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Number Talks are a simple number sense mental math teaching strategy that can transform how learners feel, engage and communicate about maths. They can help teachers gather formative assessment, and help us to use learners' ideas and understanding as a springboard to construct new learning. Making mistakes become a wonderful opportunity to deconstruct misconceptions and bring clarity to new strategies.
Number Talks also work on developing a growth mindset about mathematics problem solving, and create an environment where mathematics becomes an exploration of logic and reasoning and not just a quest to get the 'right answer.'
Integrating other strands such as measurement or geometry can be used as well, as all strands have number sense components within them.
When working on arithmetic problems, I like using a place value visual prompt of some kind as I currently teach 6-7 year-olds. Prof. Jo Boaler advocates always helping students to 'see' the math visually as well as in an equation. She uses a great visual technique for multiplication in her "How to" video below.
(PS- most of these videos can be sped up to 1.25 or 1.5 to watch faster!)
The Theory and Methodology
The Theory and Methodology
This is a presentation I did with the super talented @NStevenson (follow her on Twitter; she's a Jedi level teacher).
This is a presentation I did with the super talented @NStevenson (follow her on Twitter; she's a Jedi level teacher).
Junior Number Talks
Junior Number Talks
More Advanced Number Talks
More Advanced Number Talks
These two videos show more advanced number talks but they have incredible tips from two professors of mathematics teaching (Prof. Jo Boaler and Prof. Sherry Parrish) so well worth the time to watch (at faster speeds).
Publications, resources and useful websites
Publications, resources and useful websites
numbertalks_sparrish.pdfMy Number Talks Collection- how our learning is growing over time (yep, mine too!)
My Number Talks Collection- how our learning is growing over time (yep, mine too!)
Term 1, 2017-Addition
We started out with dot patterns, and I still like to go back and forth with those or always provide some sort of visual prompt.
Early Term 2, 2017- Addition and subtraction
Lovely patterns of repeated addition begin to show up in dot patterns to work out how many (15), then we used the Splat! to cover some and work out a subtraction (15-6). Some children instinctively reversed the operation 6+?=15.
Late Term 2, 2017- I've started to annotate some of the strategies to develop their mathematical language.
Visuals: In 2018 I did a short teaching as inquiry into using different visuals to model thinking rather than just equations. I now use number line and either dots (left) or bar modelling (right) plus annotation. Different learners need different ways to 'see' the maths, as well as to learn how to 'show' their thinking.
Fractions: I use different prompts for visuals, always using circles and bars. Not having a clear image or understating of proportion in fractions is a stumbling block in developing proportional thinking that often shows up later with misunderstandings about decimals and division. Sometimes we just discuss fractions in number talks until we're very sure of what they look like and how to annotate them, then the following day I can say things like "So if this is 1/3 of a shape and each 1/3 has 3 counters, how many counters in the whole shape?"
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