Dot Talks

Today several classes were working on dot talks as a way to encourage students to express themselves and explain how they perceive different patterns of dots.

An image is projected for several seconds, and students are asked how many dots there were on the screen. Students then take turns explaining how they know how many dots there are.

As they explain, the teacher groups the dots and shows the different ways that the students suggest. It’s always impressive to see how many different ways we can see things to get to an answer. It’s a great activity to encourage participation, and to celebrate different approaches and viewpoints.

some sources of dot talks are: numbertalkimages, and youcubed.