6 reasons you should use Number Talks in math class -

You only have 76,775 minutes with the students in your class each year. That seems like a lot of time, but school days are busy and pass quickly. Because of this, you should choose purposeful activities to pack the most learning and growth into every school day as possible.

Number talks are a powerful way to begin your math instruction. Let’s talk about some of the benefits of using this instructional strategy.

Number talks are a critical part of my math instruction that I can complete in just a few short minutes. They provide meaningful discussion that benefits the wide range of learners in my third grade classroom.

A few years ago I learned about number talks. A colleague showed me the book Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by: Sherry Parrish. This book is amazing. It explains the procedures for a number talk and then contains TONS of number talks for you to do with your students. Each math talk teaches students to compute numbers mentally in their heads.

So… what’s a number talk?

A number talk is a quick activity (10-15 minutes). The teacher poses 4-5 mental math computation problems, each given one at a time. Number talks are mental, which is great because there are NO materials to pass out.

After presenting the problem, the teacher provides wait time while students seek to solve the problem as many ways as possible. There are various hand signals that can be used throughout the process. After some thinking time, the class discusses the problem & moves on to the next one.

The beautiful part of the number talk is the “talk” part. When I was a student, I never understood how my peers did math mentally. I always tried to do the algorithm in my head. I could never remember which numbers I was trying to add or subtract by the time I got finished doing all that mental regrouping. Honestly, it was after reading this book and doing number talks with my students that I began to understand mental math. Now, I use those strategies all the time in the real world. Talk about learning something new from your kiddos!

Students are engaged in discussions that will boost their communication skills and mathematical reasoning. It is SO true what they say…

“The person doing the talking is the person doing the learning.”

What are the benefits of a number talk?

1. Helps build number sense. This is a no-brainer. With the number talk strategy we are teaching students to manipulate numbers and to seek multiple ways to solve the same problem. This is going to expand their math sense which will build better math scores.

2. Helps develop speaking and listening skills.Common Core includes Speaking & Listening standards. Number Talks provide the perfect opportunity to reinforce proper discussion skills. Students must clearly communicate their thinking with their peers. They must also listen carefully to keep from repeating the same strategies.

3. Helps students “understand” math facts instead of just memorizing answers. Number talks help third graders become mathematical thinkers. Daily practice with these will help them understand how computation works as opposed to trying to memorize the answer. Here is an easy example: We want students to know that 250 + 250 = 500 because 50 + 50 = 100, and 200 + 200 = 400, etc.

4. Helps students see there is more than one way to solve a math problem. During number talks, students will be exposed to many different ways their peers use to solve the exact same problem. During the number talk it’s important to stress that the process is much more important than the answer. In your discussion, focus the talk around how students got the answer. See how many different ways your group can come up with.

5. Allows all students to “see” the thinking of their peers. This piggybacks on the last point. Worksheets & independent work do not allow for students to see the thinking of their peers. Some of the best classroom learning can take place when we allow for purposeful talk.

6. Teaches students to use numbers flexibly. Remember me in 3rd grade trying to do the algorithm in my head? This is NOT what we want for our students. Daily practice with number talks will teach students to break numbers apart, group them together, etc. This is a vital life-long skill that we need to be teaching our students. There will be a direct correlation between helping students work with numbers & your standardized test scores… I guarantee it.

Go Digital!

When I find a good thing for my classroom, I like to automize my system so I am not recreating the wheel every single day. As a busy teacher, I am always looking for ways to simplify my life in the classroom.

This helps me hit the “easy button.”

For example, when I wanted to start using a daily multi-step word problem to boost critical thinking skills, I created this PowerPoint so I wouldn’t have to make up a new word problem every morning.

How can I get started with digital number talks?

If you are interested in digital number talks, you can download the Addition & Subtraction Digital Number Talk for FREE here. This is a PowerPoint containing 7 Digital Number Talks (5 addition & 2 subtraction). These focus on the 7 mental math skills that third graders should use.

I have many content-based Digital Number Talks available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Look for information about content-based number talks in my next post. The following Number Talks are available in my TPT Store: