Number sense is the ability to use numbers flexibly and creatively. Hmmmm....I was never taught this in school. I was one of those students who learned procedures and algorithms. I knew my facts inside and out from multiple hours of drill and practice (all we had back then...). My teachers never showed us how to decompose numbers to solve problems. Manipulatives? That was my pencil. Group work didn't occur. It was me and the pencil and paper. I never intuitively figured math out either. I would always be amazed how other adults could tear apart numbers and add/subtract/multiply/divide so quickly without pencil and paper. How did they do that? Number sense.
My sixth graders are going to get lots of practice with this concept this year. I know that being able to strategically look at a math problem is where the meat of the mathematics lies. Yesterday I asked a straightforward question: What comes next in the sequence 40, 48, 56, 64...and what is the rule? They all knew what came next (no biggee), but I was interested in the way they explained HOW they figured it out. There were multiple answers - AMAZING! "They're multiples of 8." "I added 8." "I subtracted to find out." We are off to a great start to opening up conversation about our thinking.
Today I'm giving them a dot pattern problem that I saw in Jo's class on video. I'm drooling with anticipation about our juicy conversation today. We're also going to talk about "growing our brains" as well. I'm so grateful that my teaching practice continues to expand - even after 34 years - there's always something new to learn!
Number sense....
New math book arrived yesterday. I can't wait to dig in.
P.S. Thanks, Sidney! You helped me be a little braver in the land of blogging!
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