As we enter the 3rd week of school, it is apparent that students and staff have settled into the routines and expectations that a new year brings. JMS teachers have created environments and established norms that are allowing students to engage in mathematical learning in a variety of ways.
I have had the pleasure of joining Mrs. Maritano's fourth-grade this week to explore strategies for multiplication using a powerful discussion tool called Number Talks. Number Talks provide experiences for students to develop computational fluency because they are rooted in student thinking and reasoning of number relationships and structures.
When students have opportunities to share their strategies with others, they learn to articulate their thinking and develop mathematical language. In addition to communicating mathematical ideas orally, students at JMS are using writing to explain, defend, and reflect on their learning. At the conclusion of Mrs. Maritano's class' Number Talk, students used their math journals to not only create mathematical representations that reflected their thinking but wrote about their observations, new learnings such as strategies and vocabulary, new mathematical ideas that they wanted to try out for themselves, as well as questions they wanted to explore. It was exciting to watch these 4th grade mathematicians grow in this learning cycle that began with students communicating their ideas, then learning from each other, followed by building upon their own thinking, and finally, writing about their learning experiences.
Number Talks and math journals are just a couple of the tools that teachers at JMS use to strengthen student learning in mathematics. Thank you to Mrs. Maritano and her students for allowing me to join you for this learning adventure.
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