Ep 12: Which One Doesn’t Belong: Number Sense Routines Series

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With the start of the year coming around, for the next few episodes, I'm going to talk to you all about number sense routines, especially how you can add them into your math block really easily and really quickly and make a big impact.

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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers, specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense of their students.

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In all honesty, I might be dating myself here, but do any of you remember watching Sesame Street and they had a little song like which one of these is not like the others?

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Which one of these doesn't belong?

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That is the number sense routine I'm going to talk to you about today.

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Which one doesn't belong?

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Now, the reason I really like this number sense routine is that it is not strictly math related and there are no wrong answers.

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So since there are no wrong answers, it's perfect for the beginning of this school year to get your kids really into the habit of talking about their thinking without the pressure of oh am I right or oh am I wrong?

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So the way that which one doesn't belong works is students are given four images and they simply have to decide in their mind which one of these four things does not belong with the others.

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This one for the beginning of the year is a great way to get your students thinking critically and creatively, to get your students talking about their thinking, to have them practice academic conversations, taking turns listening to their partner, being able to agree or disagree respectfully,

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and then invites everybody to participate because there are no wrong answers.

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So why would you use a number sense routine anyway?

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Well number sense is one of those vague terms that you're like oh I know I should be doing that.

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Like I should be helping my kids develop number sense but how am I supposed to do that?

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A number sense routine is a really simple way to include some conversation and some critical thinking into your math block and it's very very quick.

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It really should not take very long but it's kind of a compounding effect.

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So the more that you do it the better that they get at it and the more it develops their number sense.

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So how do you do which one doesn't belong?

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So you would like I said show four images and your kids are going to have to figure out which one of those four things doesn't belong.

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Now if you've been in a classroom you know that there's always a few kids who raise their hands right away, they're ready to participate, they already thought of it,

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and there's others who usually don't want to participate, they're not the ones to volunteer.

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So something that I try to do whenever I'm doing a number talk is make sure that all of my students understand that there is going to be some think time.

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Like you might raise your hand, you might already know the answer but I'm not going to call on you for a good 20, 30 seconds and it can feel like an eternity.

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But some kids really need that time to think especially if they're language learners or if they're just shy in general or not used to participating.

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They're going to need that time to really think and look at the problem and also to understand that you're going to give them that time,

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that they're going to have to participate especially if they have to talk to a partner, not necessarily to the whole group but might have to discuss with a partner.

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So one way that you can kind of get your students to all participate is instead of having them raise their hand when they're ready to share,

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they might do like a simple thumbs up in front of their chest.

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So the effect of that is that the people who are ready quickly can show you that they're ready so you can see, you know, you have a signal,

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you have like a secret signal that you know that they're ready to participate but that you're not going to call on anybody.

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And also since they're not seeing hands in the air, the students who might need a little bit more time,

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it gives them the time without feeling the pressure of oh he already knows the answer so I'm just not even going to think about it.

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I think this was in the number talks book like the specific number talks bunk that I'll link below.

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They talk about having your kids maybe put a thumbs up if they have one answer,

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maybe put up another finger if they have two answers so that way they can keep thinking

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of their few answers while the other students are thinking of their first answer.

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So at this point you could have your kids just share out which one do you think doesn't belong,

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which one do you think doesn't belong or you can take this opportunity to practice like turn in talks or academic conversations,

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giving your kids a sentence strip or sentence frame if they need to frame their thinking.

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So in this way you have your kids do your turn and talk and this might require some practice too.

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If you're going to have your students always have the same partner that they're working with,

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if you're going to have them find a partner or just kind of turn to the left or turn to the right,

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it might require some thinking about where you want your kids to be and where you want them to turn

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and that becomes part of the number sense routine.

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Which which way are you turning to whom are you talking and who is going to talk first.

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At this point you can have your kids discuss their answer.

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Which one of these things do you think does not belong and a big big part about which one doesn't belong

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is you're going to have to have them or maybe prompt them to discuss with their partner at least

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why they think this one thing doesn't belong.

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So let's do an example of something that the kids might really enjoy.

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Let's say that you have your four pictures are a picture of Batman, a picture of Batgirl,

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a picture of Wonder Woman and a picture of Robin.

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So your kids might say oh Wonder Woman is the one who doesn't belong

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and then you're prompting them why why is Wonder Woman the person who doesn't belong.

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Well they might say because she's a girl they might say that she's not in the same

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universe as the other ones etc etc but they might say well Robin doesn't belong because all of them

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are their own superhero and Batman is like or sorry not Batman Robin is like the side

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he's the sidekick he's not the main superhero or they might say that Batman is the one who

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doesn't belong because XYZ whatever maybe he's rich and the other ones aren't I don't know.

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But the idea is that they are justifying their answer in this context that's not that's low

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pressure so that way when you get into something that is more difficult something that is more

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strictly math related they'll have the habits of talking about their thinking and why they think

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that. A way you can extend the which one doesn't belong is you can have your students come up with

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their own which doesn't belong if you have like recording sheets or something around the classroom

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like if you have early finishers you could say why don't you try and think about which one doesn't

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belong and if they get really into it you can take pictures of their work and put those in your

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slides and then that way instead of having a which one doesn't belong that's pre-made that maybe you

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made or you found somewhere it can be what the students think and then I think they'd really

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get a kick out of talking about oh this person did this one for me and they thought about this

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so they're taking it a step further instead of just responding really thinking about ooh how can

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I make a really tricky which one doesn't belong for my classmates and see if I can really stump them.

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This is a great opportunity to remind your kids that there are ways to disagree respectfully

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and ways to disagree that might make somebody else upset. So in this might be practicing well I

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disagree because this this this and remember in this context there's not really a right or wrong

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answer so disagreements are not necessarily something that would be detrimental but just getting them

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used to thinking that everybody is going to have the same thinking but valuing what other people

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have to say and really taking it in really listening to what they're saying and be like oh

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maybe you're right maybe it could be this or maybe it could be that. At this point you've

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shown them they're which one doesn't belong they've had a chance to think about it like really get

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some quiet think time to discuss with a partner or partners if you have a trio for some reason

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and now it's time to share out. So you can just have kids share out like oh I thought this I thought

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this I thought this have some students explain to you why as well so that other students are

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hearing the model of how to say I think this because or this one doesn't belong because or I thought this

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and he thought this so they could be comparing and contrasting if they had a differing opinion

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from their partner so they're hearing other students model the type of responses that might be helpful

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in the future which one doesn't belong. Also when you're sharing out you could have them tally you

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could have every single student say like oh I think it's this one oh I think is this one oh I think

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is this one and look at it as a group and say oh well most of our group thought that Robin is the one

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who didn't belong but we did have some people who think that Batman doesn't belong and again

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reinforcing that all of these answers are valid and everybody had their own thinking and everybody's

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thinking is valid. Wrapping it up I will have a blog post with all of this written out linked down

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below and I really hope you give which one doesn't belong a try it's one of my students favorite

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number sense routines at the beginning of any time really but at the beginning of the year it just

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has a lot of powerful side effects I would say to get your kids started and thinking and talking

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about what they are thinking. If you're enjoying the podcast I would love it if you left a review

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and always I'm always taking suggestions of things that you would like me to talk more about so until

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then I will see you next time.