Math Number Talks – What Are They & Why Do We Do Them? The school year is well under way, and most of you have probably heard your child mention Number Talks.  During number talks, students are asked to communicate their thinking when presenting and justifying solutions to problems they solve mentally. These exchanges lead to the development of more accurate, efficient and flexible mathematics strategies.   A number talk is a 10-15-minute daily classroom conversation and discussion centered on a purposefully designed computation problem that students solve mentally. Number talks focus on three important elements: 1. Accuracy – the ability of our students to produce an accurate answer 2. Efficiency – the ability to choose an appropriate, quick strategy to solve the computation problem 3. Flexibility – the ability to use number relationships with ease in computation Why do a daily number talk? 1. When students have mental pictures of the size and value of numbers, this prepares them for learning addition and multiplication facts, and for solving simple problems involving computation. As students develop the mental ability to see numbers as being made up of other numbers (for example, seeing 125 as 100 + 20 + 5), their understanding of the number system expands. 2. When a student has strong mental math skills, he or she can quickly test different approaches to a problem and determine whether the resulting path will lead toward a viable solution. Estimation skills require both a sense of numbers and facility with mental computation, and can provide a ballpark answer to a problem before the student attempts to solve it. They also offer a comparison point by which to judge whether a result is reasonable for the given situation. Estimation is an important skill for inclusion in students’ tool kits, whether they perform calculations with a pencil and paper or on a calculator. So, as you continue to work with your children at home, a great way to support their learning would be to have your child practice mentally solving computation problems that are appropriate for his or her grade level. Additionally, this support will pay off down the road when students reach the abstract world of algebra! We certainly appreciate your support.

Number Talk— an example