Fluency Math Talks

Student Led
No paper or pencil allowed
Fluency mental math
5-10 minutes

WHY??
1. We dont have time to teach all the new grade level material AND
review prior skills.
2. Its our way of getting inside the students head to know what they
are thinking and what strategies they are using.
3. It creates students who possess multiple strategies for computing.
4. It focuses on the THINKING and UNDERSTANDING part of math
computation.
5. It teaches kids to use smart and efficient strategies (which isnt
always a standard algorithm). For example: 17-9

What does it look like?

1. Teacher writes problem on board or Promethean
a. It should be a computation fluency/review skill
2. Teacher waits while students solve the problem mentally and put up
their thumbs when they have had enough time to think.
3. When most thumbs are up, the teacher asks if anyone is willing to
share what they think the answer is. Teacher records just the answer
on the board and asks if anyone got a different answer, continuing to
record each answer that is given.
4. Teacher asks if anyone can explain their strategy / how he or she
figured the problem out.
5. Teacher records the students thinking. Teacher scribes for the
student. This is where student led must really be the focus. Be
careful not to turn this into a lesson.
6. Teacher asks, Does anyone have a DIFFERENT strategy?
Making Number Talks Matter by Cathy Humphreys & Ruth Parker

Kindergarten

Make numbers 0-19

Focus Strategies
Benchmark 5 and 10
Count on

First Grade

Add and Subtract Single Digit Numbers

Add Two-Digit plus One-Digit Numbers (12+5)
Focus Strategies
Make 10
Doubles
Add tens and ones separately

Second
Grade

Add and Subtract Two-Digit Numbers

Add Three-Digit plus One-Digit Numbers
Focus Strategies
Make 10
Doubles
Doubles plus and minus one (or two)
Add hundreds, tens, and ones separately
Start to identify friendly numbers (numbers easier to
mentally compute i.e. 13+7 or 25+5

Third Grade

Add and Subtract within 1000

(No standard algorithm taught in third grade)
Focus Strategies
Compute hundreds, tens, and ones separately
Decompose numbers to make friendly numbers
Use related facts (fact families)

Fourth Grade

Add and Subtract

Multiply and Divide by 10
Basic Multiplication and Division Facts
(No standard algorithm taught in fourth grade for
multiplication or division)
Focus Strategies
Compute hundreds, tens, and ones separately
Use decomposing strategies for basic multiplication and
division facts (15x2 = 10x2 + 5x2 and 8x20 = 8x10+8x10)

Fifth Grade

Add and Subtract

Multiply and Divide
Focus Strategies
Use place value understanding, properties, and friendly
numbers to compute mentally.