Steven Mijajlovic

Master of Science in Education Program

Northwestern University
August 2014
What are Number Talks / Math Talks
5-15 minute classroom conversations around computation problems that are solved mentally
The heart of Math Talks is classroom conversation focused on making sense of mathematics
What is looks like
2-3 minutes mental math (18 27, 27 18; 31 22, 22 31; ) followed by
Teacher scribe and class discussion
Pen-pal letter writing
Table white boards and share out

Does writing and small group discourse about mental math develop
mathematical number sense among seventh graders?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1 2 3 4
1.30
2.85
4.70
6.95
1
3 3
6
N
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o
f

M
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Quarter
Number of Methods Measured per Quarter
n=20*
Average Number of Methods Mode (Most frequent number of methods)
*6 students from my low-performing group, 8 from my mid-performing group, and 6
from my high-performing group based on student NWEA RIT Band Skill scores.

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1 2 3 4
N
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b
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o
f

U
n
i
q
u
e

M
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Quarter
Number of Methods Measured per Quarter -- Box Plot
(n=20)
Table white boards are
the focus late Quarter 3
and all of Quarter 4
Written Interaction
between Students
Total Number of Different
Methods
Initial Correspondence Total
Number of Methods Used
Final Correspondence Total
Number of Methods Used
Class Average 6.3 2.8 5.4
No (n=11) 5.9 2.5 5.1
Yes (n=6) 6.8 3.2 6.2
n=17 (17 pairs, 34 students total)
Initial Correspondence Total Number of
Methods Used
Final Correspondence Total Number of
Methods Used
2.8
5.4
2.5
5.1
3.2
6.2
Letter Writing: Number of Unique Methods
(n=17)
Class Average (n=17) No Written Interaction (n=11) Written Interaction (n=6)
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
Mean (Average) Mode (Most Occurring)
3.9
3
5.3
5
Number of Methods on White Boards
n=9
January - Unique Methods June - Unique Methods

Student Survey Choices One Word Description Attitude
58% Table White Boards (n=25)
Variety Positive
Discussion Positive
Thinking Positive
26% Pen-pal Letter Writing (n=11)
Exciting Positive
Monotony Negative
Unclear Negative
16%
Class Share Out with Teacher
Scribe (n=7)
Distracted Negative
Clarity Positive
Concise Positive
n=43
Students enjoyed the activities and learned a great deal

Process oriented encouraging and developing flexible thinking
Multiple perspectives
Multiple methods

Not your typical Problem A Solution B
We lived in the land of process (the cloud) and learned a great deal
throughout our year-long meandering journey