I believe Math Talks are one of the best methods to both challenge advanced students and support struggling students. In a math talk, students are given a problem, or question, to which there may be one or multiple answers, but there are many strategies of which this answer(s) could be found.

Steps to a Successful Math Talk

1. Have students work individually on the problem or question introduced– I tell my students, if you have figured out one way to solve the problem, do another. Find as many strategies or solutions as you can.
2. Walk around and jot down what methods students are using– I keep a running list of strategies that both work and do not work with names next to them so I have a plan for who to invite up to share their work.
3. Come back together as a class to share– I call on the students who’s names I wrote down and tell them which strategy I would like them to talk about.
4. Students teach each other– I used to write down the answers for my kids and have them talk through their thinking as I write, but I’ve found that once my class feels comfortable with each other, the students can write and explain their own strategies while using their presenting skills.
5. Allow the class to ask follow-up questions once a student shares– I also ask clarifying questions, especially if the student arrived at an incorrect solution so that as a class we can discuss the misconception. At the end of each share, I ask the class, who else used this strategy? This is important as it allows students who were not asked to share to be recognized for their work.

We use Math Talks quite frequently in my 4th grade classrooms. I found the Math Talk from which these pictures are taken to be a great pre-assessment for my students in terms of addition. Most of my students were able to use the standard algorithm for addition to solve the question 39+84=. Many of my students chose to use some type of visual representation for the problem, either a number line, or an organizer with breaking apart the numbers. One of my advanced students was even able to recognize that 39 and 84 are both divisible by 13 and solved this problem by first dividing each by 13 then multiplying 13 by the total he divided by.