Look-Think-Talk Routine
The Look-Think-Talk routine is designed to make math visual and engage students in rich discourse that supports meaning-making and celebrates multiple ways of seeing and thinking. You’re probably already familiar with the bones of this routine – it’s at the heart of number and dot talks and we have used it frequently in the Mindset Mathematics books in our visualize activities. Do one of these activities to start a lesson, or one or more as the whole lesson. Each activity is structured as follows:
Look: Show students an intriguing image and pose a mathematical question.
We have developed seven question types that you can explore by clicking the button at the right. You can show students the image using a projector or providing them with the pdf versions attached to each activity.
Think: Give students a chance to think.
They will need to study the image closely and develop some ideas. Remember that everyone thinks at different speeds and notices different things first, so 2 or 3 seconds isn’t enough. Give students a chance to turn and talk to share ideas and ensure every voice gets heard by someone.
Talk: Engage students in discussion about the image and questions.
You can do this first in small groups by sending students off to tables to talk. Close with a whole class discussion of students’ ideas. Be sure to collect multiple ideas, answers, strategies, and ways of seeing. Collecting these ideas may mean annotating the image electronically or using a document camera or writing on a class chart.
Your role is to open up space to explore big ideas in mathematics and to take advantage of the multiple ways students see and think. Create a space for their voices. Get them excited!
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Seven Questions for Look-Think-Talk
Each of our activity uses one of these seven questions to frame what students are looking for, how they think about, and what they talk about. Learn more about each by clicking on the questions below, or watch our videos about each question.
How many?
Engage students in counting, subitizing, composing and decomposing number, and, in some images, thinking in equal groups. The challenge depends on the size of the group and whether objects are organized or scattered.
You can follow-up by asking: How do you know? How did you see it?
About how many?
Extend students’ thinking about counting, benchmark numbers, iterating equal groups, and composing and decomposing number by asking then to estimate. As with How many?, the challenge depends on the size of the group and how organized the collection is.
You can follow-up by asking: How do you know? What do you notice that can help you estimate?
Which is more?
Build on students’ number composition and decomposition ideas by asking them to compare two quantities presented visually. Some activities can be compared through direct counting, while others involve estimation.
You can follow-up by asking: How do you know? How did you see it? What did you notice that helped you decide?
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Create space for students to notice attributes, patterns, similarities, and differences. These noticings can turn into new concepts and spark new explorations as students engage in the practice of posing mathematical questions.
You can follow-up by asking: What stands out to you? Why? Is there a question about this image that you’d like to spent time investigating? How could you explore that question?
Watch out What do you notice? What do you wonder? video to learn more.
What patterns do you see?
Patterning is central to mathematics and defines our world. Engage students in seeing the world through the lens of patterns, with the idea that patterns can be complex and multilayered.
You can follow-up by asking: How do you know it is a pattern? How could you describe the pattern you see?
What's missing?
Invite students to use the information that can see to infer what might be missing from a space or pattern. This form of spatial problem solving involves composing and decomposing shapes, extending patterns, and structuring space.
You can follow-up by asking: What could fill the empty space? How do you know? What do you notice that could help you?
How could you organize?
Sorting and organizing is the beginning of data science. Invites students to work directly with data as represented by objects or animals, considering how they could be grouped or ordered and what questions they could answer by doing so.
You can follow-up by asking: What do you notice about these [objects] that could help you organize them? What questions could you answer if you organized these [objects]?