solve math problems with them.

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So I think they like how easy it is to like erase if they make a mistake and try again.

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So they were really motivated to write on these whiteboards with me, like their numbers.

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So I'd say write the number four, and then they'd write the four and write the number

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two.

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So all of these numbers, I'm giving them out of orders, know if they really know it and

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are not just memorizing the sequence.

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And for each master skill, they color in their square.

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And that was really helpful for me and helpful for them that they know, okay, I'm working

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on these numbers.

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I'm going to write down my target numbers and for me myself to remember, okay, these

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are the numbers that they're working on.

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So here and there, whenever we can, I would bring up that number, see if they remembered

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it, see if we're working on it.

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And kind of that repetition and knowing that's my goal, that's my goal, really help them

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master whatever small bite-sized pieces we're working on and move on to the next one.

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And once they see that they're like really starting to understand things and really starting

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to make progress, it kind of gives them that drive to keep going and keep building their

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math brain, which is really interesting to see.

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I had one student who was just missing the number 20.

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So we had all the numbers except for 20.

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So I talked to him about it.

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I was like, okay, our goal is for you to learn that this is the number 20.

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I think you know it, but you couldn't remember the name.

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So we're going to work on that.

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So for the next few days, I'll be like, Hey, what's this number?

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Hey, what's this number?

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He'd be like, Oh, I actually saw this number around.

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Oh, look, it's right there.

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It's right there.

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And a few days later, I was like, all right, can you tell me what this number is?

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Or can you write this number?

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And he absolutely could.

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And since then he still remembers that number.

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So just kind of having that narrow focus, like this is what we need to work on.

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And then you'll be able to meet this goal and color in this square was super helpful

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for him within days.

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And then the other students that I started using this goal setting progress tracking counting

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sheet had very, very similar results.

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They're really motivated to color it in.

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They're excited to work with me one on one.

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And they have been making amazing progress.

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I will leave the link to the blog post that has everything written out, as well as this

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resource down below.

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And you can check it out for yourself.

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I hope you use math conferences with your students and let me know how it goes.