Mental fluency supports number facts, tables facts and making connections. In a Number Talk, these areas form the basis for discussion and underpinning this, variation, mathematical discussion and representation (the Big Ideas of Mastery Mathematics).

The importance of mental fluency supports easily recalled number facts from long term memory to support quick recall and longer, written algorithms. Without this both speed, written calculations are impaired and often, with this, number confidence.

Number Talks were created by Kathy Richardson and Ruth Parker in the early 1990s * to engage students in meaningful mathematical discourse and sense-making as well as transform the culture of the classroom to one of inquiry and curiosity.

What is a Number Talk?

Number Talks are an approach to developing facility with computation that engages children in thinking about numbers and allows them to add, subtract, multiply and divide using the mathematics that is meaningful to them.

The typical steps for a number talk are:

• Teacher presents an expression or problem for pupils to solve mentally.
• Allow adequate “wait time” for most students to come up with an answer. pupils can signal with a thumbs up when they have solved the expression.
• Initially, invite pupils to share their answers only, not their solutions.
• Then ask for pupil volunteers to share how they solved the problem.
• For each pupil who shares their solution strategy, chart their thinking on the board. Make sure to accurately record their thinking; do not shape or correct their response.
• Have several pupils who used different strategies share their thinking with the class.
• Invite pupils to question each other about their strategies, compare and contrast the strategies, and ask for clarification about strategies that are confusing.

• Parrish, S (2011) in the Article ‘Number Talks Build Numerical Reasoning’ also highlights the connections to the Mastery Model ‘Build Mathematical Thinking’,
• ‘The benefits of sharing and discussing computation strategies are highlighted below. Students have the opportunity to do the following:

• Clarify thinking.

• Investigate and apply mathematical relationships.

• Build a repertoire of efficient strategies.

• Make decisions about choosing efficient strategies for specific problems.

• Consider and test other strategies to see if they are mathematically logical.’