Build Numerical Fluency and Algebra Readiness

Numeracy Development Talks

Professional Learning and Instructional Resources

Numeracy Development Talks jumpstart group problem-solving sessions with a brief video that introduces essential representations and strategies and then challenges students to build representations and solve problems as a group. This allows teachers to focus on facilitating mathematical discussions and highlighting essential representations, strategies, and concepts.

In addition, these talks structure a professional learning experience for teachers that:

  • Hardwires professional learning to impact classroom instruction

  • Lowers hurdles to successful classroom implementation 

  • Focuses on multigrade mathematical progressions of representations, strategies, and concepts

Grades 3-5

Build conceptual and procedural fluency with representations and calculations involving:

  • Whole Numbers

  • Fractions

  • Decimals

Grades 6-8

Review Essential Concepts from Grades 3-5

Preview Foundational Representations and Strategies for Grades 6-8

  • Integers

  • Rational Numbers

  • Proportional Relationships

Try this with your students …

EMC Screening Assessment

Year 1 — Numeracy Development Talks focus on number line measurement strategies to help students build fluency with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals in grades 3-5 and integers and rational numbers in grades 6-8.

Try these two number line problems with your students to better understand students’ misconceptions with this essential representation.

Click on the image to download the PDF.

Note: To better understand students’ misconceptions about number lines, ask students to label the tick marks with numbers in Problem 1 and to plot label points and tick marks with the given fractions in Problem 2.

After collecting and reviewing student work, you can use these problems to discuss number line measurement strategies for whole numbers and fractions.

Click to download PDF

PL Video - Basic Number Line Measurement Strategies

Professional Learning Video

Did some (or many) of your students mislabel the tick marks in Problem 1?

If they did, watch this video to learn more about the basic measurement strategy for number lines and to explore how you can introduce this foundational number line strategy to students.

This topic is also the focus of this Grade 3 Numeracy Development Talk on whole numbers and this Grade 6 NDT on integers.

  • Numeracy Development Talk 3.1 A1
    Measure Distance from Zero on Number Lines

  • Numeracy Development Talk 6.1 A1
    Measure to Represent Integers on Number Lines

“The math that we teach today is the foundation for what students learn next week, next month, and the following school year.

Helping students develop multi-grade math fluency requires that math teachers at a school share an understanding of how math representations, concepts, and strategies build from one grade level to the next.”

— Peter Sickler, MobiusMath Founder