Six Step Math Conversation Process
1. Teacher presents the problem
2. Students figure the answer mentally (wait time)
3. Students share their answers
4. Students share their thinking- justify answers
5. Class agrees on “real answer”
6. Steps are repeated for additional problems
Number sense is important because it encourages students to think flexibly and promotes confidence with numbers—they “make friends with numbers”. Students come to understand that numbers are meaningful and outcomes are sensible and expected. It is a part of children’s daily mathematical lives and slowly grows and develops over time. In a problem-centered mathematics curriculum, number sense is closely tied to problem solving, as the children described above show. These children have learned, over time, that they are capable of solving problems and that they can play with numbers to make sense of a problem. They have used their growing number sense to develop strategies to help them solve problems.
