Literature Review

Number Talks
Andrew Lopez
National University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

TED 690- Capstone Course
Professor Clifton Johnson
May 2016

Literature Review

Abstract
This paper is a review of Mindy ONans article Daily Number Talks and the
Development of Computational Strategies in Fourth Graders. I will summarize what this
article is about and explain how the strategies this article discusses are effective in
teaching mathematics.

Literature Review

This article discusses the effectiveness of daily Number Talks. According to the
article The development of number sense in children has become a primary concern for
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ONan, p. 33). Researchers
conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of developing number sense. The
researchers gave a group of students a pretest to measure the number of strategies they
could produce and the number of problems that they could answer correctly in two
minutes. After getting the results, the researchers continued the daily number talk routine
for a six-week period. After the six weeks, the students then took a post-test that was
similar to the pretest. The results showed that students performed better on the posttest
because of the six weeks of daily number talks. According to the research in the article,
conducting daily number talks led to significant gains in the number of strategies a child
could produce to solve a problem.
Number Talks are a math strategy used to develop computational fluency in hopes
that students will use number relation ships and the structures of number to add, subtract,
multiply, and divide. Computational Fluency is a students ability to choose different
strategies to answer a math problem. Students understand and can explain the strategy
and why they chose that strategy to answer a math problem. Students are able to produce
accurate answers. I became familiar with number talks during my students teaching
assignment. My master teacher conducted daily number talks in her class. Instantly, I
notice that students were able to break down problem in many ways. Students were able
to create a quick picture to solve a problem. They were able to break number apart into

Literature Review

friendlier number that they could compute much quicker. Not only were students able to
solve the problems but also they were able to explain their thought process.
Here is an example of a Number Talk. I would write a question such as (150 +
420 + 265= )on a poster paper. Students would then try to answer the question mentally.
Once students think they know the solution, they would give me a symbol to notify me
that they were able to figure out the answer. Once I see the whole class has an answer, I
ask students to share what they got and I write a few answers on the poster. I will then ask
students if any of the answers are not reasonable and why not. Students would then
suggest if one of the answers isnt reasonable. If an answer werent reasonable, students
would explain why. I would scratch off any unreasonable answers because we know they
wont be correct. Next, I pick on students that said the correct answer to share how they
got the answer of the question. Those students then tell me how they answered the
question as I write down exactly what they said they did. As a class, we decide what
specific strategies they used to answer the question.
This strategy is effective because students start to understand that there are many
ways to answer a question. They start to learn that they dont have to use the traditional
algorithm to solve the problems.

Literature Review

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References

O'Nan, M. (2003). Daily Number Talks and the Development of Computational

Strategies in Fourth Graders.