Building Math Culture

Number Talks

Number Talks have a number of articles and books written about them, so before diving into this strategy, consider doing some reading!

The essence of this strategy is that a problem is given to students that can often be worked out mentally. Many times students are encouraged to solve the problem individually, then turn to a partner and share how they got their solution. Finally, the teacher solicits ideas from students about possible solutions and the method they used to get that answer, and records this on the board for all to see. Both correct and incorrect answers are recorded. Correct answers give students the opportunity to be introduced to alternate strategies of problem solving they may find useful, and incorrect strategies offer opportunities to discover and address misconceptions.

A short article on Number talks can be found here: Number Talks  

Head back to the Specific Strategies page.