Texas Mathematics Teacher Fall/Winter 2021 - 18

Choral Counting in Action
Preparing Materials for a Choral Count
The materials needed to prepare for a choral count include
chart paper and an assortment of colored markers. For
students in the primary grade levels or students new to
choral counting, consider posting vocabulary cards or a
word bank with terms that will be used during the choral
count such as row, column, and diagonal as well as sentence
stems/sentence frames that could be used to encourage
student communication (Figure 4).
Implementing Choral Counting
Once the choral count has been planned, the materials
have been prepared, and expectations have been shared
with students, it is time for a choral count (Figure 5)!
Figure 5. Choral counting in action
Listed below are five steps to support the implementation
of Choral Counting.
Figure 4. Choral counting work space with colored markers,
vocabulary cards, and sentence stems to encourage
student communication
Preparing Students for Choral Counting
" Choral Counting provides opportunities for children to
reason, to predict, and to justify as they notice what happens
to numbers as they count together " (p. 79). Choral
Counting is an active, engaging, and " out loud " process
for which we need to model and clearly communicate our
expectations regarding ways in which students should
participate in the choral count. To best prepare students
for the choral count and to ensure that we are creating a
risk-free environment in which students feel safe to share
their thinking, a list of possible expectations to discuss
with students includes:
● Choral Counting happens out loud. We need to use
our inside voices.
● Choral Counting happens with one voice. We need
to count together.
● Choral Counting includes noticings and wonderings.
We need to share our thinking.
1. Review student expectations for counting chorally
(voice level, pacing) and sharing
noticings/wonderings.
2. Start the choral count and record the numbers
being counted, pausing at pre-planned intervals to
prompt students to make predictions.
3. Complete the choral count and ask, " What patterns
do you notice? "
4. Allow students independent think-time before partnering
students to share their thinking with a
" turn and talk " .
5. Prompt students to share their noticings with the
whole group and use colored markers to annotate
their noticings on the chart paper (Figure 6) .
" Students might share a variety of
noticings that range from clear and
concise mathematical patterns to
observations such as the physical
attributes of numbers or visual patterns
in how the choral count is recorded. "
18 | Spring/Summer 2021
Texas Mathematics Teacher
Texas Mathematics Teacher Fall/Winter 2021

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