Number Talks & Talk Moves

Number Talks are powerful routines that can be used at any grade level.

What is the purpose of  number talks?

The purpose of  number talks at the beginning of kindergarten is to help students develop number sense. Later in the year, number talks should help students transition from the pictorial representation to a number sentence. (CCGPS Ongoing Standards for Mathematical Practice 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8).

What are Number Talks?

• Classroom conversations around purposely crafted computation problems that are solved mentally.
• The problems are designed to elicit specific strategies that focus on number relationships and number theory.
• They provide structured practice for mental math as well as promote the value in using mental math to compute.
• Number talks about the importance of being flexible with numbers and using a variety of strategies for computation.
• Students are given problems in either whole class or small-group settings and are expected to solve them accurately, efficiently, and flexibly.

Key components Number Talks

• Classroom Environment And Community
• Classroom discussion
• Teacher's role
• The Role of mental math 
• Purposeful computation problem

Number Talk Format

• Teacher presents the problem.
• Students figure out the answer on their own (use hand signals).
• Students share answers (all answers are accepted).
• Students defend their answer.
• Class Agrees on the "real" answer for the problem.
• Steps are repeated for more problems in the number string.

Note: During a number talk, the teacher only serves as a recorder and facilitator, not as a teacher


Teacher's role

• Provides a safe environment where each child's thinking is valued.
• Selects groups or strings of problems that allow access all children.
• Select problems intentionally highlight mathematical concepts.
• Focuses on how children got answer.
• Provides wait time.
• Shifts focus from "see what I see" to "what do you do see?"
• Records, clarifies, restates.
• Realizes that if the children do't "get it" then it is the teacher's responsibility to figure out the misconception  or lack of proficiency and to begin instruction at that point.

Questions for the teacher to ask

• Who would like to share their thinking?
• Who would like to defend their answer?
• What strategy did you use?
• How many people solved it the same way as (student)?
• Does anyone have any questions for (student)?
• (student), Can you tell us where you got that five from?
• How did you figure that out?
• What was the first thing your eyes saw, or your brain did?

Focus on the mathematical process process- not answer getting

• Students are asked to defend or justify their answers to prove their thinking.
• Students have a sense of shared authority In determining in determining whether the answer is accurate.
• Teacher is not the ultimate authority.
• Wrong answers are used as opportunities to unearth misconceptions.
• Students investigate their thinking and learn from their mistakes.
• Mistakes play an important role in their learningI and provide opportunities to question and analyze thinking, bring misconceptions to the forefront and solidify understanding.

Resources for Number Talks:

Elementary Math Level

• Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies Grades K-5, update Common Core Connections by Sherry Parrish (Math Solutions Store) *There are resources at the bottom of the page on the Math Solutions Store for the book.
• Number Talks: Building Numerical Reasoning Article by Sherry Perrish, Math Solutions published in NCTM”s Teaching Childrens Mathematics October 2011 (click here for the article)
• Sherry Perrish: Number TalksYouTube Video “Number Talks: Building Numerical Reasoning” by Sherry Parrish, Scholastic (click here)

“Until I began to make some shifts in thinking about how students learn and maybe best practices.  That I avoided writing problems horizontally. Because for the very things you're describing. I justified that if I already had it recorded vertically that they could go into that procedure and get a correct answer. Why put the confusing out there.

Now, I’m going to write just about all of my problems horizontally. I want to push on that place value piece. I want the mis conceptions to come to the forefront so that we can deal with them and have conversations around it.”  

Sherry Parrish, Number Talks: Building Numerical Reasoning on YouTube (Time 11:32 - 12:13)

Other Resources:

1. Locust Grove Elementary School: The Math Coach Locus Grove has resources by grade level - Kindergarten through Grade 5. 
2. Math Perspectives: Math Perspectives has resources, including videos and articles, for Number Talks.                             
3. Pleasanton USD - Math Moodle: The Math Coach has  resources for Number Talks oragnized by grade level. These resources follow Sherry Parrish's structure and format in her book Number Talks.   
4. Billings Public Schools: Resources from Sherry Parrish's book, broken out by grade K-5.
5. Number Strings: The blog Number Strings poses series of 4-5 math problems student do mentally. The basic structure for the classroom discussion is the same as a Number Talk. The string of problems are strategically chosen to support students thinking and possibly highlight a specific strategy students should focus on.
• Personally, I read this one and was impressed with the amount of reflection included in the Number String analysis. The teacher does a great job explaining why the number string was chosen, purpose, skills working, and analyzing the student conversation after completing in class. The teacher even includes how they would change the Number String for next time.
6. Math Talks: A variety of Number Talks can be found here and span several grade levels. Even include Pattern Talks.

Secondary Math Level

1. Number Talk Blog: A High School Math Teacher blogging about her experience using Number Talks
2. Article from Math Perspectives: Number Talks
3. Article from MathWire.com: How can Talk Moves and Mathematical Discussions support Writing?