What Are Number Talks?
When I first heard this term, I had been teaching for many years, and I wasn’t sure what it was or even if it was something that would work in my classroom. Then a team in my building took the leap and immersed themselves in Number Talks, and loved it and I knew that it was something that I wanted to try. So I grabbed the Number Talks book by Sherry Parrish and started reading it. (You can get the book here)
Number Talks is a daily, short, structured way for students to talk to each other about how to solve math problems. These lessons take about 10 minutes and it is a great way for students to build on their number sense using mental math and thinking flexibly. By flexibly, I mean understanding that there are many ways to solve a problem. Students are encouraged to think of several ways to answer a given problem.
Once they have thought of their answers, then they share their thinking with the rest of the class. Number Talks is also structured to get students talking to each other about how they solved problems. It relies heavily on students talking to each other and using that peer teaching that we use so frequently in our classrooms!
How to Use Number Talks in the Classroom
There are four simple steps for you to follow using Number Talks. Once you have these down, Your Number Talks lessons will practically run themselves!
1. Present the Problem
The first part of Number Talks is to present the problem. For example, in the picture above (which I took from my Number Talks) I would show my students this slide and ask, “How many dots do I have on this ten frame?” I would take some answers from the students and then I would ask how they figured that out. (ex: counted by 1’s skip counted by 2’s).
The next step would be to present the problem to my students. In this case, I would ask “How many more dots do I need to complete this tens frame?”
2. Think Time
Once I have presented the problem I give my students that all-important “think time”. My students are thinking of what the answer is and how many ways they can solve the problem. When they think of one way to solve this problem they put up their thumb. The great part of Number Talks is that once they have found one way to get the answer, they can think of another way to solve the problem. This helps with mental math and looking at numbers in many different ways. When you first try this, there will be a lot of “awkward silence” and that’s good! Your students are stretching their minds!
3. Call on a Student
Now the students have thought of some strategies, it’s now time to call on the students to explain their thinking. Then you call on a student, write down their strategy, and also put their name with the strategy. This way students can see all of the different solutions and find a way that works for them to solve a problem. I always stress with my students during this time that there are so many different ways to solve a problem, and that’s great! Explaining how you got to an answer in math is just as important as the answer.
4. Students Agree/Disagree
This is another important step. After a student shares their strategy, you have the students hold up thumb to show if they agree or disagree with the solution. When students agree it boosts the confidence of the student who shared. If they disagree, they can talk about it as well. Here are just a few examples of what you can use with your students.
- “I agree with _____ because ________”
- “I disagree with _____ because______”
- “I like what you said about __________”
- “Could you say more about__________”
- “Can you tell me in a different way?”
Number Talks in Your Classroom
If you would like to try out number talks in your classroom and don’t quite know where to start, you can always check out my store where I have many number talks done for different math units. You can check it out here.
